Nearly 90 per cent of Australian women who hold elected office or are seeking it have experienced online abuse or intimidation linked to their political participation, according to a survey published on Wednesday by Women for Election, an organisation that trains women to stand for public office.
The survey is the organisation’s own research, commissioned in July 2026.
It is one of the few Australian datasets that asks women in politics directly about AI-generated abuse. Sixty-five per cent of respondents said they had personally experienced or witnessed AI-generated abuse, deepfakes or manipulated content targeting women in public life, and 98 per cent said they were concerned artificial intelligence would make the problem worse over the next five years.
Half now question whether they should have stood
Eighty-two per cent of respondents said they had changed their behaviour because of online abuse. Of those, 58 per cent limited their use of social media, 36 per cent increased security measures and 34 per cent took time away from campaigning or public life. Half said that, knowing what they now know, they were unsure they would run again or would not have run at all. Sixty-four per cent said abuse had made them less likely to stand again, seek higher office or encourage other women to stand.
Forty-five per cent said family members or campaign supporters had been targeted because of their political involvement.
Only 47 per cent of those who experienced abuse reported it, and of those, 69 per cent were dissatisfied with the response they received. Women for Election’s media release states that 110 women were surveyed.
Helen Blackburn, mayor of Bundaberg Regional Council in Queensland, told Australian Associated Press she had faced a campaign of AI-generated fakes across several platforms in the past two months, including a parody series made after she announced her council’s budget. One item featured the Grim Reaper, she said, followed by users writing that they hoped she would die and that “all I need is two bullets and I’ll sort it out”. Blackburn said she had considered resigning.
The global picture
Women for Election sets its findings alongside research led by Julie Posetti of City St George’s, University of London, for UN Women. That study, Tipping point: The chilling escalation of online violence against women in the public sphere, published in December 2025 and drawn from a 2025 survey of women journalists, human rights defenders, activists and other public communicators, found that 70 per cent had experienced online violence in the course of their work and that more than 40 per cent reported offline harm linked to online abuse.
Among women journalists and media workers specifically, the share who linked offline attacks, abuse or harassment to online violence rose from 20 per cent in a 2020 UNESCO survey, also led by Posetti, to 42 per cent in 2025 — more than double.
Women for Election is calling for greater accountability from social media and AI companies, dedicated protections for candidates during election periods, and a national action plan.
Australia already has a statutory route. The eSafety Commissioner can require platforms to remove adult cyber abuse, but the threshold is narrow: the material must target one particular Australian adult, must be menacing, harassing or offensive, and must meet a test of serious harm judged by what an ordinary reasonable person would conclude rather than by the effect on the person targeted.