One of the major parties' state election campaigns just a couple of weeks ago was running off the promise to curb violence in Melbourne (almost entirely baseless hysteria of African gangs). We had a mostly foiled terrorist attack the week of the election, and it was quite disgusting to see the leader of that party "pay tribute" to the victims even while having some sort of glee for the timing.

If you live in a number of places in the US you would likely find the levels of violent crime hilariously low here in comparison, yet there was attempt to play on the fears and "make Melbourne safe again". Luckily it was one of the least successful major party election campaigns in recent years.