Australia · Security Temperature · published monthly
August 2026
53
out of 100
Stable
Compared with Australia's own normal month — not with last month, and not with any other country.
- 50 is normal for Australia. The thermometer compares this month with how Australia usually looks — not with other places.
- Above 50 means security is taking up more room than usual in the news, in public discussion and in what people search for. Below 50 means less.
- The published number changes once a month. The data behind it is collected every day.
What is driving the reading
Three sources feed the thermometer. Each one is compared with its own normal level and
described in the same words used everywhere on this page — warmer than usual, about normal, or
cooler than usual — then weighted into the single number above.
Month by month
Every point is one published month on the same 0-100 scale. The dashed line at 50
is Australia's normal level.
Behind the number
None of these examples decides the reading, and none of them is
chosen by hand. The number is computed from the whole volume of data collected — hundreds of
thousands of items a month — and what follows is a window onto what that data contained. Each panel
states exactly how its items were picked and which period they cover — and each of those sentences
is generated from the rule that was actually used, not written alongside it.
In the news
- Assault reported in Melbourne, Victoria
- Assault reported in Mernda, Victoria
- Assault reported in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales
- Assault reported in Dandenong Ranges, Victoria
- Assault reported in Sydney, New South Wales
- Assault reported in Perth, Western Australia
- Assault reported in New Victoria, Western Australia
- Assault reported in Sydney, New South Wales
How these were chosen. The most serious incidents in the news collected
for Australia in August 2026, the published month, ranked by the same severity weight the score
itself uses — an assault or a killing counts far more than an investigation or a protest —
and de-duplicated, so repeated reports of one incident appear once. Where severity ties, the
incident more outlets carried comes first, then the more recent one, and no two come from
the same day. These are the 8 highest
of 2478 distinct incidents. Each line is
assembled automatically from the news record's own fields, so the wording is the source's,
not an editor's.
What people discussed
- The ever-increasing prevalence of aggressive junkies constantly making ordinary people feel unsafe in public places - and the state government's apparent outrig
- Historical sexual assault offences, Operation Xray Cyder Hidden due to SA references. >!Boondall Child Protection Investigations Unit (CPIU) with the assistanc
- In the past 2 years, I have had someone high on drugs try to swing a punch at me at random as I walked across the street near Southern Cross. I’ve also sat on a
- Give them options and support. Here's a story to help illustrate what I mean. I knew this girl I went to school with, her father was a drunken abusive piece o
- Hit and run on the M1 Toorak Road exit, hoping someone might have dashcam footage? Hello, I'm posting on behalf of my mum, we are hoping there might be some das
- I got ambushed by 5 young guys in my house in the early 2000s. I managed to hospitalize one of them with a fractured skull (and a charge from the coppers). He t
How these were chosen. The 6 days on which
safety came up most in public discussion for Australia
in August 2026, the published month, each measured against its own recent normal — the previous
30 days.
One
of the days in that period rose at least
one standard deviation above that normal.
Against each day is the single post that pushed it hardest — the one that read as most
unsafe once weighted by its upvotes — quoted as written and trimmed to fit. No post is
selected by a person.
What the coverage was about
Violent crime
64%
Protest and unrest
21%
Organised crime
9%
Cybercrime
3%
Theft and burglary
2%
How this was measured. Every security theme the news monitor tagged in
coverage about Australia in August 2026, counted and shown as a
share of that total. This is a breakdown of what was being covered, not of how hot it
was: a large share means the topic dominates the coverage, not that it is above normal.
What people searched for
How this was measured. Google search interest in crime and safety topics
in Australia in August 2026, the published month.
Every topic is compared with its own usual level over the months before it — the same
rule, and the same month, as the headline number — so "warmer than usual" means more
searching than is normal for that topic here, not more than some other topic or some other
country.