As federal MPs return to Parliament House, elected officials have been urged to lift standards during debate amid calls for more women to win preselection.
Independent MP Monique Ryan said the tone of political debate had deteriorated significantly from expected standards following heightened social tensions stemming from the conflict in the Middle East.
"It is to this country's shame that the distress felt by so many Australians about this terrible war has, in many cases, been stoked by rhetoric and wedged politics in (parliament)," Dr Ryan said on Monday.
"Politicians from the left and the right have deliberately fomented dissent and anger at a time when we need reason and respect."
The concerns were also shared by fellow independent MP Zali Steggall, who said the tone of political debate was the worst she had seen in more than five years in parliament.
"It is unacceptable in any other workplace, as it should be in this place, yelling, snide remarks, interruptions and even intimidating behaviour on the floor of the house ... this is just incredibly unacceptable," she said.
"Culture has a way to go, and can't just be about recommendations and reports."
Many independent MPs in teal electorates were voted in at the 2022 election on a platform of helping to reform standards in federal parliament.
But as the next election approaches, new polling has suggested some teal MPs could be at risk of losing their seats.
RedBridge polling has forecast the Liberals reclaiming teal seats of Goldstein in Melbourne and Curtin in Perth.
The poll showed Labor was on track for a minority government, if an election was held now, with the government and the opposition locked at 50-50, two-party preferred.
It comes as Labor used the first day of the parliamentary sitting fortnight to mark 30 years of the party having quotas for female candidates.
The Albanese government has been the first to have a majority of women in its ranks, following the 2022 election results.
Labor MP Joanne Ryan said the quotas, agreed to at a 1994 party conference, paved the way for an increase in women in parliament.
"In the 92 years since between federation and these reforms, only 28 Labor women had been elected to this parliament. In the 30 years since, 109 Labor women have been elected," she said.
"You break one ceiling and you break others."
Liberal MP Karen Andrews, who is retiring at the next election, said while the coalition did not have quotas in place for women, the measure was needed.
"What I have seen over the last decade at least, has made me soften my views into opposing quotas," she said.
"I look at the female representation that we have here, and I am absolutely convinced that we need to do better.
"If we want to make change here, we cannot simply cross our fingers and hope that things are going to change unless we take positive action, because doing that in the past has been an abject failure."
