Australian Catholic University academic Bridget Aitchison said there was a difference between genuine scrutiny and bullying.

"One is trying to argue based on the facts and the merits, and one is devolving into name calling and personal attacks - that's when we lose something important, because when you have civil discourse, iron sharpens iron," she said.

"We seem to be entering an era where the personal attack and the name calling is seen as a legitimate form of arguing a point and ... that's where it spills over into bullying and harassment."

The use of a phone or the internet to threaten, harass or seriously offend somebody is a crime under national law and carries a maximum penalty of three years in prison.

Under the same law, using phones, text messages, emails or online posts to intentionally threaten to kill someone or seriously harm someone carries 10 and seven years in prison respectively.

Ms Aitchison, who previously ran for Ballarat council under Labor, said while having thick skin was necessary in politics, serious threats did not exist in a vacuum.

"There was a lot of it when I was running, and I learned to ignore it, the time you don't ignore it is when it becomes threats," she said.

"Often we want to dismiss it the same way we do on social media as well, 'they're just venting,' but every once in a while they're not, and it's actually dangerous."

Licia Kokocinski, former mayor and councillor of Hepburn Shire said harassment was so intense at one stage in her career she had to threaten legal action.

"Once it keeps going and once that type of trolling starts to ramp up, you kind of get the feeling that it's really not about the politics," she said.

"It just ramped up... to the point where I had to, ultimately, have my lawyers on standby to threaten to sue them because of the stuff that they were saying about me. It was beyond politics, beyond trolling."

She received a public apology from the person and they took down their posts.

Then, there are the death threats.

"One person said, 'I hope you have a car crash on the way home from council, and your car explodes and it will be too late for the fire brigade to come and put it out and you'll be in the car'," Ms Kokocinski said.

Former mayor and Liberal councillor for Ballarat Judy Verlin said she believed the issue had gotten worse over time.

"People are actually saying, 'do I want to put myself in that position, do I want to put my family in that position, and is it worth it?' I mean, you go into politics not for the money and not for fame, but because you think you can make a difference," she said.

"It would be a shame for that diversity of opinion not to be there."

City of Ballarat councillor Belinda Coates said she had experienced aggressive remarks and personal attacks via phone, email, social media and in-person, and encouraged diversity in government - without the "rose-coloured glasses".

"Facing those sorts of challenges would probably be off putting, but we do need better representation in Australia at all levels of government and I do also feel really strongly that the positives outweigh the negatives for people who have the capacity to do it."

"You need to be well-prepared for the ups and downs and have a really balanced, clear view on how you can make a positive difference."

Ms Coates said although there was not much structured support, she still saw much enthusiasm in future candidates.

"I have had so many individual people just reach out to me personally and say, 'I'm really interested in getting into politics, I love seeing what's possible, I love seeing the change that's occurred'," she said.

"It is often young people, it's often been people from culturally diverse backgrounds, women, people of all ages, who haven't always seen themselves represented.

"It is so important that we make the system better so that so that more people can be represented."

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