Independent Member for Indi (Victoria) Dr Helen Haines remains in a critical but stable condition in The Alfred hospital in Melbourne after she was hit by a car outside her electorate office in Wangaratta on Monday, 19 October.
Dr Haines has given her life to caring for others. She deserves our prayers, our respect and the truth, not a race to score political points from her suffering.
A life of service, shattered
Independent Member for Indi Dr Helen Haines remains in hospital in Melbourne, eleven days after she was struck by a vehicle outside her Wangaratta electorate office.
The 65-year-old was loading her car on Murphy Street at about 3.35pm on Monday 19 October when a Toyota LandCruiser struck her and pinned her between two vehicles. Witnesses said the driver reversed and hit her a second time.
Bystanders restrained the driver and cared for Dr Haines until police and paramedics arrived.
She was airlifted to The Alfred, where surgeons amputated her left leg that night. Despite their efforts, they could not save her right leg.
On Saturday, the hospital said her condition had improved from critical to serious but stable.
Few people in public life are as widely admired. Before entering Parliament in 2019, Dr Haines spent three decades as a nurse and midwife, caring for rural families through some of the most important moments of their lives.
Speaker Milton Dick said she treats everyone with respect “regardless of title or position”. Greens senator David Shoebridge said she “brings people together like few others”.
True to that character, her first words on waking were of concern for her staff, her community, the bystanders, first responders and medical staff.
Her husband of almost 40 years, Phil, calls her “a fighter”.
He has asked those who wish to help to donate to Save the Children. A community fundraiser for the family has already raised around $1 million.
Sympathy has come from every corner of Parliament.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described her as a person of “decency, integrity, compassion, humour and empathy” who “always embodied the truth that there is more that unites us than divides us.”
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said “no one should be targeted in this way”.
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson said MPs “must be able to serve their communities without fearing for their safety”.
Minaret Media joins Australians of every faith and none in praying for Dr Haines’ healing and strength on the long road ahead, and in thinking of her family, her staff and the Wangaratta community.
The charges
Brendan Nugent, 43, of Tarrawingee, has been charged with dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury and causing harm to a Commonwealth public official. He did not apply for bail and returns to court for a committal mention on 4 February 2027.
He is presumed innocent, and none of the allegations has been tested in court. His father has said Dr Haines was a family friend of more than 20 years.
Police allege the attack was targeted but have not stated a motive.
“Motivation is one of these things that we absolutely need to explore,” Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said.
The rush to judgement
On the afternoon of the attack, the Prime Minister urged restraint.
“Now’s not a time to speculate on the motivation,” he said, as the Joint Counter Terrorism Team was activated as a precaution.
One prominent newspaper labelled the accused a ‘pro-Gaza’ radical. Within days, the same paper was reporting that investigators were examining his “mental health and family tensions.”
Many on social media were also irresponsible.
Before police had named anyone, a polarising social media activist posted the suspect’s name and declared him an ‘extremist Palestine supporter’ and a ‘terrorist’, while conceding he did not know what had caused the attack.
Others blamed the political right and One Nation. Several outlets combed through years of the man’s old posts.
The facts have not fitted the neat stories.
The accused’s family were her friends.
Later reports suggested investigators are also examining his mental health and family circumstances. None of it has been tested in court.
Media and social media have a choice in moments like this: inform, or inflame.
Too few people, including politicians, are calling out those who choose to inflame.
The question we should all be asking is simple: what sort of society do we want?
Anne Aly and the language of stoning
Separately, and before the attack, another federal MP had spoken out about threats to her own life.
Earlier this month, Small Business Minister Dr Anne Aly (pictured) revealed she had received 19 death threats on social media in a single week, some using the language of stoning.
They followed a remark in the House of Representatives. During a debate on the ATO’s plan to stop accepting credit card payments, LNP MP Angie Bell said Dr Aly and the Prime Minister should be “shamed and stoned in the square”.
Ms Bell was directed to withdraw the remark and did so, later calling it “a poor choice of words in the heat of the moment”.
Dr Aly, Australia’s first Muslim woman elected to federal Parliament, called the remark racist and misogynistic.
She has also said that the temperature online has risen, not fallen, since the attack on Dr Haines.
“What’s immediately happened is people jumping to conclusions – which is never a sensible thing to do – to lay blame, to identify the perpetrator: is he one of ‘us’, or one of ‘them’?” she said.
Islamophobia Register Australia’s Aishah Ali said language from public leaders “is never inconsequential”, and there is “a fundamental difference between political criticism and rhetoric that invokes violence”.
“No woman should have to weigh the personal cost to her wellbeing and security simply to participate in our democracy,” she said.
A wider pattern
Threats against federal MPs and high office holders recorded by the Australian Federal Police have risen from about 300 a year to more than 1,000 in five years.
For Muslim Australians, the threats against Dr Aly fit a pattern the community knows well.
The Register’s fifth national report found women made up 79 per cent of victims and noted abuse aimed at Senators Fatima Payman and Mehreen Faruqi and MP Ed Husic.
It recorded a 619 per cent rise in reported incidents between October 2023 and February 2026, and a further 740 per cent rise in the fortnight after the Bondi attack on 14 December 2025.
Muslim Australians also know a double standard in how violence is described.
When an attacker might be Muslim, the word “terrorism” arrives within minutes.
When he turns out to be someone else, the language often shifts to mental health and personal troubles.
Both rushes do harm: one stokes fear of an entire community, the other cheapens the seriousness of violence.
Special Envoy to Combat Islamophobia Aftab Malik says most people who shared their experiences with him had never reported them.
“What is extraordinary about Islamophobia is the ordinariness of it,” he said.
Victims are getting younger, he warns, citing the recent alleged abuse of a 13-year-old girl on a Sydney bus.
The government has adopted 35 of his 54 recommendations, rejecting others including a commission of inquiry into Islamophobia.
Calm, facts and decency
Political violence has no place in Australia, whoever the target.
Neither do threats, and neither does the rush to turn a woman’s suffering into ammunition.
The right response is to pray for Dr Haines, support her family, let police and the courts do their workand wait for the facts.
If you experience or witness Islamophobia, whether online abuse, a slur, a hijab pulled, vandalism at a mosque or cemetery (see our report on Narellan), or being refused service, report it. You don’t need proof of injury, or to be sure it “counts”.
If you are in immediate danger, call 000. Otherwise, report it to Islamophobia Register Australia.
