Riyaz ul Khaliq
21 October 2026•Update: 21 October 2026
Independent Australian lawmaker Helen Haines is in stable but critical condition after losing a leg in an attack earlier this week, police said Wednesday.
Haines, 65, “remains in very good care,” said Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush, according to ABC News.
She continues to be treated at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne after being struck by a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV on Monday afternoon outside her office in the city of Wangaratta in Victoria state.
Police have arrested 43-year-old Brendan Nugent.
Nugent appeared before Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court after police filed five charges, including dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury, causing harm to a Commonwealth public official and drug-related offences.
The report said Nugent did not apply for bail and is likely to be transferred to Melbourne Assessment Prison.
He is due to appear in court again on Feb. 4 next year.
His family released a statement saying they had been friends with Haines for more than 20 years.
A joint investigation involving federal police, Victoria Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) is underway.
Claire McGuinness, ASIO's deputy director-general for intelligence service delivery, reiterated the warning that Australia's security environment was "degrading.”
"We are seeing a climate that is more permissive of violence, and as a result, acts of politically motivated violence are becoming more likely," she said.
Separately, the Australian Federal Police declared that Australia was at a crossroads, facing a "tsunami" of youth crime as vulnerable and impressionable young people are radicalized online.
Police official Sandra Booth said the rapid pace at which young people are being manipulated online is becoming one of the nation’s “greatest challenges in history.”
