Helen Haines loses second leg after attack outside office

October 21, 2026 — 5:20pm

Independent MP Helen Haines has lost both her legs but is in a stable condition, her husband said, as authorities privately told anxious parliamentarians the four-wheel-drive attack on their colleague was probably an opportunistic strike rather than a calculated plot.

Governor-General Sam Mostyn told the nation that the attack on the loved and respected sitting MP “must be a moment for us to pause and to choose to be better” as she stood alongside Phil Haines to give a televised address from Melbourne’s Alfred hospital on Wednesday afternoon.

“I hope that as Australians, we can now reflect thoughtfully on what has happened and can recommit ourselves to the care, kindness and respect that I know are so deeply embedded in the Australian character. We have to stand by Helen in the next few days,” Mostyn said.

The attack on Haines has shaken federal MPs, who have been reporting increasing levels of threatening and harassing behaviour. Many used private briefings with intelligence agencies on Wednesday to share concerns about deficiencies in federal security frameworks, as they were advised to alter their travel patterns to avoid danger.

Haines lost her left leg earlier this week, after being struck multiple times by a LandCruiser while retrieving items from the boot of her car outside her electorate office in Wangaratta, in north-east Victoria. Her right leg was amputated on Wednesday, despite her family’s hopes it could be saved.

“But the good news in all this is Helen is alive and she’s stable,” Phil Haines said. “The two most important parts of Helen for us as a family are her heart and her mind. We are grateful and thankful that at this stage, both her heart and her mind are in good shape.

“Helen’s road to recovery will be long and difficult, but we know she is a fighter.”

The accused driver of the LandCruiser, Brendan Nugent, did not apply for bail when he appeared in the packed Wangaratta Magistrates Court on Wednesday. The 43-year-old’s lawyers said he suffered mental ill health, grew cannabis at home, and had a rare neurological condition known as idiopathic transverse myelitis, a spinal inflammation. Victoria Police has not ruled out laying heavier charges.

Mostyn praised the bystanders who rushed to Haines’ side after she was struck on Monday afternoon, as well as the first responders and health workers who have taken care of her in the two days since. She appealed for Australians to come together as a united country as she echoed the words of the prime minister and other leaders who have called for a calmer political debate.

“What does our nation do now? I think we should do what I imagine Helen would be doing if she was not the victim of this terrible attack,” she said.

“We need to offer everyone comfort to get through this. To celebrate our strong and stable system of government and parliaments and democracy. Remind ourselves, as Helen says all the time, that Australians have good hearts, great hearts.

“Checking each of ourselves to ensure that we are, in fact, disagreeing well, not fighting with one another, not descending into violence and chaos and division. Most importantly, that we learn, or re-learn, to exercise our muscles of decency.”

Monday’s attack has put politicians on edge, especially female MPs, and its aftermath created a tense atmosphere when politicians attended private briefings with ASIO, the home affairs department and the Australian Federal Police on Wednesday.

A handful of MPs who spoke to this masthead after the meetings said the authorities’ early judgment was that the alleged attack on Haines was “opportunistic” rather than an intricately planned event. MPs took this to mean that Nugent may have seen Haines at her car by chance, although the authorities’ view is preliminary and subject to change as investigators do their work.

Authorities are still investigating if Nugent, who expressed far-left and conspiratorial views online, was motivated by a political ideology. One security official told MPs that Haines may have been targeted because she was viewed as a representative of government and authority, rather than for her own views or attributes.

A range of Labor, Coalition and crossbench MPs raised concerns about their own security, and questioned why some MPs were forced to pay out of their own pocket for personal security at their home. They also raised the need for secure parking spaces and more “safe buttons” at electorate offices.

Others said the need to publicly disclose residences and company ownership meant it could be quite easy to track down politicians, and shared stories about menacing presences who loiter near their offices.

“The system doesn’t have inbuilt architecture to protect us,” said Liberal MP Zoe McKenzie, of the Victorian coastal seat of Flinders. “After Monday, there’s a new expectation of what the worst-case scenario looks like.”

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett on Wednesday said that her national security investigation teams were charging almost one person every week. She said it would take “an incredible amount of resourcing” to provide personal security to all 226 federal MPs, so agencies prioritised those at greatest risk.

MPs from across the divide also argued against blanket security for all MPs, saying it would make it too hard to engage with their communities, but Liberal frontbencher James Paterson said a review of parliamentary security was overdue.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday said the world was a more dangerous and divided place than a generation ago, but he thought Australians wanted to see their politicians go to community events.

He said his mantra about “turning down the temperature” of political debate, which has also been repeated by ASIO boss Mike Burgess, should apply to all sides of politics, including his own.

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said there was a need to distinguish between “genuine political debate, which we should never shy from, [and] debate that is approaching physical violence or intimidation or threatening”.

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