An Australian lawmaker is struck twice by a car outside her office, and the prime minister calls it a deliberate attack

Helen Haines was at the trunk of her car, loading or unloading things outside her electorate office in Wangaratta, when the car came back for her.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese laid out the sequence on Tuesday. A white Toyota Land Cruiser passed the independent member for Indi, performed a U turn, and drove back into her at about 3:35 in the afternoon on Monday. “It is clear that there was a deliberate act here. This was not an accident, someone just skidding off the road,” Albanese told ABC News. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told ABC Radio that witnesses said the driver then reversed the vehicle and struck Haines a second time, before a bystander pulled him from the car. That bystander was Ricky Jefferies, a barber whose shop is nearby. “I heard a loud bang with no brakes. It was crazy, I just ran out to the front to see what was happening,” Jefferies told reporters. He restrained the driver and removed a knife from him.

The driver, a 43 year old man, was arrested at the scene. Australian media reported his name as Brendan Nugent and said he was known to police. Federal police, the counter terrorism squad and Victoria state law enforcement are all in the investigation, and he was expected to be interviewed on Tuesday morning. Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said police are considering charges including causing harm to a public official, an offence that carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison, and that at this stage the attack appears to be an isolated incident. No motive has been established, as of October 20.

Haines, 65, underwent surgery overnight at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne and remained in critical condition. ABC and the Sydney Morning Herald reported, citing unidentified sources, that she had lost one leg as a result of her injuries and that doctors were working to save the other. “Helen remains in hospital in a critical condition. I spoke with her husband Phil last night, and she underwent surgery last night,” Albanese said. “All Australians' thoughts are with the family, with her many friends, with her community.”

Haines worked in nursing and midwifery and as an academic before she was elected to parliament as an independent in 2019 in the seat of Indi, which she held in 2022 and 2025. She is known in Canberra for her work on transparency and anti corruption. Violent attacks on politicians are extremely rare in Australia, where lawmakers are routinely seen in supermarkets and at community events with minimal security, but Albanese noted a significant increase in threats against politicians in recent years and urged Australians to turn the temperature down.

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