The attacker on Australian independent MP Helen Haines has been named as 43-year-old Brendan Nugent, Guardian Australia has confirmed. The MP remains in critical condition after being airlifted on Monday evening from Wangaratta in northern Victoria to Alfred Hospital in Melbourne for emergency surgery.
Police confirmed that a 43-year-old man from Tarrawingee, who is alleged to have been driving a Toyota Land Cruiser, was arrested at the scene. According to Acting Superintendent Ashley Mason, police were due to question the suspect on Tuesday. Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke stated that witnesses claim the driver made a U-turn to enter the car park, struck Helen with the vehicle, and then reversed and repeated the action a second time.
Burke added that a passer-by ran to the scene, pulled the driver from the vehicle and held him until police arrived. Ricky Jefferies, whose barbershop is located next to Haines' office, ran out of his shop to help after hearing the collision. He told reporters on Tuesday morning that he had no choice but to pull the driver from the car because it was the right and safest thing to do. Jefferies returned to work on Tuesday morning and claims the driver had a knife on his person, which he did not draw but rather removed from his pocket and threw away.
Nugent is a long-time forestry advocate in the north-east of the state. Environmental activists who worked with him several years ago expressed shock at his arrest. Nugent holds a Master of Science in forest ecosystems from the University of Melbourne and has researched the forestry industry in Victoria for years. He was also a registered owner of a company in Wangaratta and a board member of the Save our Strathbogie Forest Group, which campaigns against logging in the region. He became inactive around 2019–2020.
His arrest shocked group president Bertrant Lober, who said Nugent initially appeared to be a reasonable and thoughtful person but later became estranged. Helen McKernan, president of the Strathbogie Ranges Conservation Management Network Inc, also worked with Nugent as an activist before 2020. McKernan says Nugent lost contact with her network of forestry activists around 2020. Victorian Nationals MP Tim McCurdy stated that Nugent was known to his office in Wangaratta and regularly came to raise various issues. In October 2019, while still actively campaigning on forestry matters, Nugent praised Haines for her stance on climate change.
The Minister for Home Affairs said that state security agencies and police would work on what else could have been done to prevent the alleged attack and help protect others. On Monday, Burke reported that 1,067 reports of harassment or threats against senior officials in Australia were recorded in the last financial year, an increase from 951 reports the previous year. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese joined leaders and parliamentarians from across the country in calling for a calmer political discourse.
Wangaratta mayor Irene Grant expressed gratitude to Jefferies for stepping in and stopping the man. Grant said she had spoken to the barber that morning and that he had simply shrugged. Wangaratta is a complex community in north-eastern Victoria; according to the last census, it had a population of about 20,000, while the wider local area had just under 30,000 people. Haines was elected to the federal parliament in 2019 and was key to the establishment of the National Anti-Corruption Commission. She has advocated for rural health services, telecommunications access and the curbing of misuse of public funds.
