Australian MP Helen Haines Critical After Deliberate Car Ramming Outside Wangaratta Office
Independent lawmaker Helen Haines, 65, remained in critical condition Tuesday after a driver rammed her with a Toyota Land Cruiser outside her electorate office in Wangaratta, Victoria. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called it a deliberate attack, and a multi-agency investigation is underway.
Australian independent lawmaker Helen Haines, 65, remained in critical condition Tuesday after a driver rammed her with a Toyota Land Cruiser outside her electorate office in the rural city of Wangaratta, Victoria, in what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described as a deliberate attack.
Victoria Police said the 43-year-old driver struck Haines at about 3:30 p.m. local time Monday as she stood at the rear of her parked car. Albanese said witnesses saw the vehicle drive past her, turn around, and come back before driving into her. Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said witness accounts indicated the driver reversed and struck Haines a second time.
Bystanders rushed to help and held the driver until officers arrived. Barber Ricky Jefferies told the ABC he ran from his shop, took a knife from the driver’s pocket, and pulled the man from the vehicle. Police confirmed a knife was found in the Toyota. The driver remained in custody Tuesday; no charges had been announced, and police had not confirmed his identity.
Haines was flown to Melbourne on Monday evening and underwent surgery at The Alfred hospital. The ABC reported that one of her legs was so badly damaged it had to be amputated and doctors were working to save the other. In a social media statement, her family thanked bystanders for their “swift assistance.”
Investigation underway
A multi-agency investigation is underway, led by Victoria Police with members of the Joint Counter-Terrorism Team, the Australian Federal Police, and the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation. Victoria Police Acting Superintendent Ashley Mason described the attack as an “isolated incident” and said there was no intelligence of an ongoing threat to the public.
Albanese said the motive was not yet known. “This wasn’t an accident. There was a deliberate act, it would appear. We don’t know what the motivation is,” he told the ABC. He said threats against parliamentarians had doubled over the past three years, with more than 1,000 recorded in the 2025-26 financial year, and urged the “temperature” of political debate to be lowered.
Haines, first elected in 2019 as the independent member for the federal seat of Indi, was a former midwife who campaigned on rural health care and political integrity. Colleagues across parliament praised her Tuesday; Liberal leader Angus Taylor called Monday “a shocking day for the nation.”
Reporting based on coverage by CNN and Euronews.
