{"id":935891,"date":"2026-10-21T07:28:16","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T07:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935891\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T07:28:16","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T07:28:16","slug":"no-bail-for-alleged-helen-haines-attacker-as-police-chief-warns-of-australias-febrile-political-environment-helen-haines","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/935891\/","title":{"rendered":"No bail for alleged Helen Haines attacker as police chief warns of Australia\u2019s \u2018febrile\u2019 political environment | Helen Haines"},"content":{"rendered":"

The head of the Australian federal police has condemned a \u201cfebrile\u201d political environment that has seen one person charged every week over the alleged threatening of MPs, as Victoria<\/a> announces new steps to protect politicians.<\/p>\n

But the AFP and Victoria police insist they had no intelligence to suggest 43-year-old Brendan Nugent would go on to allegedly drive a Toyota LandCruiser into the independent MP Helen Haines<\/a> in a targeted attack.<\/p>\n

Haines had one leg amputated after the alleged attack. Doctors had worked to save her second leg, but it was also amputated, her husband, Phil Haines, said at a press conference<\/a> on Wednesday. Haines was in a stable condition, he said.<\/p>\n

Nugent appeared at the Wangaratta magistrates court on Wednesday morning on charges of dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury and a federal offence of causing harm to a commonwealth public official, along with cannabis possession.<\/p>\n

In court<\/a>, Nugent looked downcast in a grey jumper and stared straight ahead. The Tarrawingee man did not request bail, and will remain in custody until a committal mention on 4 February.<\/p>\n

Magistrate Allison Vaughan noted Nugent had mental health and neurological concerns, and that this was his first time in custody. She asked for a mental health professional to see Nugent immediately after his court appearance.<\/p>\n

His lawyer, Chirag Patel, said his client was not on any prescribed medication and was not withdrawing from any substances. Patel said Nugent was also suffering from concussion and idiopathic transverse myelitis \u2013 a rare inflammatory disorder of the spinal cord.<\/p>\n

Further charges considered<\/p>\n

At an earlier press conference in Melbourne, Victoria police\u2019s chief commissioner, Mike Bush, said investigators were considering whether to lodge further charges against Nugent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s always a consideration,\u201d Bush said. \u201cOf course, we have to locate and follow the evidence, but this is a very serious and tragic incident, and we will be looking at all serious charges.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bush also said: \u201cThere was nothing known to us that would have arisen, or piqued our interest, or given any indication that [Nugent] was an immediate threat.\u201d<\/p>\n

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At the same press conference, the AFP commissioner, Krissy Barrett, was asked whether her team was aware of Nugent\u2019s social media posts, which included references to conspiracy theories and conflict in the Middle East.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t have any specific intelligence that would have indicated something as atrocious as happened on Monday afternoon,\u201d Barrett said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can confirm we had no holdings or no intelligence to suggest that there was any threat to MP Haines.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bush said Victoria police had deployed more staff to Wangaratta to assure the local community, but said he was confident this was an isolated incident.<\/p>\n

\u2018Growing volume of online abuse\u2019\"AFPAFP charging almost one person a week for targeting politicians, says commissioner – video<\/p>\n

While Barrett and Bush did not allege a motive behind the alleged attack on Haines, which is still under investigation, they made general comments about the rising threat to MPs.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe shocking alleged attack yesterday is what many had been dreading for some time,\u201d Barrett said.<\/p>\n

The AFP and Australia\u2019s domestic intelligence agency, Asio, will provide additional safety briefings to federal MPs on Wednesday. About six of these sessions have been held this year.<\/p>\n

Threats to Australian politicians. <\/a><\/p>\n

Barrett said federal MPs were increasingly worried about threats, and referenced a \u201cgrowing volume of online abuse, threatening rhetoric, and intimidation, increasing political polarisation and anti-government sentiment\u201d.<\/p>\n

She continued to raise concerns about \u201cconspiracy-driven and grievance-based behaviours, lone actors motivated by a convergence of personal grievance, mental health vulnerabilities, and ideological concerns, and the potential for violence to emerge with little or no forewarning \u2013 particularly where individuals have no previous protection intelligence footprint\u201d.<\/p>\n

Bush highlighted similar concerns and said Victoria police would create a centralised process to help monitor threats against MPs.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want a single-stop shop to report these things and have the ability to be very proactive,\u201d Bush said.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the Victorian Animal Justice party MP Georgie Purcell said she had received more security support as the partner of the federal MP, Josh Burns, than she did in her own role.<\/p>\n

She urged Victoria police to create a dedicated unit, similar to that which exists within the AFP for politicians or people in high-profile roles.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey have teams that can monitor fixated people, shifts in language, in behaviour, see if they\u2019re escalating, and then work out whether the continued behaviour could constitute an event,\u201d Purcell said.<\/p>\n

Bush, who was due to address state MPs and ministers on Wednesday afternoon, said there were no resourcing restraints that would prevent Victorian politicians from receiving the protection they felt they deserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The head of the Australian federal police has condemned a \u201cfebrile\u201d political environment that has seen one person…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":935892,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-935891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=935891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/935891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/935892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=935891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=935891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=935891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}