WANGARATTA, Australia — Helen Haines once led midwifery services at Wangaratta Hospital. On Monday afternoon the independent member of parliament was struck by a car outside her electorate office in the same north-eastern Victorian town, and police say she was taken to hospital with critical injuries.
Police believe a white Toyota Landcruiser hit the 65-year-old woman on Murphy Street at about 3.35pm. The driver, a 43-year-old man from nearby Tarrawingee, was arrested at the scene by a passer-by after he got out. Officers seized a knife from inside the vehicle. Haines’s website lists her electorate office at 117 Murphy Street, the same street police named.
The question that matters is whether this was a crime against a person or an attack on an office-holder, and nobody in authority has answered it. Police said they are investigating “whether this was an intentional act” and have not established whether the two people know each other. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Victoria’s joint counter-terrorism team had been activated but that it was too early to determine a motive. Activating that team is a step taken while the question is open, not a finding about the answer.
Victoria Police said in a statement published at 6.48pm that Major Collision Investigation Unit detectives were on their way, and urged anyone with CCTV or dashcam footage to contact Crime Stoppers. Albanese told reporters that Haines was attacked outside her electorate office. “There is a major police investigation underway, and I can confirm that a suspect is in custody,” he said, Xinhua reported.
Haines has held the seat of Indi since 2019, succeeding the independent Cathy McGowan, after three decades in rural health as a nurse, midwife, researcher and academic, her own biography states. She writes there that as a nurse and midwife “you’re with people in their most joyous and difficult moments.” She and her husband still live on a small cattle farm outside Wangaratta, she adds.
Much is still unsaid. Police have not said whether the man will be charged. They have published no update on her condition beyond “critical injuries,” and no one has said whether she had reported any threats before Monday.
