Helen Haines attack live updates: Indi MP’s condition remains critical after losing leg with surgeons trying to save other; Brendan Nugent appears in court, faces three charges over alleged ‘intentional’ attack

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of Australia’s response to the attack on independent MP Helen Haines in Wangaratta on Monday afternoon. Here’s what we know today.

• Brendan Nugent has fronted Wangaratta Magistrates Court after he was charged with three offences over his alleged attack on independent MP Helen Haines. Nugent made no application for bail, as his lawyer told a packed courtroom it was the 43-year-old’s first time in custody, and he suffered from a neurological condition forming an unexplained sudden inflammation of the spinal cord.
• Victorian Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said police were not ruling out further “serious” charges against Nugent as the investigation continues.
• The member for Indi underwent emergency surgery. She lost a leg and surgeons are trying to save the other.
• More details emerged yesterday about Nugent’s background. He clashed with neighbours in the nearby town of Tarrawingee, and local officers had visited his property over their complaints in the months before the attack.
• Nugent’s family released a statement yesterday saying they were devastated by the attack on Haines, whom they described as their “close friend of more than 20 years”.

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Wangaratta: One witness, who called Triple Zero, said Haines was conscious during the incident for the whole time. They declined to comment to The Age.

Cody Lepoidevin, manager of a camping store opposite Haines ′ office, said the Federal MP was “saying thank you” to people assisting her.

“Helen was conscious the whole time. In a time of crisis, she was really empathetic. I didn’t hear her swear once,” the 20-year-old said.

“For her to stay calm, and say thank you so much for your help, you beautiful people. I couldn’t commend her more highly.

Independent senator David Pocock says the alleged attack on Helen Haines will change how members of parliament operate within their communities and in public.

“We get to decide how we respond, though, and what we actually put in place as parliamentarians, but as Australians, my view is, we have to ensure that we have a democracy where your local politician lives in the community, goes to local coffee shop, does the groceries, is part of that’s something Australians love about Australia,” Pocock said in his National Press Club address.

“So I think we need to be looking at things that we put in place as parliamentarians, but then as Australians more generally, to ensure that that can happen.”

Pocock also revealed that he moved houses because it felt like “everyone knew” where he lived. However, he highlighted that the abuse that he copped as a male MP was “nothing compared to what my female colleagues cop on a daily basis”.

“You want to hear stories of harassment and of just vile phone calls, emails, comments.

“Talk to basically any female MP, and that is totally unacceptable.”

Councillors from the Rural City of Wangaratta have unanimously passed a statement of support for Helen Haines, her staff and family at a special council meeting today.

The statement condemned the alleged attack on Haines and said violence, threats and intimidation have no place in communities or democracy.

It also commended barber Ricky Jefferies for intervening in the incident.

Wangaratta Mayor Irene Grant told the meeting she had spoken to Governor-General Sam Mostyn, who asked that her respect and best wishes be conveyed to Haines and her support extended to the community.

“During our discussion, we reflected on the shock and disbelief felt across Wangaratta and throughout the region,” Grant said.

Each of the councillors spoke briefly during the meeting on topics ranging from support for their federal MP to the need for respectful disagreement in political discourse.

Independent senator David Pocock says Helen Haines is the MP “we wish we all had”, calling the alleged attack on her “unfathomable”.

Independent MP Haines was allegedly struck repeatedly by a four-wheel-drive outside of her Wangaratta electoral office on Monday afternoon.

Speaking to the National Press Club today, Pocock said of Haines: “Working with you is one of the great privileges of serving in our parliament.

“To Helen, to Phil, their three kids, and the rest of the family, to Helen’s team, who I understand are watching … and to your whole community, we love you, Helen.

A supporter of Brendan Nugent, the man accused of deliberately running over Helen Haines, has spoken outside court to voice concern about a “trial by media” against her old art student.

The woman named Jacqui, who requested anonymity because of the sensitive subject, said she did not condone what happened to Haines.

“But I feel that the story is probably bigger than what the media have been portraying as this man being extremist,” she said.

“I don’t believe he is. If you look at his social media, from what I’ve seen, he is not an extremist. He does not threaten violence. He does not speak about terror.”

The prime minister says federal MPs are still being briefed by security agencies, including ASIO and the AFP, to ensure parliamentarians felt reassured that enough is being done to maximise their safety following the attack.

“This is an opportunity for people who feel anxious to be able to ask questions as well of the security agencies as well as the Department of Home Affairs,” he told News24.

“We want to make sure that people can feel as much comfort as possible that everything’s being done to maximise security, but also … parliamentarians across the board are determined to make sure that we can continue to engage as we need to in this great democracy of ours.”

Albanese also said the briefings would hear concerns of female MPs about the gendered nature of the threats they receive, which he said were “different in many cases as very misogynistic and sexualised in their nature”.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says he spoke with Haines’ husband Phil this morning and that she remains in a critical condition.

“It’s up to the family to make further statements when and if they think that’s appropriate,” Albanese told News24 just now.

The PM said there was a deep sense of shock within the MP’s electorate as the community grappled with the “appalling and reprehensible” attack.

“Our thoughts and our prayers remain very much with Helen Haines at this difficult time for her family, for her many friends, for her team there in the electorate office, but also, of course, for her many, many supporters, particularly in that electorate.”

Victorian MP Georgie Purcell says she would feel safer at work if she had a reporting mechanism she could use to alert authorities when she received threats.

“We have quite insufficient rules when it comes to even alerting authorities to threats to our safety. And certainly, if we had that centralised place where they knew your story, they knew people that were repeat offenders, fixated people, potential escalations, that would really mean a lot to me,” she told News24.

She said a reporting mechanism was important because much of the abuse MPs received came from “repeat offenders”.

“A lot of the abuse and online gendered violence that I experience is by the same people over and over again with a limited ability to take action. And of course, blocking them or removing them doesn’t remove that mentality ... And we always have the fear of escalation.”

Opposition Leader Angus Taylor says that the alleged attack on Helen Haines should not deter people from engaging in “genuine” political debate as he called Australia “the greatest country on Earth”.

“I know a lot of people don’t feel like that at the moment, but its democracy works because of what Australians do, and Australians respecting it, and it’s important,” he told ABC radio in Brisbane today.

“Leaders and people with a public profile have a particularly important role to play.

“Can I make a distinction here between genuine political debate, which we should never shy from, [and] debate that is approaching physical violence or intimidation or threatening. I mean, they are two very different things, and when we talk about bringing temperature down, it’s the latter that I’m talking about. That what we must avoid.”

Wangaratta: Court documents reveal Helen Haines’ alleged attacker Brendan Nugent has also been charged with cultivating and possessing cannabis.

Charge sheets, released moments ago, show Nugent is accused of cultivating a narcotic plant on October 20 at Tarrawingee, where he lived about 15 minutes outside Wangaratta.

Police raided Nugent’s overgrown property yesterday. Several empty pot plants and gardening equipment were left behind.

Magistrate Allison Vaughan redacted Haines’ name from the charge sheets, despite it being widely reported.