Wangaratta has been thrust into an unwelcome spotlight this week. Residents in this rural Victorian town are used to catering to tourists passing through on their way to regional wineries, or music lovers visiting its annual jazz and blues festival.
Instead, locals are fielding endless questions about their MP – and having to explain to strangers what it all means for the town’s nearly 30,000 people.
They are clearly in shock about what police say was a targeted and deliberate attack on Helen Haines on Monday afternoon, when she was struck by a car just outside her office.
“People are simply dumbfounded and finding it very hard to fathom the scale of this tragedy,” Australia’s Governor-General Sam Mostyn, who represents King Charles, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
The independent federal MP had to have both legs amputated after she was airlifted to Melbourne. But the “two most important parts of Helen”, her heart and her mind, were in “good shape”, her husband Phil Haines said.
The MP isn’t a divisive figure, locals tell the BBC, and no one can understand why she was allegedly targeted.
“Everyone knows Helen,” says Jane Hill, who owns a giftware shop a few hundred metres down the town’s main street from where Haines was hit.
“She is a such a good person in our community. She’d go to everything – celebrations, funerals, she’s one of those genuinely kind people – and so are her family.”
Local man Brendan Nugent, whose father has been good friends with Haines for decades, faces at least three charges over the alleged attack including intentionally causing harm and appeared in court on Wednesday. Police say they are considering further charges, including attempted murder.
MP ‘thanked everyone’ as she lay injured
First elected to parliament in 2019, Haines is best known for her years-long efforts to establish a national anti-corruption commission.
She was spurred on by a series of major political scandals which, in her words, saw “public money spent for political gain”, disproportionate spending on “shiny infrastructure projects” in marginal seats and decisions benefitting big donors over ordinary people.
The commission finally opened in 2023 under Anthony Albanese’s Labor government.
Haines has also helped to secure funds for housebuilding, railway improvements and health infrastructure in her region, which she argues has long been sidelined by policies favouring cities.
On a spring afternoon in Wangaratta, nobody seemed to have a bad word to say about the former nurse and midwife turned politician.
Local Mayor Irene Grant described her as “warm”, “cheerful” and “committed”, and pointed to her record on climate action and Indigenous rights.
In a police update on Wednesday, Victoria Police Commissioner Mike Bush said she’d given “wonderful support” to local police when two officers were shot dead in the nearby town of Porepunkah last year.
Bystanders who came to Haines’ aid recalled how she thanked them even as she lay severely injured.
“It was incredible,” Jacklyn Black told Nine Network’s Today show. “We were having conversations, she was telling me about her grandkids.”
“To be in that situation and be as calm as she could be in the moment, but also thankful to the aid that the community had given her… I could [not] speak any more highly of her in a moment like that,” Cody Lepoidevin added.
“She just thanked everyone.”
There’s a large print-out of Helen Haines plastered onto the window of her office – anyone delivering flowers for her gets a big smile back as they look up and walk away.
Across the road on Tuesday, a man waved an Australian flag. On his T-shirt were the words “Wangaratta – this is not us!!”
It’s clear that many feel that way in this friendly community where people look out for each other.
Next door to Haines’ office is RickyChops barbershop, owned by Ricky Jefferies. When he heard the chaos unfolding outside, he rushed to help, pinning down the suspect.
“I just leant over him and once he was on the ground and he was no longer a threat, I just stood with him, and I told him that he can’t leave,” he explained after the incident.
“I don’t think I’m a hero. I think that I just was a person who had an opportunity to intervene in a safe-ish sort of way.”
Some clearly disagree with Ricky. By Tuesday afternoon, he too had received a bouquet of flowers tied to his shop’s door, and a small balloon with the words “thank you”.
Down the road at the Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral, a vigil was held, attended by a couple of hundred people lining up to light a candle for Haines.
Some hugged the clergy, while others wore campaign T-shirts carrying the words “Team Helen Haines”.
Her husband Phil said he had received “thousands upon thousands” of messages of love and support.
“I can only say how much of a difference that makes to all of us,” he said. “Helen’s road to recovery will be long and difficult, but we know she is a fighter.”
“Whether you vote for her or not, she seems to have the community at heart so that’s all you can really ask for; a politician that represents your community,” said Austin Longfield who lives in nearby Albury.
“It’s just something that you wouldn’t expect in our community,” he added. “You see it in other countries and it’s just something that I didn’t comprehend could happen here.”
