An Australian lawmaker is critical but stable after being hit by a car, the prime minister says

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — An Australian federal lawmaker remained in a hospital in a critical but stable condition, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday as he praised a barber who helped restrain a driver accused of deliberately hitting her.

Helen Haines, a 65-year-old independent politician, was struck by a Toyota Land Cruiser SUV on Monday outside her office in her electorate in the city of Wangaratta in Victoria state. The 43-year-old driver remained in police custody on Tuesday.

The prime minister thanks a bystander for intervening

Albanese said he phoned local barber Ricky Jefferies, who had run from his store to help members of the public detain the suspect, to thank him on Tuesday for intervening.

“It’s a reminder that at the worst of times, we see the best of the Australian character,” Albanese said in Melbourne.

Jefferies had earlier told reporters he searched the driver’s pockets and removed a knife. Police confirmed a knife had been found. Jefferies also said he did not consider himself a hero.

“It was crazy,” he said. “I just ran out the front to see what was happening and … amazing members of the Wangaratta community who I know, or know most of them, and they were helping.”

The lawmaker’s family says it’s grateful for the ‘swift assistance of bystanders’

Haines’s family released a statement expressing thanks for the “swift assistance of bystanders” as well as health workers and police.

Haines, who was first elected to Parliament in 2019 and had been reelected twice since, was initially taken to a hospital in Wangaratta, a city of 30,000 people. She was airlifted later on Monday to a hospital in the state capital, Melbourne, 236 kilometers (147 miles) away.

The Alfred Hospital didn’t respond Tuesday to a request for comment on media reports that Haines had had a leg amputated.

The episode has shocked Australians, in part because political violence is rare here and politicians have always been accessible to the public. Most lawmakers are not accompanied by security officers and go about their work and personal lives on their own.

However, recent data has shown that threats of political violence have grown in Australia. The head of Australian Security Intelligence Organisation spy agency, Mike Burgess, on Tuesday reiterated an earlier warning that politically motivated violence was a top security concern, along with espionage and foreign interference.

Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said Tuesday the incident appeared to be isolated. She said possible charges in the case could include harming a federal official, which carries a maximum of 10 years in prison.

Police reported in 2025 that threats against parliamentarians had doubled over the past three years. Official data showed more than 1,000 such threats against politicians in the 2025-2026 fiscal year.

Lawmakers from across the political spectrum and Albanese spoke to media outlets Tuesday, urging their colleagues, reporters and the public to turn down the heat in increasingly fractious political debates. Many also said they hoped Australia’s easygoing culture of approachable politicians wouldn’t change.

The injured lawmaker was not considered controversial or polarizing

Haines was not known for polarizing views. The daughter of dairy farmers and mother of three was a nurse, midwife and academic before entering politics, and advocated for rural health matters. She was initially elected in 2019 with a campaign focused on health equity, rural prosperity and climate action.

Albanese said eyewitnesses had reported the suspect passed Haines in his SUV as she stood by the trunk of her parked car. The SUV then turned and came back before the man allegedly drove into the politician, the prime minister said.

Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke told Australian Broadcasting Corp., citing witness accounts, that the driver allegedly reversed and struck Haines a second time, pinning her against her car, after initially hitting her.

Australia has a low rate of political violence

Elsewhere in the world, authorities have warned of growing threats to lawmakers. The United States has seen a rise in political violence over the past decade.

That includes the 2022 hammer assault on the husband of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat, in California; the 2024 assassination attempt on Donald Trump at a Pennsylvania rally during his presidential campaign as well as another on the president at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in April; and the assassinations in 2025 of a Democratic Minnesota state lawmaker and her husband, and of conservative commentator Charlie Kirk in Utah.

In Britain, killings of politicians have also prompted bolstered security. Labour lawmaker Jo Cox was shot and stabbed in 2016 by a far-right extremist, while Conservative David Amess was stabbed in 2021 by an attacker inspired by the militant Islamic State group.

In July, the former British politician and reality TV contestant Ann Widdecombe was found beaten to death with a hammer at her home. A man has been charged with murder and terrorism-related offenses.

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Graham-McLay reported from Wellington, New Zealand.