The boss of the national spy agency says Australians need to show more respect and restraint in public debate to help lower the security environment, as independent MP Helen Haines remains in a critical condition after being struck twice by a four-wheel drive outside her electorate office.
Australian politicians described Haines as “the best of us” on Tuesday. The attack on her has alarmed state and federal MPs who have been subject to increasingly threatening behaviour in recent years, and Victoria is already contemplating increased security at next month’s state election.
ASIO director-general Mike Burgess said Monday’s incident had happened in an environment where increased levels of grievance, intolerance and polarisation had made violence seem permissible.
“I have repeatedly put on the record my concern about the use of violent rhetoric in public discourse. Words matter,” Burgess said in a statement.
“ASIO has seen direct correlations between inflamed language, inflamed tensions and acts of violence. I genuinely believe the temperature of our security environment would be several degrees lower if we recommitted to conversing with civility, debating with respect and disagreeing with restraint.”
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said there had been 1067 reports of harassing and threatening behaviour against high officeholders in 2025-26, up from 951 the financial year before.
“Everyone in public office carries a level of risk now, everyone,” he said. “It’s also the case [that] when you go through the different scale of who we would have thought was the most at risk, no one would have thought Helen Haines.
“Everybody looks at that and thinks, if it was Helen, it could have been me. Like, everyone is aware of that. But all our thoughts right now are with Helen.”
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Haines remained in a critical condition on Tuesday after undergoing surgery at the Alfred hospital overnight.
“The motivation is unclear,” Albanese told Sunrise. “But it is clear this wasn’t just an accident. This was an attempt to harm Helen Haines in Wangaratta outside of her electorate office. Helen was getting things from the boot of her car when this incident occurred.”
Witnesses said they saw the Toyota LandCruiser conduct a U-turn to ram Haines against a vehicle on Monday afternoon, before reversing and hitting her a second time. The driver has been identified as Brendan Nugent, a 43-year-old man from Tarrawingee, who was apprehended by barber Ricky Jeffries at the scene.
Albanese described the barber as a “hero” and good Samaritan who deserved enormous praise.
Attack follows warnings about political violence
The prime minister said his focus for the moment was on Haines and hopes for her full recovery. “The debate about political discourse and the way we conduct ourselves will, of course, be ongoing,” Albanese said.
Australian Federal Police Commissioner Krissy Barrett said the AFP was working with Victoria Police to identify potential charges, which could include the offence of causing harm to a Commonwealth public official.
“The AFP has regularly publicly outlined concerns about the growing threats against federal parliamentarians and high office holders,” she said.
Since national security investigation teams were launched in October last year, 41 people have been charged with offences relating to threats against federal MPs and high officeholders.
Victoria considers extra security at polling booths
Victorian Premier Ben Carroll said extra security measures could be imposed at voting booths at next month’s state election.
“I think this act of violence is just unfathomable that it’s occurred in Australia and we’ve got to stand up, call it out, and make sure that this is a turning point,” Carroll said.
“Politicians, like anyone else, go to work every day, like your local nurses, supermarket employees ... everyone expects to come home safely to their family, and that did not occur to one of the most beloved members of federal parliament yesterday.”
NSW Premier Chris Minns said he was devastated by what happened and feared such incidents would deter other people from running for political office.
“It’s essential that we have a big pool of people who feel confident and comfortable enough for putting their name on a ballot paper,” he said.
“The truth is, I’ve got a security group, NSW Police officers ... for your average MP or candidate, I worry about them.”
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor said Coalition MPs had often discussed the increased threat of political violence.
“We also speak with the relevant security agencies about this, and we’ve all been concerned [about] the likelihood of this sort of event may have increased,” he said at a Sydney press conference.
“We need to do everything we can as elected representatives to prevent this ever happening again.”
Nationals leader Matt Canavan said Haines was a “lovely lady” who worked tirelessly for her community. “The world just isn’t fair, is it, that somebody like that can have something so traumatic occur to her,” he said on News24.
Independent senator David Pocock described it as a “wake-up call”.
“As a male parliamentarian, you get some threats. You get the angry phone calls, the awful emails, the anonymous comments,” he said.
“But I think we’ve got to look at what’s happening to female politicians, and just the ridiculous amount of threats and abuse that they have to cop, and as Australians, we need to stand up and say this is not OK.”
Independent MP Allegra Spender echoed Burgess’ comments. “We need to draw those really clear lines, to say we can disagree and we can disagree very, very deeply and strongly … [but] hatred and vitriol and violence is unacceptable here,” she said.
“And I think we need to call it out on all sides.”
Greens leader David Shoebridge said the notion Haines could be targeted for her work was “horrifying, senseless and shameful”.
Burke said the government had been progressively increasing protection for people in public office.
“After an attack like this, of course, everybody is now working back through the facts, working back through the information and trying to work through what more can be done,” he said.
“But I wouldn’t want to create an impression that we haven’t been doing a continuous uplift as the temperature’s been rising. We have been. And it is also the case that everything anyone can do to take the temperature down is something that needs to happen.”
Burke said the government had spoken to its own MPs, the crossbench and departing Liberal senator Jonno Duniam’s office about organising further briefings for parliamentarians, and would be working with the AFP on that issue later on Tuesday.
With Nick Newling and Emily Kaine