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Independent Australian lawmaker Helen Haines is in stable but critical condition after losing a leg in an attack earlier this week, police said on Wednesday, according to Anadolu Agency.
Haines, 65, “remains in very good care,” Victoria Police Chief Commissioner Mike Bush said, according to ABC News.
She is being treated at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne after being struck by a “Toyota Land Cruiser” SUV on Monday afternoon outside her office in Wangaratta, in the state of Victoria.
Man faces five charges
Police have arrested 43-year-old Brendan Nugent. He appeared before Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court after police filed five charges, including dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury, causing harm to a Commonwealth public official and drug-related offences.
Nugent did not apply for bail and is likely to be transferred to Melbourne Assessment Prison, the report said. He is due to appear in court again on February 4 next year.
His family said in a statement that they had been friends with Haines for more than 20 years.
A joint investigation involving federal police, Victoria Police and the Australian Security Intelligence Organization (ASIO) is under way.
Officials warn of rising risks
Claire McGuinness, ASIO’s deputy director-general for intelligence service delivery, reiterated a warning that Australia’s security environment was “degrading”.
“We are seeing a climate that is more permissive of violence, and as a result, acts of politically motivated violence are becoming more likely,” she said.
Separately, the Australian Federal Police said the country was at a crossroads and facing a “tsunami” of youth crime, as vulnerable and impressionable young people are radicalised online.
Police official Sandra Booth said the speed at which young people are being manipulated online is becoming one of the nation’s “greatest challenges in history”.
