No bail for alleged Helen Haines attacker as police chief warns of Australia’s ‘febrile’ political environment

AFP commissioner says MPs are generally concerned about growing volume of abuse and intimidation

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The head of the Australian federal police has condemned a “febrile” political environment that has seen one person charged every week over the alleged threatening of MPs, as Victoria announces new steps to protect politicians.

But the AFP and Victoria police insist they had no intelligence to suggest 43-year-old Brendan Nugent would go on to allegedly drive a Toyota LandCruiser into the independent MP Helen Haines in a targeted attack.

Haines has lost a leg and remains in a critical but stable condition in Melbourne’s Alfred hospital. Doctors have been working to save her other leg.

Nugent appeared at the Wangaratta magistrates court on Wednesday morning on charges of dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally cause serious injury and a federal offence of causing harm to a commonwealth public official.

In court, Nugent looked downcast in a grey jumper and stared straight ahead. The Tarrawingee man did not request bail, and will remain in custody until a committal mention on 4 February.

Magistrate Allison Vaughan noted Nugent had mental health and neurological concerns, and that this was his first time in custody. She asked for a mental health professional to see Nugent immediately after his court appearence.

His lawyer, Chirag Patel, said his client was not on any prescribed medication and was not withdrawing from any substances. Patel said Nugent was also suffering from concussion and idiopathic transverse myelitis – an inflammatory disorder of the spinal cord.

At an earlier press conference in Melbourne, Victoria police’s chief commissioner, Mike Bush, said investigators were considering whether to lodge further charges against Nugent.

“That’s always a consideration,” Bush said. “Of course, we have to locate and follow the evidence, but this is a very serious and tragic incident, and we will be looking at all serious charges.”

Bush also said: “There was nothing known to us that would have arisen, or piqued our interest, or given any indication that [Nugent] was an immediate threat.”

At the same press conference, the AFP commissioner, Krissy Barrett, was asked whether her team was aware of Nugent’s social media posts, which included references to conspiracy theories and conflict in the Middle East.

“We didn’t have any specific intelligence that would have indicated something as atrocious as happened on Monday afternoon,” Barrett said.

“I can confirm we had no holdings or no intelligence to suggest that there was any threat to MP Haines.”

Bush said Victoria police had deployed more staff to Wangaratta to assure the local community, but said he was confident this was an isolated incident.

While Barrett and Bush did not allege a motive behind the alleged attack on Haines, which is still under investigation, they made general comments about the rising threat to MPs.

“The shocking alleged attack yesterday is what many had been dreading for some time,” Barrett said.

The AFP and Australia’s domestic intelligence agency, Asio, will provide additional safety briefings to federal MPs on Wednesday. Around six of these sessions have been held this year.

Barrett said federal MPs were increasingly worried about threats, and referenced a “growing volume of online abuse, threatening rhetoric, and intimidation, increasing political polarisation and anti-government sentiment”.

She continued to raise concerns about “conspiracy-driven and grievance-based behaviours, lone actors motivated by a convergence of personal grievance, mental health vulnerabilities, and ideological concerns, and the potential for violence to emerge with little or no forewarning – particularly where individuals have no previous protection intelligence footprint”.

Bush highlighted similar concerns and said Victoria police would create a centralised process to help monitor threats against MPs.

“We want a single stop shop to report these things and have the ability to be very proactive,” Bush said.

On Tuesday, the Victorian Animal Justice party MP Georgie Purcell said she had received more security support as the partner of the federal MP, Josh Burns, than she did in her own role.

She urged Victoria police to create a dedicated unit, similar to that which exists within the AFP for politicians or people in high-profile roles.

“They have teams that can monitor fixated people, shifts in language, in behaviour, see if they’re escalating, and then work out whether the continued behaviour could constitute an event,” Purcell says.

Bush, who will address state MPs and ministers on Wednesday afternoon, said there were no resourcing restraints that would prevent Victorian politicians from receiving the protection they felt they deserved.