Australian politician loses both legs after alleged targeted attack | Hanomansing Live

An Australian politician has lost both of her legs after being struck by a car twice. Police believe that she was deliberately targeted, and today her husband spoke. But the good news in all this is Helen is alive and she's stable. That is the most important thing for our family. Helen Haynes remains in critical condition after Monday's attack outside her constituency office northeast of Melbourne. Today a 43 year old man appeared in court charged with intentionally causing serious injury and harming a public official and the motive still unclear my next guest is a local politician that worked with Helen Haynes Michael Gobel is mayor of Wodonga a city in the regional electorate that she represents uh thank you very much michael can you pronounce i just want to make sure i'm getting the name of the town correct uh the town is Wodonga we're a regional city in Victoria. Okay, thank you. I mean, this incident must be shocking to your constituents. How was your community coping after the alleged vehicle attack? I think it's best described, Sarah, as profound sadness, shock, disbelief, and there's probably a lack of adjectives that would best describe the feelings and emotion of our community. But I think the community has come together. Last night, we ran an event, a vigil in Wodonga to get together in support of Helen Haynes and her family, and also as a stand against violence and a call out for good, civil, civic democracy. Can you tell us about Helen? I mean, what is she like as a person? You've had a working relationship with her. Yeah, my capacity as mayor of Wodonga worked closely with Helen. Helen's our federal representative in the seat of Indi. and she's a very very hard-working intelligent articulate advocate and a passionate advocate for issues relating to our particular electorate so issues around health services and funding for regional Australia community infrastructure local government funding it's pretty hard to find a harder working more passionate advocate with strong integrity and ethics in fact she was part of um she was a major force in establishing an independent anti-corruption commission here in Australia i mean there can be no excuse for violence that is intentional as this one is being you know described as so this this man now appearing in court to face a charge but i mean has she been involved in in issues that are of great controversy because what we understand here there's still no clear motive. No, far from it. Helen's a politician who is very skilled at working across the political spectrums. You know, she's focused on good outcomes for our electorate. And so, you know, to your point, people are scratching their heads saying what could possibly be the motive or intent behind this, given her style of politics, her ethics, her ability to bring people together and to discuss issues where there may be difference in a really respectful way so you know we've got a community here that is just seeking meaning out of this senseless violent act against our elected federal member same area do you have concerns now that this has happened about your own personal safety um look no you know one of the great things about australian culture and our politics is um you know typically we don't have the security details for our politicians that you might expect in you know in for example in north america um and i think there's a benefit in that in that our politicians value being really connected to our community and our community really values being connected to our politicians and this is a means of them better understanding what our communities need and also for us it's an inability for us to express as a community what we want so having these security details you know it would be a very unfortunate outcome we absolutely respect and appreciate the need for politicians to be able to fulfill their remit in a safe working environment but um i think um you know that potential has a an unintended consequence around connection to community so i think these issues need to be thought out in terms of me personally no i don't i don't um you know this is a very very supportive community and this has come as a great shock to us can i can i just ask you refer to North America I think probably the United States has the greater security in place for politicians. Canada, though, I think is probably very similar to this situation, you know, in Australia where our politicians don't have the kind of security detail that we see in the United States. And it's often for the same reasons that you're suggesting. It is the preference. But when there is an issue of violence or threats toward a politician, the conversation does always seem to go in that direction. Is it time? Is it necessary? Is that conversation happening in Australia as a result of this? It is absolutely happening, both at a federal level and a state government level. And here in the state of Victoria, we have an upcoming state election and the Premier of Victoria just yesterday announced that they would be introducing additional security protocols for all candidates that are standing in the state government election. Likewise, our Prime Minister has been in numerous conversations with members of Parliament, sharing experiences regarding threats to their safety and giving consideration to a particular calibration on security provisions for our federal members. Michael Goble is the Mayor of Wodonga in Victoria, Australia. Michael, thank you for taking the time to speak with us tonight. Thank you very much, Sarah, and thank you for covering this really important issue.