On Wednesday, 21 October 2026, Brendan Nugent, 43, of Tarrawingee, appeared at Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court after Monday’s attack on independent MP Helen Haines. Her husband, Phil Haines, said doctors had amputated both of her legs and that she is stable. A first appearance and a medical update are not a sentence. The accused has not been convicted.

ABC: the charges are dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury, and causing harm to a Commonwealth public official. Court documents also show cultivating and possessing cannabis. Nugent did not apply for bail and was not required to speak or enter a plea. The next listing is 4 February, after a brief of evidence due by 24 December.

Witnesses, as reported by ABC, say a Toyota LandCruiser rammed Haines, 65, more than once outside her electorate office in Wangaratta, in north-east Victoria. That is the investigation’s account, not a verdict. Monday’s attack has already been reported; Wednesday’s news is the court listing and the husband’s statement that both legs are gone.

ABC still wrote on Wednesday that Haines remained in a critical but stable condition and that one leg had been amputated. Phil Haines said at a briefing that the left leg was amputated on Monday and that the right could not be saved on Wednesday afternoon. Those are two counts, from different hours of the same day. Neither is a finding of the court.

His lawyer told Magistrate Vaughan that the client has idiopathic transverse myelitis, a neurological condition, and a concussion, that he is not currently medicated, and that this is his first time in custody. That is a defence submission, not a diagnosis by the court and not an excuse recorded in a sentence, because there is no sentence.

Victoria Police Commissioner Mike Bush said the investigation is far from complete and that further serious charges have not been ruled out. They have not been laid. AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said there was no specific intelligence that would have indicated what happened on Monday. Haines has been the independent member for Indi since 2019.

Image: Helen Haines at the Indi results declaration, 14 June 2022, Alison Newman, CC0, Wikimedia Commons. The MP in 2022, not Wednesday’s hospital.

Sources consulted: Brendan Nugent charged with additional offences as he faces court over Helen Haines attack — ABC News; Brendan Nugent stares in silence as a court hears about his alleged attack on Helen Haines — The Guardian; Australian MP loses both legs in vehicle attack as suspect appears in court — Al Jazeera.