Red Cross plans support in Wangaratta after attack on MP Helen Haines
Volunteers trained in psychological first aid are due in Wangaratta on 21 October as the community responds to the attack on its local MP.
Australian Red Cross volunteers trained in psychological first aid are due to offer support in Wangaratta, Victoria, on 21 October as residents respond to the attack on their local MP, Helen Haines, ABC News reported. The service gives community members a place to seek face-to-face help while Haines remains critically injured in hospital.
Where Wangaratta residents can seek support
ABC reported that volunteers would be at Ovens Riverside Square from 9am to noon on 21 October. Fyowna Norton, a Victorian Red Cross manager, said they would also support people near the floral tributes outside Haines’s office. She urged people affected by the attack to seek support rather than bottle up what they were feeling.
Several hundred people gathered at Holy Trinity Anglican church in Wangaratta for a vigil on 20 October, ABC reported. People hugged and cried on the church steps as the town reacted to the attack. Wangaratta had about 20,000 residents at the last census, according to the Guardian, giving a sense of the size of the community affected.
Virtual vigil planned for Helen Haines
Tracey Asquith has organised a virtual vigil inviting people across Australia to pause for 15 minutes at 8pm AEDT on Friday, 23 October, ABC reported. Asquith said more than 10,000 people had engaged with the idea on social media. That figure describes online engagement, rather than confirmed participation in the planned vigil.
Haines’s condition and the court charges
Haines was struck by a car after unloading her vehicle following an event in Mansfield, ABC reported. Her leg was amputated on 20 October, and surgeons at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital were working to save her other leg. Both ABC and the Guardian reported that the independent MP for Indi remained in critical condition.
Victoria Police said they would allege the attack was targeted, the Guardian reported. Brendan Nugent, 43, was charged with dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury and causing harm to a Commonwealth public official. He was due to appear at Wangaratta Magistrates’ Court on 21 October; the charges are allegations, and the scheduled appearance does not establish that it took place.
The planned community support follows the immediate response to Haines’s injuries, covered in NewsJaws’ report on her condition and a bystander’s intervention. ABC’s latest account shifts attention to support for residents gathering near her office and to the vigil planned later in the week.
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Sources and context
- Counselling available for Wangaratta residents reeling from Helen Haines attackABC News (Andrew Mangelsdorf, ABC Goulburn Murray)
- Helen Haines loses leg as surgeons fight to save the other after alleged attack in WangarattaThe Guardian (Tess Ikonomou and Tom McIlroy)
AI-assisted article checked against the listed sources. NewsJaws did not conduct interviews or attend the reported events.