Wangaratta has been thrust into an unwelcome spotlight this week. Residents in this rural Victorian town are used to catering to tourists passing through on their way to regional wineries, or music lovers visiting its annual jazz and blues festival. Instead, locals are fielding endless questions about their MP - and having to explain to strangers what it all means for the town's nearly 30,000 people.
They are clearly in shock about what police say was a targeted and deliberate attack on Helen Haines on Monday afternoon, when she was struck by a car just outside her office. "People are simply dumbfounded and finding it very hard to fathom the scale of this tragedy," Australia's Governor-General Sam Mostyn, who represents King Charles, said at a press conference on Wednesday. The independent federal MP had to have both legs amputated after she was airlifted to Melbourne.
But the "two most important parts of Helen", her heart and her mind, were in "good shape", her husband Phil Haines said. The MP isn't a divisive figure, locals tell the BBC, and no one can understand why she was allegedly targeted. "Everyone knows Helen," says Jane Hill, who owns a party supply shop a few hundred metres down the town's main street from where Haines was hit.
"She is a such a good person in our community. She'd go to everything - celebrations, funerals, she's one of those genuinely kind people - and so are her family." Local man Brendan Nugent, whose father has been good friends with Haines for decades, faces at least three charges over the alleged attack including intentionally causing harm and appeared in court on Wednesday. Police say they are considering further charges, including attempted murder.
First elected to parliament in 2019, Haines is best known for her years-long efforts to establish a national anti-corruption commission. She was spurred by on a series of major political scandals which, in her words, saw "public money spent for political gain", disproportionate spending on "shiny infrastructure projects" in marginal seats and decisions benefitting big donors over ordinary people. The commission finally opened in 2023 under Anthony Albanese's Labor government.
Haines has also helped to secure funds for housebuilding, railway improvements and health infrastructure in her region, which she argues has long been sidelined by policies favouring cities. On a spring afternoon in Wangaratta, nobody seemed to have a bad word to say about the former nurse and midwife turned politician. Local Mayor Irene Grant described her as "warm", "cheerful" and "committed", and pointed to her record on climate action and Indigenous rights.
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