A terrible attack on an Australian MP

The ABC reports:

The ABC has confirmed that Indi MP Helen Haines has lost a leg after being pinned between two cars outside her electorate office in Victoria’s north-east yesterday afternoon.

Victoria Police said 43-year-old Tarrawingee man Brendan Nugent was arrested at the scene of the incident.

This was almost certainly a deliberate attempt to murder the MP. The man did a u-turn in his car and rammed her twice with it.

The attacker is Brendan Nugent:

A man accused of mowing down independent federal MP Helen Haines with his Toyota Landcruiser is an environmental activist who railed against Israel online.

This appears to be his Twitter account.

It goes without saying that MPs should not live in fear of being murdered. There been far too many episodes in initially the US, then the UK and now Australia.

The only upside is once again we have an Australian hero:

In what has been labelled a heroic act by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese,local barbershop owner Ricky Jefferies managed to intervene by running to the driver’s side of the vehicle and wrenching the knife from the man’s pocket, before wrestling him to the ground and waiting for the authorities.

If he had not done that, Haines would sadly have lost her life, not just her leg.