Recap

If you’re just joining us, here’s what we’ve learnt so far today about the attack on Indi MP Helen Haines:

• Indi MP Helen Haines has lost a leg and doctors are fighting to save the other after she was hit by a Toyota LandCruiser in an attack outside her electorate office in Wangaratta yesterday.
• She underwent surgery last night and is in a critical condition at the Alfred Hospital in Melbourne.
• The man arrested has been identified as 43-year-old Brendan Nugent.
• Mr Nugent’s family have made a statement saying they have been friends with Helen Haines for “more than 20 years”.
• Sources have confirmed to the ABC that Mr Nugent has undergone a mental health assessment while in custody following yesterday’s incident.
• Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says the attack was “deliberate” and early investigations suggest the car that hit Ms Haines did a U-turn.
• Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said Ms Haines was rammed by the car twice. He says a good Samaritan stepped in to stop the driver and held him until police arrived.
• A police operation is underway at a property along the Great Alpine Road at Tarrawingee in connection with the attack.
• Barber Ricky Jefferies, who stepped in to help Ms Haines, says the man had a knife. Mr Jefferies says he intervened to ensure no-one else was hurt.
• The prime minister has met with the AFP commissioner and Victorian premier in Melbourne to discuss the attack on Ms Haines.
• In a statement, ASIO chief Mike Burgess says elevated levels of grievance, intolerance and polarisation have continued to create a “permissive environment of violence”.
• Several Australian politicians have highlighted an increase in the abuse and mistreatment by the public and Mr Albanese has called for Australians to “turn the political temperature down”.