What’s making news today
Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of national and world news this Monday, October 26. Here’s what you need to know today.
- Helen Haines’ condition was downgraded from critical to serious but stable over the weekend after surgeons amputated both her legs last week. The Indi MP was struck by a car in an alleged intentional attack outside her office in north-east Victoria last Monday.
- New vision has emerged showing the moments before two police officers arrested the 43-year-old Wangaratta man accused of allegedly mowing down Haines. Vision obtained by Nine News shows Brendan Nugent in a previous altercation with police.
- Federal MPs will return to parliament today, with tribute speeches for Haines set to open parliamentary proceedings. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will deliver a tribute speech later this morning, and is expected to be followed by many of his colleagues.
- Parliament will also debate Labor’s proposed Digital Duty of Care laws, which will allow social media users to shut off their algorithms and sue big tech platforms for harm they experience online. Whether the bill will pass remains unclear as it faces significant backlash from tech companies and the US administration. The bill is also facing a Senate inquiry.
- And one in three households are going hungry as the cost-of-living crisis hits Australians, new research by Foodbank has found, while many people are reducing meal portions to make ends meet.
Haines’ first words upon waking revealed
Among the many to pay tribute to Helen Haines today was her crossbench colleague Allegra Spender.
Here’s what Spender told the House:
“Many have spoken about your kindness and generosity, and praised your decency and respect that you bring to this place.
“Phil [Haines] told us about your first words … when you woke up after the attack, and said that your first concerns when you awoke were for your staff and gratitude to the first responders, nurses and bystanders.
“That exactly speaks to the character of who you are.”
Haines’ condition was downgraded from critical to serious but stable on Saturday, five days after she was struck by a car in an alleged intentional attack outside her office in north-east Victoria.
In pictures: House turns orange in solidarity with Haines
As tributes continue for Helen Haines and her constituents in the lower house, photographs tell a story of a house united in grief and appreciation.
It is not only Haines’ crossbench comrades wearing orange in solidarity: MPs from both major parties have donned bright orange outfits.
When the time came for her tribute, independent MP Allegra Spender said there was another, more enduring ways the parliament could honour her: change.
‘Still, my greatest wish is that I could be Helen when I grow up’: Chaney
Independent MP Kate Chaney has spoken to the chamber about the impact Helen Haines had on her political life.
“When I was first elected and didn’t really know how to do this job, Helen was very generous and invited Monique Ryan and I to go and spend the day in her office in Wangaratta, where she taught me everything that I needed to know about how to do the job. And really, that set the tone for me,” Chaney said.
“I could see that it could be done. You could have stability and strength. You can hold government to account and make a point without being disrespectful. Helen does not need to belittle anyone and always argues the issue rather than attacking the person. And I still, my greatest wish is that I could be Helen when I grow up.”
The MP committed to sign a civility pledge, which was backed by Haines before the attack, and calls on parliamentarians to “act with honesty, respect and compassion” in their political lives.
Senate clerk says ‘scrutiny’ necessary part of committee hearings
It’s also estimates week, and senior bureaucrats hoping they might be spared the flurry of clips senators love to share of hard questions and careful answers will be sorely disappointed.
Senate clerk Richard Pye has kicked off the day chiding the head of Defence’s security and estate branch, Celia Perkins, for complaining last month that officials seen in the clips were subjected to abuse and ridicule.
Pye said her complaint at an inquiry was “profoundly unhelpful”. Acknowledging that witnesses could have a “bruising” time before the committees, he said there was no prior warning Perkins would complain.
“We need to remind ourselves that the accountability that is involved in these processes, the scrutiny – particularly in the case of a contested government policy – can’t be thrown out in these issues,” he said.
“That needs to be something that is given a greater deal of weight.”
Chalmers calls on Wordsworth poem to describe Haines’ ‘grace’
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has just finished his tribute to Haines, and said he has never seen the parliament more united than it is today.
“Ours can be a brutal profession, and sometimes it takes a lot for us to agree. But today shows that we are capable of that. It’s rarer now that we come together like this, and that makes it more significant. There’s never been in my time here more unanimity in this place than in this moment in support of Helen Haines,” he told the chamber.
“It’s not lost on any of us that arguably the most rational member of this place has become a victim of the most irrational violence … Helen’s is closest to a perfect temperament in a very imperfect place.”
He called on a William Wordsworth poem titled Resolution and Independence to describe Haines’ character.
“In it, he wrote of something called peculiar grace in the face of despondency. Helen has, I think, peculiar grace … That bearing, which is warm and practical and pragmatic and compassionate and very positive as well, even in the face of great difficulty.”
Former Indi MP told Sharkie: ‘Helen’s going to be just as good as me’
Member for the seat of Mayo in South Australia Rebekha Sharkie has told the chamber of how the former MP for Indi, Cathy McGowan, reassured her when she told her she would not be contesting the seat at the 2019 election.
“Back in 2018, early 2019, Cathy McGowan, the former member for Indi, confided in me that she wasn’t going to run again, and I said, ‘Cathy, don’t leave me. You’re the only other regional woman who’s on the crossbench’,” Sharkie said.
“She said: ‘Don’t you worry. Helen’s going to be just as good as me,’ and she leaned in and said: ‘Maybe even better’.”
Through tears, the MP said Haines’ principled approach was “so desperately needed in this place”.
Lula wins a record fourth term in Brazil
Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva came from behind to win the national run-off election, halting a right-wing wave sweeping Latin America and defying predictions that the 80-year-old political veteran had finally reached the end of his extraordinary career.
Lula took 51.7 per cent (or 64,168,778 votes) to Flávio Bolsonaro’s 48.23 per cent (59,789,320 votes), according to Brazil’s electoral court, with 99.9 per cent of ballots counted as of 11.30am.
Datafolha projected Lula the winner. The result followed a messy election day marked by allegations of voter suppression and a last-minute extension of voting hours.
It was a stunning comeback, sealed late as voters in Lula’s north-eastern stronghold rallied behind one of Latin America’s most prominent opponents of Trumpism.
His reelection for an unprecedented fourth term – he served two terms between 2003 and 2011, and was elected again in 2023 – extends a political career spanning more than four decades and delivers a humiliating blow to the movement built by jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro, whose eldest son sought to carry the family name and MAGA-tinged brand of populism back to the presidential palace.
Bloomberg, with staff reporter
An orange cockatoo occupies Haines’ vacant seat
Fellow crossbencher Monique Ryan has also fought back tears while recounting Helen Haines’ adage that a woman’s place is in every room where decisions are made.
In Haines’ empty seat, the crossbench has placed an orange cockatoo, her campaign symbol.
“We have to protect all women, not just those in public life,” Ryan said.
Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie also paid tribute to the seriously injured MP.
‘Matriarch of the crossbench’: Steggall fights back tears
After a short statement from Speaker Milton Dick, who said he could always rely on Haines when he had a tough day presiding over an unruly chamber, Community Strong MP Zali Steggall rose to her feet.
Here’s a taste of what Steggall had to say as she fought back tears:
Helen, I’ve had so many chats with you sitting in this chamber. You’re the matriarch of the crossbench, always a voice for respectful political debate. She’s advised me to amend a few questions over the years.
[Helen], we have heard your words loud and clear: kindness over hate. It’s time to diffuse the tension and consider how our words are being received by others in the community beyond this space.”
Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles then shared an anecdote of how Haines “slipped away” from an AFL grand final viewing party in Canberra because she didn’t want to “rub [his] nose” in the fact that her team, the Richmond Tigers, had begun to decimate the Geelong Cats.
“I mean, who does that?” Marles asked. “For most of us, football culture is about rubbing people’s noses down.”
Taylor says Haines’ return will be a ‘resounding moment’
Opposition Leader Angus Taylor rose to his feet after the PM to say everyone was praying for Helen Haines’ swift recovery.
“My hope, our hope – the nation’s hope – is that you will be back here soon,” Taylor said.
“And when you resume your seat in this parliament. That will be a resounding moment for our democracy.
“I look forward to Helen returning to the chamber as soon as possible.”
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: www.smh.com.au
