BREAKING: Radical anti-Israel leftist REVEALED as suspect in horrific attack on Helen Haines MP

Left-wing activists were quick to blame Pauline Hanson as the shocking attack unfolded. But following a citizen’s arrest, police took Brendan Nugent into custody — a man whose social media feed reads like that of a Greens MP.

Rukshan Fernando
  |   October 19, 2026   |   News   |   1 Comment

 

Independent MP Helen Haines was struck by a vehicle outside her Wangaratta electorate office on Monday afternoon. Victoria Police Acting Superintendent Ashley Mason said the Member for Indi was "in a critical condition".

"This afternoon Helen Haines, the Member for Indi, was attacked outside her electorate office in Wangaratta," Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a video statement that evening.

In a statement, Victoria Police said the driver, since identified in media reports as 43-year-old Tarrawingee man Brendan Nugent, "was arrested at the scene by a passerby" when he got out of the vehicle, and that "police are investigating as to whether this was an intentional act". The Prime Minister said a suspect was in custody and that the Australian Federal Police, Victoria Police and ASIO were working together. "The Joint Counter Terrorism Team has been activated, but the motive is not known," he said. Acting Superintendent Mason said there was "no indication of the motive" and that police were "treating this as an isolated incident at this time". No charge has been made public.

None of that stopped a section of the online left from deciding within hours who was responsible.

The most widely read accusation came from writer Sandra K Eckersley, whose post drew more than 50,000 views and 651 replies on Monday night. "Pauline Hanson is personally responsible for ramping up a culture of hysterical HATE towards politicians & now Helen Haines is critically injured by a nutter outside her own electoral office," she wrote. "I see a direct link between the two."

Progressive Melbourne business owner Aaron Dodd, who has more than 24,000 followers, went further and stated as fact that the attacker was "a ON cooker". "The attack on #HelenHaines by a ON cooker was inevitable," he wrote, adding that "Hanson's hateful rhetoric, and dog-whistling led to this." That post passed 20,000 views.

They were not alone. A sample of X posts on Monday night turned up about 10 blaming Hanson and another 10 blaming One Nation, its supporters or its candidates, most from small accounts with a few hundred views or fewer. Some said One Nation had "blood on their hands". Others asserted, with no evidence, that the attacker was "a one nation extremist" or a One Nation candidate. No MP, journalist or verified media account in the sample joined in.

Hanson herself condemned what she called "an attack", saying she was "horrified and saddened" and that "Violence against any elected representative, whoever they are and whatever they stand for, is never acceptable in Australia." One Nation's official account and South Australian leader Cory Bernardi reposted her statement.

Rebel News understands the X account @NotLaoTzu belongs to Nugent. Nine News reported that an active X account bearing his name posts about Israel, climate change and Jeffrey Epstein. Its history tells a very different story from the one the blame merchants were selling.

There is nothing on it about Hanson or One Nation around the time of the attack, and nothing about Haines. Its last post was on 18 October, the day before. The only post of its own found naming Hanson dates from 2015, and it reads as sarcastic and mocking rather than admiring: "Dame Pauline Hanson just has a ring to it...esp in the Order of Australia."

Far from targeting Haines, the account backed her. Between 2019 and 2021 it reposted her candidacy post, reposted two appeals to donate to her campaign, and in October 2019 told her it "Would've been nice to include a politician who takes climate change seriously, such as yourself". None of its posts about her were hostile.

 

@NotLaoTzu reply to Helen Haines, 28 Oct 2019

Until hours after the attack, the account was followed by Helen Haines herself and by Greens leader David Shoebridge. By Tuesday morning, users noticed Shoebridge had unfollowed it.

 

@NotLaoTzu profile, followed by Helen Haines MP and David Shoebridge

Climate and forests run right through the feed. The account reposted Greens MPs 13 times between 2014 and 2023, from Christine Milne and Sarah Hanson-Young to Larissa Waters and Jordon Steele-John, mostly on logging and climate. In 2020 it defended the party in its own words: "Greens voted against the carbon price repeal, and were the reason why we had a carbon price to repeal." Those Greens-friendly reposts do not make it a party loyalist. In 2022 it turned on the Victorian Greens, telling Senator Janet Rice: "Now do one on how the vic greens treat victim survivors of horrific csa". In 2024 it replied to a Greens thread: "lol, they're just getting started". It was also hostile to Labor.

His politics were green-left rather than Labor. He attacked the Andrews government repeatedly over native forest logging, yet still allowed in 2018 that “Andrews has done some amazing things”. The Age reported that Nugent has a history of local activism, with one source saying he strayed into “darker” things after his days protesting logging in the local forest.

 

@NotLaoTzu reply on Daniel Andrews, 20 Jun 2018

Then came 7 October 2023, and the feed changed character.

That evening, as Hamas terrorists were still pouring across the Gaza border, the account reposted a post from @EyesOnSouth1 celebrating the breach: "Bulldozer operated by Gaza Resistance tearing down the israeli occupation fence erected on the border. Literally breaking apart the israeli-created mass prison in the Strip." It hit repost four minutes after the original went up.

 

Repost by @NotLaoTzu, 7 Oct 2023

About an hour later, with Israelis still being butchered in their homes, it reposted British journalist Matt Kennard: "It must be emphasised that armed struggle by the Palestinian resistance against the occupier is legal under international law." By the next morning it was sharing Louis Allday's warning that anyone who would "condemn their acts of armed resistance" really wants Palestinians "to die quietly".

 

Repost by @NotLaoTzu, 7 Oct 2023

Four days after the massacre, it reposted Dan Cohen's post dismissing reports of murdered Israeli infants as "the fake 'Hamas beheaded 40 children' psyop". The original was viewed more than 4.2 million times.

 

Repost by @NotLaoTzu, 11 Oct 2023

In November it amplified Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah's claim that "The Al-Aqsa Flood operation emerged from the pain and suffering of the Palestinian people since over 75 years." Al-Aqsa Flood is Hamas's own name for the massacre. Two weeks later it reposted Australian blogger Caitlin Johnstone claiming that "The IDF, not Hamas, burned people alive". Taken with the "psyop" repost, those posts show open contempt for what was done to Jewish victims on 7 October, recasting the atrocities as either invented or Israel's own work.

 

Repost by @NotLaoTzu, 4 Nov 2023

In January 2024 the account stopped merely sharing and started arguing. When Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles posted that the United States and United Kingdom had struck Houthi targets in Yemen and that "Australia supported this action", it replied within the hour: "'Unjustifiable attacks'? They are trying to stop more mass murder of innocent people, mass murder that you are assisting with. You know they are only targeting ships that are supplying the genocide."

 

@NotLaoTzu reply to Richard Marles, 12 Jan 2024

Challenged the next day, it called the Houthi assault on shipping "a nonleathal method to try and stop the mass slaughter of innocent people in Gaza" and told the woman who questioned it to "Get your shite together". Hours later it told writer Jeff Sparrow that "the only ships targeted were those going to and from israel". That reply, with 788 views, is the widest-read post of its own found.

 

@NotLaoTzu reply, 13 Jan 2024

Days later it reposted the opening of Hamas's own booklet on the massacre, which hails "the finest displays of bravery and heroism in confronting the Israeli murder machine", along with the next three parts of the thread.

 

Repost by @NotLaoTzu, 22 Jan 2024

In February 2024, when commentator Gray Connolly wrote that Australia's long record as "a safe haven for Jews" had been "endangered since Oct 7th", the account answered in its own words: "Its not like you don't know this is antizionist sentiment, not antijew semtiment. People like you don't fool anyone but ardent, genocidal zionists." In May it reposted an anti-Zionist author's claim that Zionists "want to kill us just like they want to kill Palestinians."

By June 2024 it was sharing Johnstone's essay "Why I Don't Condemn Hamas For October 7", which ends: "That's why I've never condemned Hamas for October 7." Weeks later it reposted a Yemeni writer praising "the courageous and heroic role of Ansar Allah", the Houthis, as "a legitimate resistance movement".

 

Repost by @NotLaoTzu, 3 Jun 2024

The audience was small. The account has 601 followers, and most of this material is other people's posts reposted without comment, so its reach came from the big accounts it amplified rather than from itself. But the pattern is consistent: a feed of extremist anti-Israel material that cheered the 7 October breach as it happened, waved away the atrocities that followed, and in its own words defended the Houthis to an Australian minister.

On the evidence of its own posts, the account's history sits far closer to left-wing anti-Israel extremism than to One Nation. It championed climate action, reposted Greens MPs, backed Haines at the ballot box and spent nine months amplifying Hamas, Hezbollah and Houthi talking points. Nothing in it supports the claims made on Monday night about Hanson or her party.

Police have not identified a motive, and nothing in the account's posts explains why anyone would target the Member for Indi. Nugent remains in custody, and no charge has been made public.

Rukshan Fernando

Rebel News Australia Content Manager and Commentator

Rukshan Fernando is an Australian political commentator, filmmaker, and journalist. He is known for his on-the-ground coverage and livestreams of protests and social issues, with a strong focus on stories often overlooked by the mainstream media. As a Content Manager and Reporter with Rebel News Australia, Rukshan works alongside Australia Bureau Chief Avi Yemini to bring the other side of the story from down under.

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  • Bruce Atchison
    commented 2026-10-19 20:04:43 -0400
    All leftists have is negative emotionalism and eternal hatred for all who disagree with them.Leftists have no hope. Their eutopian dream never comes to pass because they think of opposition as enemy fire. They are of humanity the most miserable.