00:00All of our thoughts and actions remain with Dr. Helen Haynes, her family, and the wider community.
00:11She remains in very, very good care and in a critical but stable condition.
00:20I further want to acknowledge her for her very strong and visible support to the Wangaratta
00:30Pōpankā community following the very tragic events of August 2025.
00:38She gave wonderful support to local police and I know that my colleagues there absolutely
00:46appreciate what she did and continues to do for them.
00:53I also want to acknowledge, as others have done, the quick and fearless actions by members
01:01of the local community.
01:04Their actions prevented further serious harm to Helen.
01:13And I expand that acknowledgement to our officers in Wangaratta who arrived on that traumatic
01:22scene within seconds.
01:25In fact, I think it was eight seconds.
01:29But also the emergency services, health workers who arrived to give immediate medical triage
01:37and all of the medical staff that have been caring for Helen since this event.
01:47Last night, Victoria Police charged the 43-year-old man from Tarawingi that is at the centre of this.
01:59And he appears in the Wangaratta Court this morning.
02:04He will face three charges.
02:08The first is a Commonwealth charge of causing harm to a Commonwealth public official.
02:17Second two offences are state offences.
02:20The first of intentionally causing serious harm.
02:25And the second dangerous driving causing serious harm.
02:32The investigation led by our Special Investigation Unit supported by our Major Collision Investigation
02:44Unit and the Joint Counter Terrorism Task Force, which is comprised of Australian Federal Police,
02:53Victoria Police and ASIO.
02:56And I want to acknowledge our colleagues from the Australian Federal Police for their support
03:03to this investigation.
03:06And while I say this investigation is far from complete, we are not ruling out further serious charges.
03:19I want to further add that we have deployed a number of staff into Wangaratta to give assurance
03:28to members of the public.
03:30We do believe this was a deliberate but isolated act.
03:36But it's important in these times that the community see police in their place to give that assurance of safety.
03:49We are also standing up, as of today, and leveraging our State Command and Coordination Centre
03:55to ensure that we are right across any potential threats, especially leading up to the election,
04:03against any politicians in this state, to make sure there is a centralised place of reporting,
04:10a place where we can proactively search for any threats and ensure that we act quickly and we act proactively.
04:24I'll further add to that, that we had no intelligence holdings against this 43-year-old individual,
04:33and there was nothing known to us that would have arisen or piqued our interest,
04:42or given any indication that he was an immediate threat.
04:53This is a very good sound of understanding, for a good conclusion.
05:00This is a very interesting thing.
05:02This is a very interesting thing.
