I knew one of us could get hurt eventually. I never thought it would be my friend Helen

People lay flowers outside the office of Helen Haines in Wangaratta, Victoria on Tuesday. The independent MP for Indi remains in a critical condition after what is believed to be a targeted attack near her electorate office. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenPeople lay flowers outside the office of Helen Haines in Wangaratta, Victoria on Tuesday. The independent MP for Indi remains in a critical condition after what is believed to be a targeted attack near her electorate office. Photograph: William West/AFP/Getty ImagesI knew one of us could get hurt eventually. I never thought it would be my friend HelenZoe DanielThere will now be a flood of rhetoric about who is to blame. Don’t fall for the political opportunism from left or right. We are all responsible

It was obvious to those of us who work in and around politics, that eventually, someone would get physically hurt.

The fact that it’s Helen Haines, arguably the best of all of us, not just as a politician but a person, is unbearable.

Some of us community indies have T-shirts that say, “What would Helen do?”

Read moreThey were a gift from the member for Kooyong, Dr Monique Ryan, a few years ago.

And while it was a bit funny at the time, it’s not a joke.

Helen is the one you go to when you’re grappling with the moral quandaries that arise frequently as an MP, in a job when a binary yes/no vote sometimes feels impossible. With intelligence, warmth and deeply held ethics, she represents the very backbone of the parliament.

In the footsteps of Cathy McGowan, Helen has carved a path to a different kind of politics out of the hills and valleys of Indi in north-east Victoria.

She has gathered people looking for integrity, honesty, empathy and direct engagement under her community-generated Beechworth principles which helped underpin her successful push for a National Anti-Corruption Commission.

She has showed that a local member can both represent community and shift generational national policy.

Without her, and Zali Steggall’s work on climate, I doubt that the teal wave of 2022 would have happened.

Call it a sign of the times; the apparent spillover of online behaviour into the real world, egged on by global political influences, the fracturing caused by Covid, the endemic mental health issues in our communities, the isolation and aggravation, the widening wealth gap, the outright anger, the threats.

As Women for Election recently reported, these are outsized risks for women in politics.

After the 2025 election, Helen and I spoke about our shared concerns.

As I told the Age after a torrid campaign involving doxing, abuse and threats, “one of us is going to get hurt eventually”.

But never for a moment did I expect that would become reality on a street in Wangaratta.

It is sickening to have been right, and to see my friend the target.

View image in fullscreenThe independent federal member for Indi, Helen Haines, on her property near Wangaratta, Victoria in November 2021. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The GuardianTo suggest “this is not us” as some commentators are – as if politically motivated violence is an exclusively international phenomenon – is naive.

Trumpism and everything it has enabled, social media and everything it has exploited, including populism and extremism across the spectrum, are global influences. Our island status does not protect us.

There will now be a flood of rhetoric about who is to blame here. Don’t fall for the political opportunism from left or right. This is spectrum-wide.

Already the gaslighting from commentators, politicians and media calling for a return to reasoned debate having actively done the opposite for so long is breathtaking.

Read moreLet’s be honest: much of the political strategy that has been deployed in recent history has weaponised anger and division for one reason only – to win. Mainstream media’s business model is built almost entirely on mortal combat and clickbait. Social media drives outrage for profit.

Social media needs managing with an enforceable duty of care that includes transparency around how destructive algorithms deploy fake news, manipulate public opinion, damage mental health and compound mental illness.

And everyone else has to take a good hard look at what they’ve done or not done.

It’s a dark day when a community representative, a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a colleague and a friend is allegedly violently attacked when she was just being what we all seek to be: a damn fine person.

So, what are we all going to do about it, together?

I am so sad to have to write this about my beautiful friend.

Zoe Daniel is a three-time ABC foreign correspondent and former independent member for Goldstein