Governor-general appeals to Australians to ‘exercise our muscle of decency’; Haines’ husband reveals MP has lost second leg

Governor-General Sam Mostyn has appealed to Australians to “learn or relearn to exercise our muscle of decency” in the wake of Monday’s horrific attack on Helen Haines.

Mostyn appeared late Wednesday at Melbourne’s Alfred Hospital with Haines’ husband Phil, at his invitation.

He revealed that earlier in the day, Haines’ second leg had been amputated.

Haines remains in a critical but stable condition, after Brendan Nugent allegedly drove his Toyota Landcruiser at her when she was standing by the boot of her car outside her electorate office in Wangaratta.

She was pinned between vehicles.

Mostyn, disclosing that King Charles was being “regularly updated on this shocking moment”, said the violent attack on a much loved and respected member of parliament “must be a moment for us to pause and to choose to be better”.

She said she and Haines had discussed the issue of civility a fortnight ago when they were at a function in Euroa.

“We talked about the need for greater civility and engagement across our civic and public.

As ever, Helen was actively thinking of ways in which the Australian community could come together and be encouraged to be both more engaged in our democracy, our great democracy, and participate with the kind of engagement she has always done – kindness and care and respect.

Asking what the nation should do now, Mostyn said she imagined that in such circumstances Haines would be reaching out to those who were terribly distressed by what had happened and were trying to cope.

We need to offer everyone comfort to get through this, to celebrate our strong and stable system of government and parliaments and democracy, and be proud of that.

Remind ourselves, as Helen says all the time, that Australians have good hearts, great hearts, and checking each of ourselves to ensure that we are in fact disagreeing well, not fighting with one another, not descending into violence and chaos and division.

Most importantly, that we learn or relearn to exercise our muscle of decency.

Mostyn said in communities around Australia, people "are yearning for kindness and care, and they’re asking us why we’ve lost the great skill of disagreeing well and with decency to each other.