Anthony Albanese’s office circulated a briefing document to journalists that questioned Helen Haines’ integrity without offering evidence, after the independent MP criticised a $6 million government grant awarded to the Prime Minister’s local golf club.

The document was sent to select members of the parliamentary press gallery about a month before Haines was seriously injured in an alleged attack outside her Wangaratta office on Monday afternoon.

Haines was airlifted to Melbourne’s The Alfred hospital, where she remains in critical condition. Police allege Brendan Nugent, 43, struck the MP with his Toyota LandCruiser, reversed, then drove into her again.

Following the incident, Albanese urged politicians and commentators to lower the political temperature, praised Haines’ integrity and cautioned against unfounded attacks on public figures’ motives.

“I do always agree that her motives are good,” the Prime Minister told the ABC’s 7.30 program on Monday night.

Yet only weeks earlier, Albanese’s office had distributed a document carrying the name of the Prime Minister’s deputy director of communications—raising questions about the government’s own approach to political debate.

Obtained by the Daily Mail, the document sought to cast doubt on Haines by listing funding requests she had made for her electorate and asking whether she had personal links to potential recipients of federal funding.

Among the questions raised were whether Haines had accepted undeclared wine or food from local businesses, held commercial interests, received political donations or maintained personal relationships with businesses that could benefit from government tourism funding.

The briefing contained no evidence of misconduct. Instead, it suggested lines of inquiry for journalists after Haines had become increasingly vocal about government pork-barrelling and called for greater transparency.

It focused on Haines’ advocacy for projects in her northern Victorian electorate of Indi. One question asked whether she had ever visited the Benalla Art Gallery, for which she had sought $8 million to support a redevelopment.

“Given she has pushed for funding for this project, has the Member for Indi ever visited, been a member of, donated to, or have any personal or professional connection with any of the employees or Board of Benalla Art Gallery?” the document stated.

In relation to a proposed local recreation-centre upgrade, it asked whether Haines had played or trained with sporting clubs, attended matches or accepted jerseys and equipment. It also pointed to ski-lift passes she and her spouse received from Mount Buller before she sought funding for infrastructure at the resort.

The document offered no proof of undisclosed wrongdoing. When shown the material at the time, Haines told the Daily Mail she had not seen it before, adding: “They are pretty desperate.”

She said her annual budget submissions were public documents supporting projects proposed by councils, regional development officials and community groups. “I’m proud of it,” she said.

Haines also distinguished between advocating for funding and controlling how it is distributed—a power held by the Albanese government. She said she could not “fix a grant program” to guarantee support for projects, which was why she pursued specialist competitive funding schemes, including those supporting regional hospitals.

During his ABC interview on Monday night, Albanese repeatedly spoke favourably about Haines’ character.

‘There’s a reason why Helen Haines is so loved and admired, because she’s someone of integrity,’ he said.

Asked what she meant to him, he again answered: ‘Integrity.’

He described her as passionate about her community and said she was always worth listening to, even when they disagreed.

The Microsoft Word document smearing Haines records ‘Lloyd, Joshua’ as both its creator and last editor. Joshua Lloyd is Albanese’s deputy director of communications. 

Its company field lists the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and its creation date is September 10, the day after the Haines statement quoted in the document.

Metadata records the information stored in a file’s properties, but does not conclusively establish who wrote or authorised its contents, and the Daily Mail does not suggest otherwise. Such details can carry over from templates or be changed.

Under an all-capital heading, the document noted Haines had requested more than $1.8billion for projects across two budget submissions.

It placed those requests alongside her September 9 criticism that Australians were increasingly fed up with a ‘self-serving political establishment’ and that pork barrelling undermined trust in democracy.

The document questioned the projects’ value for money and the due diligence behind their selection before raising questions about her personal connections.

On Monday night, Albanese said political differences should be debated respectfully.

‘They shouldn’t be the subject of personal rancour and the calling into people’s motivation where it’s not appropriate to do so.’

He also criticised the ‘contest for clicks’ and called for more nuance and less shouting.

His government has previously faced questions about its own rhetoric.

At Queensland’s Labor conference on August 30, Albanese described hard-right populists’ politics as ‘dangerous, divisive, and downright dishonest’, before specifically attacking One Nation.

When Pauline Hanson subsequently said his remarks had left her feeling unsafe, Attorney-General Michelle Rowland suggested she examine whether her own party, ideology and behaviour were encouraging the danger.

Rowland also condemned threats across politics and explicitly rejected wishing Hanson physical harm.

Albanese said on Monday that the motivation for the incident involving Haines remained unknown and should not be prejudged. Her welfare was his immediate priority.

‘She’s just a thoroughly decent, respectful human being who is a delight to work with and her presence in the Parliament adds to it.’

The Prime Minister’s office has been contacted for comment.

Jackson Warne has opened up about his hopes of marrying his long-term partner, Kiah Broadsmith, raising a family and eventually relocating to Queensland’s Gold Coast.

The son of the late Australian cricket legend Shane Warne has been dating social media personality Kiah, 25, for more than five years. Jackson says their relationship is stronger than ever, and the couple have already spoken about the future they want to build together.

“I think if we got married, we would be planting a flag here, having some kids here! I can see us moving to the Gold Coast,” Jackson told Daily Mail.

He also credited Kiah with standing by him through both the happiest moments and the most difficult periods of his life, including the death of his father in 2022.

“She’s always by my side, lives with me, we’ve been together for over five years, she picks up all the little bits and pieces.”

Jackson made the comments as his older sister Brooke prepares to marry her fiancé, Alex Heath. However, he joked that his own wedding is still some way off.

“I think the wedding’s a long, long time away. Hopefully I have a long mullet by then!” he said.

While marriage and children are part of Jackson’s long-term plans, he is also pursuing a personal journey that links him to his late father in another way.

He has joined forces with Advanced Hair Studio, the company Shane represented for almost 20 years, after choosing to address his own experience with hair loss.

Jackson said Kiah was the first to notice that his hair was beginning to thin, prompting him to take action and begin the new partnership.

According to Jackson, Kiah urged him to deal with the issue before it started to undermine his confidence.

“Kiah was one of the first people to be like, ‘Let’s get on top of it now’ after noticing my hair was thinning, because she’d probably seen that I wasn’t always the happiest person in photos,” he said.

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“She’s been able to see that I’ve been a little bit self-conscious!”

Jackson said his hair had been naturally thick during his younger years, and recalled Shane joking that he was unlikely to go bald.

“Growing up, I always had naturally long, thick hair. Dad used to joke about me not going bald, saying, ‘You’ll be fine, Jacko, you’ll be fine,’” he said.

But after Shane passed away, Jackson began to notice his hair becoming thinner, which he attributed to a combination of genes and lifestyle.

‘As I’ve gotten older and after he passed, I just noticed it was getting a bit thinner. I was losing it because of a combination of genetics and stress. I thought it doesn’t matter if I’m 26 or 27, I need to take action,’ he said.

For Jackson, the partnership is about more than just his appearance, but also an opportunity to honour his father’s legacy while encouraging other young men to feel comfortable talking about hair loss.

‘I just feel like everything I do, no matter what it is, I’ll always try and honour Dad’s legacy, his memory. And that’s why, when I wanted to start taking action on hair loss or hair treatment, AHS was the perfect place to go to,’ he said.

‘It ties in nicely with dad being the face of them for years. If I can carry on his legacy, but doing it in a new, cool way and try and make it more normal for people my age to start dealing with it before it’s too late, that’s also a bonus.’

Jackson is the middle child of the late cricket legend, who died while on holiday in Thailand in March 2022.

He and his sisters Brooke and Summer have continued to honour their father’s memory in the years since his death, with Jackson stepping into a temporary role as a cricket commentator for Sky Sports in London earlier this year.

Federal MP Helen Haines reflected on Australian identity and national pride in a statement published less than 24 hours before she was struck by a vehicle outside her electorate office.

The 65-year-old was collecting items from the boot of her car in Wangaratta on Monday afternoon when she was hit several times by a white 1997 Toyota LandCruiser.

Witnesses alleged that the driver performed a U-turn before apparently steering the vehicle towards the mother of three and grandmother.

The independent member for Indi was trapped beneath the four-wheel-drive and sustained severe injuries to her lower body. She was flown to Melbourne for emergency surgery overnight.

Police arrested 43-year-old Brendan Nugent, from the Wangaratta area, at the scene. No charges have been laid.

On Sunday afternoon, fewer than 24 hours before the incident, Ms Haines posted a photograph of herself holding the Australian flag while considering what it means to be Australian.

“Our national flags are powerful symbols of who we are as Australians – our history, our values and the country we’re proud to call home,” she wrote on social media.

“It’s been an honour to present flags to St Joseph’s Primary School in Benalla, local students undertaking Rotary exchanges, such as Lucy who is heading to Germany, and Kerribana Primary School in Baranduda.”

She continued: “I hope these flags inspire pride in our country and conversations about what it means to be Australian.”

Ms Haines has represented the federal seat of Indi since 2019 and has consistently campaigned for gambling reform, stronger mental health services, higher welfare payments and universal access to early childhood education and care.

Drawing on her background as a midwife and nurse, she has also backed reforms to aged care and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

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Respected by politicians across the divide, Haines is known for her focus on integrity in public life. She was also instrumental in helping establish the National Anti-Corruption Commission.

In a statement issued about an hour before the incident, she welcomed the appointment of a new NACC commissioner and deputy, describing the changes as a necessary “reset” for the integrity agency.

Political leaders from both sides have since sent messages of support to the injured MP.

“There’s a reason why Helen Haines is so loved and admired, because she’s someone of integrity,” Prime Minister Anthony Albanese told the ABC’s 7.30 program on Monday.

“She’s someone who treats everyone with respect, and she’s someone who is a beacon of light for that community there in northern Victoria.”

Albanese said the motive for the ‘deliberate attack’ remained unclear, but noted there had been a significant increase in the number of people charged with threatening politicians. 

‘It’s important in a democracy that people are allowed to have disagreements,’ he said.

‘But that doesn’t mean that you have to draw into question people’s motivations or their patriotism or who they are.

‘We’ve seen, I think, political discourse go in the wrong direction in recent times and I want us to acknowledge (that) in the way that politics is conducted.’

Allegra Spender, a fellow community independent, called Haines ‘the best of us’.

‘Helen is one of the most outstanding people in parliament,’ she said. 

‘Whether you agree with her or you don’t on issues, you would be proud to see how she approaches issues in the parliament; with compassion, with rigour, everything that you would want from a politician.’

A court heard on Monday that Beau Lamarre-Condon contacted his friend, Senior Constable Dana Schagan, days after he allegedly killed Jesse Baird and Luke Davies.

Ms Schagan told the court that her final face-to-face conversation with Lamarre-Condon took place at her home in early 2024.

“He asked me a hypothetical question,” she said.

Lamarre-Condon, who was pictured below, asked whether police would investigate reports of gunshots if the sounds could have been caused by children setting off fireworks, Ms Schagan said.

She responded that Liverpool Police Station, where she was working at the time, was extremely busy and officers would likely have disregarded the report if they believed children were responsible for the noise.

Lamarre-Condon left the house soon afterwards, and the pair did not meet in person again.

On February 23, 2024, Ms Schagan saw media reports concerning the alleged murders of Baird and Davies.

She sent Lamarre-Condon a message on Facebook: “Where the f*** are you? What’s all this s*** in the media, what’s going on?”

Although he read the messages, he did not respond.

Ms Schagan subsequently gave police a statement about Lamarre-Condon.

Several days later, Lamarre-Condon called her and said: “Dan, it’s Beau.”

“Why the f*** are you calling me?” she replied.

He told her: “I just wanted to tell you that I love you and before you do anything, you need to know that not everything in the news is true, it will come out in court.”

Before ending the call, Ms Schagan said she told him: “You killed two people, why do you think I’d ever want to speak to you again?”

She then provided police with a second statement.

The court also heard that a handyman called in to repair Baird’s former rental property in Paddington believed the back door had been “kicked open”.

Crown prosecutors read Anthony Selvato’s statement to the court.

Mr Selvato said the real estate agent asked him to carry out repairs at the Brown Street property after forensic investigators had completed their work.

The agent wanted the home cleaned and repaired so it could be leased again.

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Mr Selvato said he knew a shooting had occurred at the property from media reports, but was unaware of the specific details.

In his statement, he said the back door had ‘definitely’ been kicked open because it was broken at the bottom.

The Crown alleges Lamarre-Condon dragged the bodies of Baird and Davies (pictured below) from the house into the courtyard and left them in surfboard bags and under a tarp for hours.

Mr Selvato also said the real estate agent wanted the rear courtyard sprayed with a pressure hose to remove bloodstains.

The Crown read another witness statement to the court, which was given to police by a woman who lived near a skip bin in Cronulla.

Lamarre-Condon allegedly dumped bloodied bedsheets, clothes and small furniture items in the bin two days after he allegedly killed Baird and Davies.

In the statement, the woman said it was late at night on February 21 when she heard banging coming from outside.

She thought it was her neighbour, until she looked over her balcony and saw a ‘suspicious’ man pull up to the bin in a van or ute.

She said he was wearing a white hooded jumper and was described as tall and slim with olive skin.

According to her statement, the woman saw the man’s hands in the bin as he ‘moved things around’, including a ‘large object that could have been drawers or furniture’.

She then saw him walk back to his vehicle.

The court was also shown CCTV footage of Lamarre-Condon inside Bunnings Alexandria the day after he allegedly killed Baird and Davies.

On February 20, 2024, Lamarre-Condon could be seen on CCTV using the underground parking lot before heading up the escalator into the store in Sydney’s inner west.

The accused killer lined up behind shoppers to buy a drill and drill bit from the ‘tool shop’ section.

He then went to the returns desk to buy men’s tradie pants, gumboots, a hoodie and a dust mask, before leaving the store.

He paid cash for both purchases.

Further footage showed a white Toyota HiAce van driving through Paddington, where the alleged murders took place, at 9.37am that day.

Later that evening, he sat down for dinner at Sushi Train in Cronulla. Bank records show he spent $22.

He then walked around The Esplanade in Cronulla with a friend.