“Pro-Palestine environmental activist accused of ramming Australian MP”, reports the Telegraph:
The man accused of repeatedly ramming a car into an Australian MP has been identified as a pro-Palestine and anti-logging activist who was known to police.
Brendan Nugent, 43, allegedly drove his Toyota Landcruiser into Helen Haines on Monday afternoon, pinning her against a car outside her electorate office in the northern Victorian town of Wangaratta.
Dr Haines, 65, underwent a leg amputation on Tuesday after being critically wounded in the attack. Doctors at The Alfred hospital in Melbourne were working to save her other leg.
[…]
Mr Nugent and Dr Haines, an independent MP in the seat of Indi, were known to each other – and he had previously praised her publicly on social media for her pro-environmental stance.
But his online history charts his shift from environmental campaigner to outspoken critic of Israel. Both he and Dr Haines have regularly publicly condemned the Australian government’s response to the war in Gaza.
One News Australia has a detailed account of the suspect’s posts on social media over several years: “Suspect Brendan Nugent named as police investigate radical activist history in alleged attack of MP Helen Haines”.
By 2024 Nugent’s posting had changed from being overwhelmingly concerned with environmentalism to including posts like this one supporting the Houthi attacks on shipping:
"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. pic.twitter.com/s8tav8BMXd
— Brendan Nugent (@NotLaoTzu) January 12, 2024
If that link disappears, it consists of the words ‘”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.’ followed by a bizarre AI-generated picture of a turban-wearing giant rising out of the sea cradling a container ship under one arm. A bit Orientalist, I thought. And biceps don’t work that way.
I was surprised that Nugent’s posts under the username “@NotLaoTzu” still appear to be visible on Twitter. Perhaps it was because, as the One News Australia report says, that ‘At 1:12am on Tuesday, Drew Pavlou posted that the car “appears to be owned by Brendan Nugent”, about eight hours before The Australian named him.’ Drew Pavlou describes himself as a “Western civilisation enjoyer” on Twitter. I had come across his name before. He is getting a lot of stick for having released Nugent’s name before the Australian authorities did. I am usually a stickler for due process, but given that Pavlou’s identification of Nugent was correct, and that Nugent was arrested seconds after the crime – he was pulled out of his car and detained by a brave bystander, local barber Ricky Jeffries – I’m really not that worried that an innocent man might be being defamed.
And Haines is one of those terribly nice, well-meaning females, usually with large teeth, who have found a route into the Commonwealth’s lower house in the last decade or so. Sweet, not very reasonable, and dangerous. Nevertheless, sympathies.
The driver has a higher degree from the university of Melbounre, a poisonous and massivel self-regarding institution and incubator of leftist lunacy which could usefully be razed to the ground and the earth of its Parkville campus sown with salt.
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