How Anthony Albanese’s office shopped around a baseless ‘dirt sheet’ about Helen Haines just weeks ago – before PM praised her integrity, called to lower temperature in politics
Developed over time first seen 5 hours ago
Anthony Albanese’s office circulated a document to selected journalists that raised questions about independent MP Helen Haines’s integrity, without providing evidence of wrongdoing. The report says it was sent weeks before Haines was critically injured in an alleged attack outside her Wangaratta office; afterwards, Albanese praised her integrity and urged politicians to lower the temperature of public debate.
The document reportedly focused on Haines’s requests for funding for projects in her northern Victorian electorate, including $8 million for the Benalla Art Gallery, and suggested reporters investigate possible personal connections or benefits. It also mentioned ski lift passes she received alongside later funding requests. Haines said her submissions were public advocacy for projects put forward by local groups, and that she could request funding but could not allocate or fix grants.
- Albanese’s office circulated unsubstantiated questions about Helen Haines.
- The document focused on her requests for local project funding.
- Albanese later praised her integrity and urged calmer political debate.
Full account
A document circulated to journalists by Anthony Albanese’s office raised questions about independent MP Helen Haines’s personal connections to projects for which she had sought public funding, according to reporting by the Daily Mail. It was distributed after Haines criticised a A$6 million government grant for Marrickville Golf Club, in the Prime Minister’s Sydney electorate. The document offered no evidence that Haines had acted improperly.
The report has acquired new attention after Haines was critically injured outside her electorate office in Wangaratta, Victoria, on Monday. Police allege that Brendan Nugent, 43, drove a Toyota LandCruiser into her. He was arrested, and Haines was taken to hospital in Melbourne. A second Daily Mail report says she has lost a leg. The alleged attack and the earlier circulation of the document are separate events; no evidence presented in either report connects them.
Haines had questioned the fairness and transparency of government grants following the award to Marrickville Golf Club. The document circulated to reporters responded by listing projects she had advocated for in Indi, her northern Victorian electorate, and suggesting questions about whether she had personal ties to potential beneficiaries. Among its examples were an A$8 million redevelopment proposal for Benalla Art Gallery and a local recreation centre upgrade. It asked whether Haines had visited or supported the organisations involved, or received goods or hospitality from local businesses.
Those questions did not establish a conflict of interest. According to the Daily Mail, the document supplied no proof of undisclosed benefits or other wrongdoing. Haines told the outlet, when it brought the document to her attention, that her budget submissions were public requests for projects proposed by local bodies. She drew a distinction between asking the government to fund an electorate project and having the authority to award a grant.
The Daily Mail says the Word file’s properties named Joshua Lloyd, the Prime Minister’s deputy director of communications, as its creator and last editor, and listed the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in a company field. File properties alone cannot establish who wrote or approved the contents. The Prime Minister’s office had been contacted for comment when the first report was published.
After the attack, Albanese praised Haines in an ABC interview, describing her as a person of integrity and calling for political disagreements to be conducted with less personal hostility. He also said the motive for the incident should not be assumed. His remarks have prompted scrutiny of the questions his office had recently put before journalists, although circulating the document does not explain the alleged attack.
Where outlets differ
Both supplied reports are from the Daily Mail. The first focuses on the document circulated to journalists and says it contained no evidence of wrongdoing. The second focuses on Pauline Hanson’s response and reports the further detail that Haines lost a leg.
The first report examines the document’s file properties but cautions that they do not prove authorship or approval. The second makes broader claims about political hostility through Hanson’s comments, without independently establishing them.