Carole Lee

Jeez. A woman I know and care about is fighting for her life, has lost a leg, and people are already fighting over whether the man accused of attacking her is a left-wing extremist, a right-wing extremist, a Nazi, a One Nation supporter, a cooker or a tree-hugger, a Zionist or a ‘Hamas supporter’. And on and on it goes. Who does he ‘belong’ to? So we can justify, excuse or condemn, according to who we ‘belong’ to. Apparently the important thing is to establish whose problem Brendan Nugent is. I know Helen Haines well. She was a nurse, then a midwife. She’s one of those rare politicians who actually turns up, listens and gives a shit. She’s met with us many times about the NDIS. The ABC reports she’s critically injured and has lost a leg. I wish I wasn’t writing that. My heart hurts, thinking about it. After listening to us fight to keep our supports, she will need them herself. If she survives this awful, awful, senseless attack. And senseless is the word. Police have Brendan Nugent in custody. They are investigating his motive. I know nothing about his health history. I don’t know if he’s ever applied for the NDIS, been refused entry or had support taken away. Neither do the people guessing on social media. A social media commentator says they attended a school reunion with him recently. They say he hit a man in the head with a brick, in Woolies. That sounds senseless, too. But I do know this. Between July and December 2025, the NDIA decided 4,272 access applications from people with psychosocial disability. Almost 2,950 were refused. Only 31% got in. Then, between April and June 2026, the NDIA revoked access for 5,855 existing participants across all disability groups. I’ve not found a psychosocial breakdown. My own kid has autism, ADHD and schizophrenia. He’s a beautiful, talented young man, and I am proud of him every day for getting up and continuing to fight. He’s frightened, not violent. He’s creative, clever and feels too much about everything, including for other humans. And he hasn’t even applied for the NDIS because these days, there’s no point. I want to know what this guy’s history is. Not just of any mental health struggles, but what support he had and tried to access. My own kid lived in Melbourne for two years, and that’s the heart of the city. I know what’s available and what’s not. So yes, I want to know what happens to people who are turned away. Where they go. Who checks on them. How much support their families have. And why we have become so accustomed to treating people who need help as a budgetary problem or, conversely, an investment opportunity. None of this explains what happened to Helen. Mental illness does not generally equal violence, and we don’t know if it played any role here. It is only the ‘bricked in Woolies’ (they don’t sell bricks at Woolies) and the apparent absence of motivation that makes me raise it. He knew Helen and she apparently had met him. She followed him on social media. She had taken the time to go out and meet with the Strathbogie group. She supported their cause. But something is wrong when we stop asking what happens to people we turn away and try to fit them into a ‘side’ so that we can more readily attack them. We are obsessed with dividing Australians into saints and bastards, left and right, OUR people and THEIR people. I have friends who vote LNP, friends in the Greens and Labor, a mate who works at Sky News. Because disability crosses all those boundaries. You’re a car accident, pregnancy or violent attack away from needing care yourself. Disability couldn’t give a shit which way they vote. Brendan Nugent belongs to this country too, whether any political faction wants him or not. That doesn’t excuse a single thing he’s accused of. Being Australian means belonging to all of us, including the people we find hardest to understand, or like.