There will now be a flood of rhetoric about who is to blame. Don’t fall for the political opportunism from left or right. We are all responsible

It was obvious to those of us who work in and around politics, that eventually, someone would get physically hurt.

The fact that it’s Helen Haines, arguably the best of all of us, not just as a politician but a person, is unbearable.

Some of us community indies have T-shirts that say, “What would Helen do?”

They were a gift from the member for Kooyong, Dr Monique Ryan, a few years ago.

And while it was a bit funny at the time, it’s not a joke.

Helen is the one you go to when you’re grappling with the moral quandaries that arise frequently as an MP, in a job when a binary yes/no vote sometimes feels impossible. With intelligence, warmth and deeply held ethics, she represents the very backbone of the parliament.

In the footsteps of Cathy McGowan, Helen has carved a path to a different kind of politics out of the hills and valleys of Indi in north-east Victoria.

She has gathered people looking for integrity, honesty, empathy and direct engagement under her community-generated Beechworth principles which helped underpin her successful push for a National Anti-Corruption Commission.

She has showed that a local member can both represent community and shift generational national policy.

Without her, and Zali Steggall’s work on climate, I doubt that the teal wave of 2022 would have happened.

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