In 2019, Mr Nugent replied to Ms Haines directly on the platform and appeared to compliment her, describing her as a “politician who takes climate change seriously”.
Since that first interaction, he posted four other replies mentioning her on X, with the most recent being in 2021.
None indicate any anger or malice towards the independent MP.He does not appear to show consistent support for any political party and has been critical of the major parties at state and federal level.
In recent years, he has posted on X in support of Gaza, posting fundraisers and being critical of Israel.The West Australian has gone all-in on the “Anti Israel” angle. I guess they only went back the last couple of years. They certainly didn’t mention his playing in the High School footy team. According to The West, he’s super mega hateful toward Israel and this is all about Gaza. Front page, and a Page 3-4 spread.
Yesterday, all the newsheads were reporting that the family were friends with Helen Haines.
In the statement, Mr Nugent’s father Rod Nugent and Rod’s partner Christine Cunningham said Ms Haines had been their friend for more than 20 years and Monday’s events were “devastating and unfathomable”.
“Helen Haines is a deeply respected, valued and much loved member of our local community,” the statement said.
Also from the bits and pieces released so far, it appears he was just driving by. He saw Helen in the street and let the dark thoughts through. There doesn’t appear to be a master plan behind his actions - no ‘what next?’ or ‘what will this achieve?’ or anything. I’m not sure we’re going to get a coherent reason why he did this or what he was trying to achieve.
There are at least three headlines for this article on the ABC News front page. I chose one that wasn’t offered by Lemmy when I posted this.
Biggest story of the century apparently, there seems to be a lot of agendas flying around.
I think it could have Port Arthur Massacre type social and political ramifications for corporate media, including corporate social media.
It is unwise to speculate but reports suggest that it might be a mental health issue.
We could do more in community mental health resources and identifying people who might be a threat but it seems like police were aware he had problems and probably couldn’t do much.
It is a big stretch to blame this incident on social media this early. Social media is a problem in our society but it’s not the only one.
My comment was poorly worded. Corporate media was initially meant to be a stand-in for a few social and political issues being discussed as a result of this attack. Mental health and healthcare, policing (why are police handling mental health checks), misogyny and sexism, violence against women and children, corporate media including social media, political discourse and violence etc.
Do you really think so? From the article ‘clues’ it appears like this man was really suffering both physically and mentally. He hasn’t killed multiple people and he has a history of being intelligent, caring about important issues and having a strong sense of social and environmental justice. I hope both he and Helen come out of this nightmare in a healthy state.
we can hope, but even so he will still need to answer for what he did while in an unbalanced mental state - both legally and to himself
Agreed.
He ran over her on purpose. Twice.
I don’t CARE about his “strong sense of justice” in this context. If he had that, he wouldn’t have tried to flatten an innocent woman who’s done him no harm.
I care that he ends up somewhere where he can be kept from hurting anyone else.
I am aware of what he has done to Ms Haines. He can be a person who felt strongly about others who declined into severe mental illness or had some other condition. There will be justice and all factors will be considered. If the event happened as a result of an episode or similar we need to care because this sort of situation is not new and there are mentally ill people out there who are not getting treatment. We’ve had people suffering episodes driving into innocent bystanders and killing them before (Melbourne examples).
It unlikely. All depends on why he did it and how Australians react to that news. Sorry for the non answer answer.
The hasbarists and other hate-mongers are doing what they like to do, however, and using this for their dark purposes. Have a look at what Michael West reports: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eeqen5jDA6o
