Mrs PHILLIPS (Gilmore) (20:49): I want to place on record my absolute support for the Member for Indi, Dr Helen Haines, in her recovery from the most horrific attack on Monday 19 October 2026. The attack has certainly shocked me and left me feeling deeply sad and with an eerie, unsettled feeling when out and about.

My thoughts are very much with Helen, her family, her electorate office staff team and her constituents. Everywhere I've stopped in my electorate over the past week, people have come up to me and asked me to pass on their well wishes to Helen.

I've had numerous emails, phone calls and messages all in support of Helen because people are quite rightly horrified by this attack on the member for Indi, who was just going about her normal work in supporting her constituents.

This is an unprecedented attack on a federal member of parliament, and that has shocked people. Let me be clear; there is no place for threats, intimidation or violence ever, either online or in real life.

I was elected in 2019, the same year as the Member for Indi. As regional members, we share much in common, and it's no surprise that our paths cross closely in this parliament. We're both proudly members of the House Standing Committee on Regional Development, Infrastructure and Transport (Pictured), and over this past year we have been travelling around the country, holding public hearings for our inquiry into local government fiscal sustainability.

We've travelled much together, including a public hearing in the Member for Indi's electorate. I can say that the Member for Indi's great interest and dedication to this committee's work—and in the previous parliament—is precise in nature and thorough, asking pointed questions, but always with good grace and that good country nature.

We also co-chair the Parliamentary Friends of Rural and Regional Health, and it was just two weeks ago tonight, in the last parliamentary sitting, that we co-chaired an event for the National Rural Health Alliance about closing the gap in rural and regional health care.

The Member for Indi came up to me at the end of the event and said: 'We've got to do something about this. What do you reckon?' That's the member for Indi: matter of fact, practical and tenacious.

Just a couple of days later, Helen was doing the vote of thanks at Save the Children's Australian Regional Leadership Initiative annual Sarah Carter dinner, and what a stellar job Helen did, with intellect and passion. It comes as no surprise that, in lieu of flowers, Helen has asked that people donate to Save the Children.

A couple of years ago I did the AUSactive challenge. We elected representatives can be a bit competitive. Now, I am not that fast, but I'm consistent, and I was going quite well in the challenge. But the Member for Indi seemed to come from nowhere, and she went straight to the top of that leaderboard.

I finally worked out that the Member for Indi cycles hundreds of kilometres and is very fit indeed. It's that fitness, big heart and determination that I know will carry the member for Indi through in a positive way.

That's who I know the member for Indi to be—a thoroughly decent person and a fighter for what's right in life. I know that Helen will be fighting with everything she has, and I wish her and her family all the best for her recovery.

I am very much looking forward to seeing the Member for Indi back in this chamber as soon as possible.