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Labor on the defensive over Helen Haines ‘dirt file’ · The Front

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Today's biggest news from the Australian. I'm Claire Harvey with
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: the front's afternoon headlines. Labor is on the defensive over
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: a so-called dirt file compiled about independent MP Helen Haynes
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: just weeks before she was attacked outside her electorate office.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: 43-year-old Brendan Nugent allegedly rammed Haynes in a four-wheel drive
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  Speaker 1: at the office in Wangaratta in Victoria on Monday afternoon.
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  Speaker 1: He was arrested at the scene and later charged with
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  Speaker 1: dangerous driving causing serious injury, intentionally causing serious injury, causing
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  Speaker 1: harm to a Commonwealth public official and cannabis cultivation and possession.
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  Speaker 1: He has not applied for bail and he'll stay behind
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  Speaker 1: bars until the matter returns to court on February 4.
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  Speaker 1: Helen Haynes' husband, Phil Haynes, confirmed both the MP's legs
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: had been surgically amputated. But the good news in all
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  Speaker 1: this is Helen is alive and she's stable.
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  Speaker 2: Helen's road to recovery will be long and difficult, but
• 0:58
  Speaker 2: we know she is a fighter.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: You can hear more about the alleged attack on Helen
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  Speaker 1: Haynes by scrolling back to Tuesday's episode of The Front
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: in your feed. It's since emerged staffers in the Prime
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  Speaker 1: Minister's office created a political research dossier about Helen Haynes
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  Speaker 1: after she criticised a multi-million dollar grant given to a
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  Speaker 1: golf club in Anthony Albanese's seat of Graindler. The so-called
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  Speaker 1: dirt file reportedly showed Haynes had requested almost $ 2 million
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  Speaker 1: in funding for projects in her own seat of Indi,
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  Speaker 1: but it didn't contain any evidence of wrongdoing by Haynes.
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  Speaker 1: The document was circulated to journalists with suggestions for probing Haynes'
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  Speaker 1: political donations and links to organisations that had applied for
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  Speaker 1: government funding. Opposition figures and crossbenchers, including Liberals Jane Hume,
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  Speaker 1: Michaelia Cash and Ted O'Brien, as well as One Nation's
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  Speaker 1: Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce, and Independent Senator David Pocock,
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  Speaker 1: have slammed the file as grubby and underhanded, and they
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  Speaker 1: say the PM's explanation doesn't pass the pub test. Here's
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  Speaker 1: Barnaby Joyce.
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  Speaker 3: It was a pathetic attempt to demean and diminish a
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  Speaker 3: very decent lady, a very decent lady who's now been
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  Speaker 3: seen by this tragic accident to be... See, at first
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  Speaker 3: she's extolled to the Australian people, even though she's really
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  Speaker 3: not on the same side of the political fence as me,
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  Speaker 3: but I'm disgusted by a Prime Minister's office that A,
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  Speaker 3: would do this, and B, would just front up with
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  Speaker 3: the gall.
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  Speaker 1: Albanese didn't deny the existence of the dossier and said
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  Speaker 1: on Thursday the true intention of the document was to
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  Speaker 1: highlight Helen Haynes' political integrity.
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  Speaker 2: Helen Haynes is a good local member. She puts forward
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  Speaker 2: applications like other members do for grants and that's what
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  Speaker 2: good local members do and Helen Haynes is a very
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  Speaker 2: strong advocate for her community.
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  Speaker 1: Deputy Prime Minister Richard Miles said he's, quote, struggling to
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  Speaker 1: understand the frenzy the document has whipped up. And it's
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  Speaker 1: true that all parties generate this kind of material about
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  Speaker 1: their opponents. Health Minister Mark Butler echoed Miles's comments, saying
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  Speaker 1: on Friday the timing of the discussion is inappropriate.
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  Speaker 4: I've seen dirt sheets in my time. I don't see
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  Speaker 4: how this is a dirt sheet. But more particularly, I'm
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  Speaker 4: not entirely sure why we are having this debate this
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  Speaker 4: week of all weeks. And I don't understand why we
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  Speaker 4: are devoting energy to this rather than coming together, sending
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  Speaker 4: our love, sending our energy to Helen and her family
• 3:32
  Speaker 4: and having the debate that I think we are rightly
• 3:34
  Speaker 4: having about the tenor of community discussion right now.
• 3:38
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