AUSTRALIA'S security chiefs had warned of "online echo chambers" fuelling grievances and conspiracies and stepped up prosecutions for threats of political violence ahead of Monday's attack on a lawmaker in a rural town.
Independent lawmaker Helen Haines, 65, underwent surgery overnight but remains in a critical condition after being struck deliberately by a car in an attack that "does shake all of us", Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Tuesday.
Broadcaster ABC and the Sydney Morning Herald reported she had lost a leg.
Brendan Nugent, 43, is in custody after Haines was hit outside her office in Wangaratta, just over 200km northeast of Melbourne.
