Key events10m agoLambie says Hanson hasn’t personally apologised over cartoonBenita KolovosThe husband of a Victorian Liberal party candidate has allegedly been assaulted during a confrontation over election signs.A Liberal party spokesperson on Monday evening confirmed the husband of their candidate for Yan Yean, Amanda Dow, was involved in an alleged incident in Mernda yesterday afternoon.They said: double quotation markWe understand Ms Dow’s husband approached a member of the public who was removing Liberal party campaign signage and was allegedly assaulted. He suffered facial injuries and was taken to hospital and was discharged today.
Police confirmed a 59-year-old Mernda man had been charged with recklessly causing injury, criminal damage and unlawful assault over the incident, which they alleged occurred near Abundant Avenue and Bridge Inn Road at about 2pm yesterday.“Police have been told the victim attended an address to retrieve political campaign signage when he was [allegedly] assaulted,” a spokesperson said.They said the man has been bailed to appear before Heidelberg magistrates’ court on 1 February 2027.The Liberal party spokesperson asked for privacy for Dow and her husband while he recovers.It comes amid alarm about the safety of candidates in the wake of the Helen Haines attack and after Victoria’s emergency services minister said he thought he was being followed.Lambie says Hanson hasn’t personally apologised over cartoonJosh TaylorIndependent senator Jacqui Lambie says the One Nation leader, Pauline Hanson, has yet to personally apologise to her over her party’s “Please Explain” cartoon that poked fun at her medical condition, as the candidate behind the cartoon refuses to apologise.Hanson publicly apologised for the cartoon that depicted Lambie saying “I can’t laugh because of my prolapsed vagina” and the video was subsequently removed from online platforms.However, Lambie told ABC’s 7.30 last night that Hanson “hasn’t emailed, messaged, even sent me a nice little card and said, ‘I’m really sorry for doing that’”.Mark Nicholson – who is running in the Victorian state election for One Nation and is cofounder of Stepmates Studio which makes the cartoons – told 7.30 it was his job to “pick on people in the public realm” and he would not apologise: double quotation markNot right now. If I do anything that is apology-worthy, I’ll apologise.
Nicholson claimed he had “drawn quite a lot of attention” to the medical issue, rather than trivialising it.Lambie said Nicholson should drop out of the election.WelcomeGood morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Kat Wong with the main action.