Man and boy arrested after allegedly attacking One Nation volunteer with bat

3 November 2026, 01: 57 GMT. Updated 2 hours ago.

Key points

• On Tuesday, One Nation leader Pauline Hanson visited the injured volunteer at University Hospital Geelong where he is recovering, praising his "resilience" and "belief" in her party.
• One Nation's Victorian leader Warren Pickering asserted the attack happened after the pair "interfered with" election signs on the volunteer's property.
• Two individuals have been arrested after a volunteer for Australia's right-wing populist party One Nation was allegedly assaulted with a baseball bat.
• Police haven't provided any detail regarding a motive, but Pickering stated the alleged assault was "un-Australian and unacceptable".
• The man was charged with assault offences and remanded in custody while the boy was issued with a caution.

For context, a man, 37, and a boy, 14, were arrested on Sunday night after an incident outside the volunteer's home in Torquay, regarding 100km (62 miles) south-west of Melbourne.

For context, the man was charged with assault offences and remanded in custody while the boy was issued with a caution. The volunteer was hospitalised with non-life threatening injuries, police remarked. He remains in a stable condition.

"Political violence or intimidation of any kind against anyone is unacceptable in this country, " he remarked.

"If you don't like someone's politics, you vote accordingly. You don't assault them."

"He wants to go right back out there and put the signs up, " she remarked outside the hospital.

In practice, the party has remarked the man has serious injuries, and shared a photo of him with severe swelling and bruising to his face. Victorian Premier Ben Carroll described the attack as "shocking".

"Whether you're wearing a red, a blue, an orange, or a green T-shirt, they are volunteers, " he remarked.

"They are out there doing what they believe is right, and no one should be coming under attack."

After the attack on Federal MP Helen Haines last month, the alleged attack comes during a state election campaign in Victoria, and against the backdrop of a reckoning in the country more broadly over the tone of political debate.

Police have not detailed a motive for the incident – which left Haines needing both of her legs amputated – but politicians, law enforcement, and experts have remarked heated public discourse is heightening the threat of political violence in the country.

Taken together, the developments around man and boy arrested after allegedly attacking One Nation volunteer with bat point to a situation that is still moving, and the coming days should bring more clarity.