I spent a week watching Helen Haines in action in Canberra. It was the most inspiring week of my life | Tim Berenyi

Life has been feeling heavy for a while but since Monday it has felt overwhelming.

Our communities have been through so much: bushfires, floods, fugitives, lockdowns and bushfires – and that’s only since 2019. Throughout all this there has been one familiar face lightening the load during uncertain times: the smiling face of Helen Haines.

During past disasters it always felt as though there were things we could do to help each other. Right now it’s really hard to know what to do. It’s pretty simple to understand how a fire starts or why a flood stops but in this moment things seem so much more complex.

I had just returned from a run when I found out what had happened to Helen. The feeling is almost indescribable, a mixture of disbelief, anger and sadness.

My immediate thought was how could this have happened to her? Of all people? Surely this is not real. What do I say? What can you say to something so senseless?

I felt sick. I still feel sick. I keep asking myself: what do I do? How do we respond to this? What do we do when the person we use for strength is the person needing ours?

This grief and confusion is palpable throughout the hills and valleys of Indi, and it feels as though it has spread across the country. Everyone shares the same sense of bewilderment. We are all asking the question none of us can answer: how did we get here?

Two years ago, at the age of 30, I decided to move home to my small country town. Mansfield sits at the base of the Victorian Alps and is in the Indi electorate.

I’ve told people a multitude of reasons for moving home but, in truth, I moved back because I wanted to be more involved with what Helen and her team have been building up here. A genuine sense of community that is founded on the idea that democracy is for us and by us. Lasting outcomes are found in our commonalities, not our differences.

Helen’s courage and humility as a leader inspired me to stand to be a councillor in the local elections. Like Helen, I ran as an independent. I wanted to emulate the kind of compassion and honesty she demonstrates.

Representing your community is tough. Our communities are diverse, with an array of interests across a spectrum of issues. Some people agree with each other, some don’t. But that is the price we pay to live in a democracy. It’s between our differences that we find the best solutions.

Helen is the embodiment of this. Her mission to bring more integrity and transparency into politics is founded in the belief that compassion will prevail.

In May I spent a week in Canberra as part of Helen’s parliamentary volunteer program, attending meetings and observing how our representative serves our communities in the big house.

That week was the most inspiring of my life.

Somehow, during budget week – among all the meetings, media commitments and delivering rousing speeches – Helen managed to bake seven sponge cakes for the people around her. Seeing the way she interacted with people from across the political spectrum was inspirational. She gives everyone the same kindness, compassion and fair consideration.

The access and respect that we volunteers would get because we were associated with Helen was astounding. Not just from politicians but from staff, from at the library to those in the canteen – Helen’s reputation afforded us all the same veneration.

How many people can say that their reputation not only precedes them but rubs off on everyone around them too?

I’m still not sure how she made all those cakes in a tiny kitchen but, at the end of the week, when we sat on the couch in her office, she told me why she did it. In typical Helen style, she simply said it was because people appreciate a bit of kindness, and everyone loves cake.

The complex problems we face can feel insurmountable. But if we were all a bit more like Helen, we’d work our way through them together. Maybe it’s time for us to collectively do away with left-right polarisation and instead look forward together with a shared perspective.

Because it’s only together that we will find the best solutions. As a collective we all pretty much want the same thing: clean air, fresh water and to spend time with the people we love. I for one hope that Helen gets a lot more time to do just that.

Throughout all of this I come back to that same thought. What would Helen do?

I think she’d be getting out into her community, wrapping her arms around everyone, and saying, “C’mon, have another slice of cake.”