ADDRESS TO PARLIAMENT - STATEMENTS ON SIGNIFICANT MATTERS - Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence

That was a fine contribution from the member for Cowper. As we know, he is the shadow assistant minister for the prevention of family violence and he is working to end the scourge of gender based violence. Having been a police officer, he would have seen far too many sad examples of domestic violence in his line of work. He followed the member for Maribyrnong, a former opposition leader, who also made a sterling speech in this debate. That's actually an ill-named word for this, because it is not a debate. It's a discussion about what we could, should and must do.

Of course, we also heard from the member for La Trobe, who is also very much involved in law enforcement, as well as the member for Boothby. They were all very good contributions. This parliament is always best when we are on the same page. When it comes to combating gender based violence, we certainly are as one. There is much to do, not just at a federal level but indeed at state and local government levels as well. As communities, families and individuals, much more must be done. The incidence of gender based violence, which leads to unspeakable deaths, is just so, so tragic.

Even in my own Riverina electorate, Molly Jean Ticehurst died at the hands of an alleged perpetrator who was a former intimate partner on 22 April this year. She was the loving mother of a little boy, Nate, who will grow up not knowing the love, comfort and support—the unbreakable bond—of a mother and son. He will not have that. That is so, so sad. I know that members of her family and wider circle of friends are seeking a wellness hub for women, which would be a one-stop shop. It's probably another misnomer to call it a shop, but it would be a refuge and somewhere women could go in Forbes, in Central-Western New South Wales and the Riverina electorate. I know the mayor, Phyllis Miller, who is a marvellous person and has advocated also for a 24/7 policing presence in that town. No-one knows whether that would have avoided the circumstance of tragedy that befell poor Molly.

But I tell you what—at her funeral, it was said that people believed she would one day change the world and move the nation. She shouldn't have had to do it in this way. Many people were so moved by her loss and the grief which poured out at her funeral at that football field. It was immense. It was immeasurable. Premier Chris Minns, who had a tragedy in his own family, having lost his dad just the day before, attended the funeral, and I commend him for the leadership he showed in doing just that. But it's not just Molly, and it's not just this year. This has been going on for too long. After the death of Hannah Clarke, we all remember the scenes in that suburban street in Brisbane, Camp Hill, where Hannah and her three beautiful children, Aaliyah, just six, Laianah, only four, and little Trey, three, all lost their lives. Hannah was only 33. Her life was extinguished by her former husband. Their loss creates grief beyond comprehension. We should turn these tragedies into action nationally and in our own homes and communities to do something about this.

In Wagga Wagga recently, the Wagga Women's Health Centre, which has been operating since the 1970s, had what they called Australia's first men's leadership forum on domestic and family violence. I have to say that, at the rally which followed Molly's passing, held in Wagga Wagga in the Victory Memorial Gardens, the most outstanding speech on that day was by Johanna Elms. There's not much of Johanna; she's a pocket dynamo. She spoke so passionately about what we needed to do to end gender based domestic violence and how we could do it. It was Johanna and her cohort at the Wagga Women's Health Centre who came up with the idea of a men's leadership forum.

Just under 100 men turned up—and it was only men; there were no women—to the Wild Vine at Oura on Friday 26 July. There were no women there at all. We had, as speaker, Adam Blanch, a psychologist for 40 years with a special interest in the fields of trauma, the psychology of interpersonal violence and the psychology of identity. We heard from Rhys Cummins, a Wagga Wagga local and founder of the Murrumbidgee Men's Group. He works for Pathways Murrumbidgee in the drug and alcohol field. He is an exceptional spokesperson for men's mental health in the community.

We also heard from Dave Kramer. Dave is a behavioural scientist dedicated to empowering individuals to create safe, equitable and inclusive homes, workplaces, schools and communities. More importantly, perhaps, he was a friend of Hannah Clarke's. He hardly kept it together as he related stories of Hannah's children, because he was very close to the family. I spoke to him afterwards and told him of my admiration for the work that he is doing. He is making it his lifelong passion to do what he can not only to respect Hannah's memory to a national audience but to make that national audience sit up and listen when he speaks about the need to end gender-based domestic violence.

As the member for Cowper said, we can and we must do more. As the member for Maribyrnong quite correctly pointed out, it's up to men to lift their game, do better, and, quite frankly, take ownership of and responsibility for this scourge on society. The women's health centre has put out quotes from the men who attended the forum in Wagga Wagga. Those men said that it was such an eye-opener. They said that people needed to start believing victims. They also said that no community was immune from this, but that, as communities, we all need to make sure we speak up about it.

I can remember that one of my very first jobs when I ran a media agency was to help the women's health centre with the No More Silence Against Domestic Violence campaign. It was as true back then in the early 2000s as it is now. But wouldn't it be wonderful if we had a society where, yes, we could have an open discussion about these issues but that discussion would be all in the past tense? It would be a discussion in which you could say, 'Back then.' But it's not 'back then'; it is now and it is in the future. We must very much lift our game, and it starts with men. We need to talk about mental health. We need to talk about how we can better deal with these situations so that there are no future Molly Ticehursts and Hannah Clarkes, women can live free in the knowledge that they can go for a run or a walk without having to look over their shoulders and worry about whether they're going to be attacked, they can live free in their own homes without coercive control and they can live lives that we men get to enjoy without even having to think about it.