Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing) Share this | Hansard source

It is with great sadness that I rise today to reflect on the murder of one of my constituents, young Sarah Cafferkey of Bacchus Marsh. Sarah's mother Noelle describes Sarah as a happy, bubbly person who loved her 18-month-old labrador, Sprocket. Her mother said she wanted to be a movie star and a singer. She loved helping people, and only saw good in people. She was always a little actress from as young as Noelle could remember.

Bacchus Marsh is a growing community. It has a very strong and connected community base. That has never been more pronounced than over the past few days. On the main street of Bacchus Marsh, our shop frontages are respectfully adorned in pink; there are pink balloons, and pink ribbons and flowers which have been lovingly entwined around street poles. People of all ages have come out strongly to support Sarah's family and friends and to say no to violence against women in their communities.

This Sunday on 2 December at 11 am, I, along with hundreds of people from across that community, will come together the base of the iconic Avenue of Honour to take part in a walk in remembrance of Sarah Cafferkey. This walk will be representative of the strength of the community, its resilience and its determination. The colours of pink and white will, I am sure will be prominent—pink being Sarah's favourite colour, and white being in support of White Ribbon Day. This week, following White Ribbon Day on Sunday, I think it is very important to reflect on the very real and very personal circumstances behind the violence that occurs in our community, whether it be—and this is where White Ribbon Day started—the very hidden crime of domestic violence and the importance of having men in our community standing up against that violence in every shape or form or whether it be the very public recent Victorian cases of Sarah Cafferkey, Jill Meagher and Sargun Ragi. Something is going very wrong in our communities when this sort of violence is continuing.

I think it is very important that Bacchus March as a community, particularly young people, have the opportunity to talk about this, to talk about what is happening in their own communities and how young people can stay safe in all circumstances in those communities. I am very proud of the young people of Bacchus Marsh; I have been following many of their Facebook pages. Again, there are some very emotional comments, and it is very important that people are very careful about that when there is a court prosecution about to be undertaken. As I said, I am very proud of the young people of Bacchus Marsh, who have come together and developed a walk, and are starting to really deal with these issues in our community. I say to Noelle, to Adrian and to the many people connected with Sarah how terribly sorry I am that you have lost your baby in such circumstances.

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