Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Justice) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Lindsay for providing an opportunity for us to discuss this incredibly important issue in our parliament. Something I've really noticed after five years of being in the chamber is that the conversations that happen in our parliament, that happen up here in Canberra, can feel very remote to the people we represent in our electorates. But the issue that's being discussed tonight about violence against women, about the right of Australian women to be safe on our streets and in our homes, is core to the daily lived experience of half our population. It's really important that we talk about it.

I was incredibly shocked and saddened by the death of Eurydice Dixon. I want to offer my heartfelt condolences to her family and friends, to everyone who knew and loved her. No doubt there are so many people whose lives she touched who are missing her incredibly right now. As I experience these things now at this stage of my life, I feel I experience them more as a parent than as a participant, and when I heard about the way that this crime was committed and the innocence of that act that was being conducted by this woman—simply walking through a park on her way home; it wasn't even that late at night—I think of her parents. To lose a child under those circumstances is something you would never want for any Australian, so I really want to give my condolences to her family.

Eurydice was a really inspiring young woman, by all reports. She made people laugh. What an amazing thing to do in a world that doesn't always feel so positive. I read a lovely article in which her friend Kieran Butler described her as brave, courageous, loyal and trustworthy. He said, 'She could genuinely empathise with and understand a point of view or action she vehemently disagreed with. That is rare in someone so young.' Indeed, it is rare in any person, and it's a quality that all of us in this building should aspire to.

What happened to her has left us all shaken. It was brutal, cruel and incredibly hard to understand. It's also a painful, burning reminder of the failure of our parliament, legal system and society to end violence against women. Only four days before the death of Eurydice, another woman, Qi Yu, was murdered, allegedly by her male housemate. She was a 28-year-old Chinese woman living here in Australia—another woman dying at the hands of a man right here in our suburbs. I note that this incredibly sad death of Eurydice Dixon has brought to mind and brought to the fore of the political debate and the debate that we are having around our kitchen tables the fact that 30 women have been killed by men's violence against women this year. We think about the mountains that are moved when we see incidents of a different kind that kill that many people, yet when it's violence against women, for some reason there's a lot of talk and a lot of discussion, but I don't see the action to back it up.

Something I have noted in the public discussion that's taken place around the death of Eurydice Dixon has been a good conversation where I think there are men in this country who are really trying to listen. I had a conversation with my own partner where it became obvious to me that there are a lot of very well-meaning men in this country, men that I respect, who don't know the experience that Australian women live every day: the fact that if you're alone and walking down a dark street you carry your keys in your hand in case you need them as a weapon; you have 000 dialled on your mobile phone in case you feel in danger; you feel fretful and fearful if you hear footsteps behind you. I say that, not to complain, but only because we grow in humanity when we share our experiences with one another. This is the lived experience of Australian women. That's not right and it's not good enough.

When I say that, I know that as a white woman living in a city I'm safer than many Australian women are. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women are 32 times more likely to be hospitalised because of family-violence-related assault than non-Indigenous women. We're living in a country where these things are going on in suburbs and households every day. It's not good enough. I'm glad for the opportunity for the parliament to debate it, but the time for debate has to end at some point. We need to do more.

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