Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question that we discussed him asking today. Last week a great many Australians read the extraordinary open letter from South Australian Commissioner of Police Grant Stevens and his wife, Emma, about their youngest son, Charlie. In their words, he was 'a lovable ratbag from the moment he could talk'. Tragically, it was a letter in which Charlie's parents laid bare their broken hearts. Just hours after Commissioner Stevens addressed the state about the tragic shooting death of police officer Jason Doig, he and Emma received the news no parent ever wants to get. Charlie had been the victim of an alleged hit-and-run incident.

The letter begins:

I am writing this sitting in a bedroom with dirty clothes on the floor, an unmade bed, six drinking glasses lined up on the bedside table, an empty KFC box next to the glasses, wardrobe doors left open and a row of skateboards leaning on the wall—it is a mess and it's perfect. This is where 101 lived.

Charlie was the 101st fatality on South Australian roads this year. Eventually the letter comes to this:

101 is Charles Hinchcliffe Stevens. Charlie, Charlie Boy, Chas, Links, Steve. You lived life and gave so much to so many. You were a force of nature and we will never forget your beautiful, cheeky, disarming smile.

It's little wonder that journalists who asked to read the letter on air broke down in tears. It is so deeply personal, so perfectly true to the life of one young man in one loving family, yet it is somehow so universal, so faithful to the joyful chaos, the perfect mess, the vibrancy of our children as they grow into young adults, and so achingly powerful as it deals with every parent's very worst fear. Yet, even knowing that what prompted this letter is the cruel injustice of a young man snatched away from all who loved him and all he loved, what shines through is not anger or despair; it is an enduring and eternal love.

But this letter was not written in search of sympathy. It was published to make us think, to ask us to reflect on the true nature of the road toll: not a number but the bright and beloved heart of a universe and a toll that is taken on all those who are left only with memories. Our hearts go out to Charlie's family and to every family that has ever been left to pick up the pieces.

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