Elizabeth Watson-Brown (Ryan, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on my own behalf and that of the Greens to express my deep sympathy and heartfelt condolences in regard to the six victims of the unimaginable and senseless violence at Bondi Junction last month. I'll mention their names. I think it's really important that we do speak of them, because their names and their lives matter. They are Yixuan Cheng, Pikria Darchia, Ash Good, Dawn Singleton, Faraz Tahir and Jade Young. Yixuan Cheng was an economics student; Pikria Darchia was an artist; Ash Good was an osteopath and a new mum, who saved her baby, Harriet; Dawn Singleton was looking forward to her wedding day; Jade Young was a fellow architect and mum; and Faraz Tahir was a Pakistani refugee who, on his first day of work as a security guard, lost his life protecting others from a violent perpetrator. I extend my condolences also to the mourning Pakistani community. I acknowledge the bravery of those bystanders, other shoppers and retail workers who, when the benign ordinariness of a normal Saturday morning was shattered, put their own lives at risk to protect others. Their selfless bravery demonstrated the very best of humanity, and I mourn the five women killed at the hands of the disturbed and violent man who took their lives.

These deaths are unfortunately among those of at least 28 women killed this year in the epidemic of men's violence against women. To the victims' families, their friends and their community, and to all who are deeply shocked and traumatised by this horrendous incident, I extend my deepest condolences. We can and we must, on behalf of these people and on behalf of everyone, do better to prevent violence in our society. Thank you.

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