Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Disability and Carers (House)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Tonight, thousands of Melburnians will gather at Princes Park in Carlton to remember Ms Eurydice Dixon and to reclaim the night. Eurydice was 22 years old. Her friends say she was smart, funny and kind. She was walking home from her comedy show when she sent a text to her friend, 'I'm almost home safe,' but she didn't make it home that night.

Walking home alone at night isn't a privilege; it's a right—a right each and every one of us should feel entitled to. Everyone has the right to be safe. Women are not responsible for the decisions of men who attack them. Women have every right to walk safely in our streets and parks. We have every right to be safe in our homes. One woman in Australia dies every week at the hands of a partner or ex-partner.

The murder of Eurydice Dixon is devastating and tragic beyond words. I know that many women, like me, are so angry as well as sad about her death—not to mention the outrageous vandalism of her memorial in Melbourne last night. It's time for all of us to harness that anger, to reclaim our streets and parks, to reclaim the night, to be home safe, to not live in fear and to change the culture of violence against women in this country.