Patrick Gorman (Perth, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 7 November, I joined members of the Perth community for the 30-year anniversary of Orana House. At The Rise in Maylands, we celebrated one of the best services in our community that deals with one of the toughest things that anyone faces—that is, escaping domestic violence. To Mel, Reggie, the board and the team at Orana House: I want to congratulate you on your 30-year journey and on 30 years of helping women and children escape family and domestic violence. They have published the 30-year history of Orana House, and they talk about the journey that the community has taken. They say: 'It has taken close to 50 years to bring recognition from the private into the public arena of the damaging impacts of family and domestic violence, not only for the individuals who experience violence but also on the long-term costs to our whole society.'

That long-term cost is something that we continue to bear every single week in this country. On 22 November, I joined members of the Western Australian community for a silent march through the streets of Perth. It honoured 11 Western Australians who had lost their lives to domestic violence in the last 12 months. There is so much more we can do as a nation. But today I just want to congratulate the team at Orana House for 30 years of helping people escape this horrible part of our society.