Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've just rushed to the House after attending the vigil in Parliament House for Hannah Clark and her three children. And yesterday I attended a presentation by the UN Youth Ambassador, Kareem El-Ansary, at which he presented the UN World Youth Report. I was quite surprised to hear that domestic violence is among the top five concerns for young people between the ages of 16 and 25. It is No. 3 on the list of concerns for the youngest cohort of that group that was surveyed by Kareem El-Ansary as the UN Youth Ambassador.

That report also talked about people being disengaged with all of us here and the political process. Sometimes I think that when we say Australians—in particular, young people—are disengaged, what we're really saying is that we don't know how to engage with them. What we're really saying is that we don't know how to engage them in ways that are meaningful to them, in ways that recognise their own agency, in ways that allow them to reclaim their active citizenship.

I have a lot of faith in this political institution; I wouldn't be here if I didn't. Before I entered this place, I was probably one of the most cynical people ever. But I do have a lot of faith in our political institutions. I have a lot of faith for the insurmountable good that our political institutions are capable of, but I also recognise that we are at our best when we turn our words into actions. We've seen some really good things happen in this place this week. We've seen the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition stand up and speak about the scourge of domestic violence. We've seen the vigil for Hannah Clarke and her three children. We've seen passion and expression, and we've seen people stand up and speak out against domestic violence—in the place where leadership happens.

But none of that is any good if it's not changed into action. I don't have an economic argument for how we act on this, because we can't ignore the powers of the human heart in everything we do, in all the policies that we make. If we design policy without consideration of the heart and without consideration of human behaviour, that is a deeply, deeply flawed approach. If we don't govern from the heart and use that to turn our words into actions to address the things that matter most to our young people, if we don't today pledge to turn the words that have been said in this House this week into some form of action to stop domestic violence, to put at ease the hearts of those young people out there who have said domestic violence is one of the top five issues that concern them, then sorry but I'm in the wrong place. If we can't do that, if all the words that we have spoken this week, all the emotions that we have shown, all the tears that were shed in this place really mean nothing to all the women and children out there who are counting on us now, who have put their faith in us now. I know that we can do this when we put our hearts on the line and put our hands together and work together as one parliament. I implore everybody in this parliament today and for the next 10 years, the next 20 years, the next 30 years—however long it takes—to never stop thinking of Hannah and her children and never stop thinking of the great platform that we have in this political institution to make a difference to somebody's life today.