Malarndirri McCarthy (NT, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to put on the parliamentary record that in this week in particular, where all Australians are saying no to violence—no to family and domestic violence; no to emotional and physical violence; no to verbal and written abuse that leads to violence—we must also say a definite no to workplace violence. We have heard many speeches in this Senate on deeply important issues, such as the high rates of murdered women in our country from either violent family relationships or simply while walking home from a night out. Violence against anyone—male, female, children—should never be accepted in our country, should never be accepted anywhere. But it does happen, every day, and we need to remain vigilant to that reality.

Today I share with the Senate my experience of what threats of violence in the workplace can feel like, and how it has been a long and oftentimes paralysing shadow over all that I do. I take this opportunity to express heartfelt gratitude to my team, in particular Johanna, Mandy, Charlie and Kirsty, who have walked with me through all these things. Next month it will be two years since the first abusive phone calls began—calls that my staff have had to endure, trying professionally to deal with constituent issues. But then the tone of the constituent calls took a turn for the worse. Call after call, message after message on my answering machine. Both my Canberra office and my Darwin office became an obsessive focus for the caller, so fixated on wanting to inflict pain, until finally I said, 'Enough!'

In my nearly 15 years of being a Labor member for both Northern Territory and now federal parliaments, I have never had to be concerned daily for my personal safety—until now. Arriving in Canberra is often fraught with anxious thoughts, and not just about politics, which has enough anxieties of its own. It was anxiety about safety. Am I safe? Are my staff safe? They are constant questions built into my daily work routine. Attending public events, especially speaking events at rallies, requires the presence of the Australian Federal Police, such is the nature of the threats against me.

Speaking to hundreds of people gathered at Reclaim the Night rallies, I realised that whilst I was advocating for the rights of the safety of others, I needed to also come to terms with my own need for safety in the workplace. The rough and tumble of political debate and political life is often seen as an expected part of our job description, but threats of violence, graphic threats of being gang raped and beaten, and threats of being killed for doing our job, for being a public figure, is reprehensible. Such threats are designed to maximise so much fear to render the person to whom the threats are levelled at incapable of doing their job, and instead ensure they live their life in a prison of impending danger.

Threats of executing me in the federal parliament have been taken seriously by the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, which led to the AFP in Canberra eventually serving the personal protection order I sought for the protection of my staff and I. Mr President, I thank you for not even hesitating over this matter.

I am now aware that other Senate colleagues, including one former senator and also my colleague Senator Dodson, are also now a focus for similar threats. I thank the Northern Territory police and the Northern Territory branch of the Australian Federal Police for your immediate support and advice to my staff and me, and for taking the threats of violence very seriously. I thank also my legal teams in the Northern Territory, in the ACT and in Sydney, in particular solicitor Tim Lynch.

If the AFP is unable to easily locate the defendant or has other priorities, as was the case for my matter, it may be that the application or the orders, or both, are not served on the defendant in a timely manner or at all, rendering the personal protection order scheme ineffective. Such an experience can be debilitating for victims of violence—all victims of violence. Examination of the processes by which such orders are sought and obtained is desperately needed if my experience, as a person of some means, is any guide.

The impact on families is unimaginable, and the conflict it causes simply because they care so much and feel helpless in watching a loved one go through this experience, is completely disempowering for them too. It is one thing to be a political representative and expect a certain level of public criticism, and families do feel the frustration of watching that play out. But, when it comes to rape threats and death threats, my family has been struggling to cope, out of deep concern for me. So today I speak for them also.

My sons, CJ, Gray and Adam, are a tremendous source of loving strength. I stand here as a senator for the Northern Territory because of your belief in me, to keep going, to keep fighting for others, irrespective of the violent threats against me. I thank my dad, nearly 80 years of age. Thank you for your enduring love and wisdom in all these matters. It has been deeply disturbing and hurtful for you, I know. It has been perhaps two of the most difficult years for you and me in particular, and I am deeply thankful we have persevered and got through okay.

I thank my sister Selina, my Yanyuwa and Garrawa families and also my Wiradjuri sister Yvonne for her love and support. But, even deeper than that, I thank you for your fierce determination to spark the fighter in my spirit, to use my fear, to channel it with love, to rise above the hatred and to fight for all people.

My families, you remind me constantly of the higher purpose and focus required in serving the people of the Northern Territory and indeed Australia and that serving with a heart of love is the only way to overcome such hate. For that, I thank you. Bauji barra.