Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Monday, I joined over 100 locals in Blacktown's Village Green for a sombre and sobering event on a chilly autumn night. It was a candlelight vigil initiated in the memory of someone whom most of us had never met: a local woman from Quakers Hill named Linda Locke. We came from different backgrounds—most of us strangers to one another—young and old, children, diverse ethnicities, community organisations, police, businesses and local government. Why? Because barely 18 weeks into 2015, Linda Locke became the 34th woman in Australia to have died in a suspected violent incident.

Linda was a beloved mother and grandmother. She was 51-years-old. As the Sydney Morning Herald reported:

Many years ago, Linda Locke found the courage to leave her violent husband after decades of abuse.

It took a mountain of strength but she had her friends, her two children and parents close by, supporting her all the way.

…   …   …

Last Monday—

which was 27 April—

Ms Locke, 51, was admitted to hospital after being severely bashed in her Quakers Hill home about 6.30am. She died two days later …

…   …   …

It was a tragic end to a life of perpetual violence that no woman should endure.

In my own community, family violence is an emergency. I want to thank the state member for Blacktown, John Robertson, the Blacktown Women's and Girls' Health Centre, Blacktown Local Area Command, the students and support personnel, my local community and everyone involved in organising this vigil. As John Robertson said: 'This vigil was not just about remembrance and being angry about what happened to Linda Locke and the 33 people to have died before her so far this year. It is about taking action by all agencies and all levels of government, especially in an area like Blacktown where police data reveals 1,966 incidents of domestic assault last year. The message from the police is to come forward and report it because there is help.'

John Robertson went on to outline some of the measures that many legal, social, policing and health practitioners say need to be done in this area. He said: 'We need to be pushing for specialist domestic violence courts and reinstating funding for women's only refuges to protect victims of domestic violence.' He also said that more funding was needed for additional domestic violence officers at local police stations so that they are available at all times and over shifts outside of ordinary business hours. But probably what struck the greatest chord with those in attendance was the need for perspective. With this rate of death, we need to have a war on it and treat it as an epidemic as much as we do with any other policy issue we encounter. We need to ask ourselves: what other single factor has resulted in 34 women having died so far this year in such similar circumstances?

Australian of the Year, Rosie Batty, has labelled this scourge to what I refer to as 'family terrorism'. That is Rosie Batty's term. Family violence stains every Australian. It isolates, excludes and traumatises its victims. It disconnects people from community, work, education, friends and family. It is an affront to our conviction that each of us is equally entitled to some basic human rights and values.

As the Leader of the Opposition has stated:

There is no clearer symbol of continuing gender inequality in our society than the epidemic of violence against women.

We know the biggest risk factor for being a victim of family violence is actually being a woman. For too long this issue has been put in the too-hard basket. Our progress has been uneven and slow. The opposition has called on the Prime Minister to hold a national crisis summit on family violence—and I echo that call. There are things we need to do as a parliament. Experience shapes how we respond and pursue these issues.

At this point, I want to place on record my admiration for the new state member for Blue Mountains, Trish Doyle. In her first speech to the parliament—and I quote the ABC's reporting yesterday—Ms Doyle:

… revealed that when she was growing up her mother was in a violent and abusive relationship.

Ms Doyle spoke in the third person as she described in graphic detail one particularly horrific night.

"Picture another place in another time, a young girl awake and afraid in her bed trying to still her racing heart and holding her breath," she said.

"A man stands at the foot of her bed, with one finger on his lips... and the other holding a rifle," …

"There are shrieks and screams and gunshots. The night erupts. The night becomes one of ambulances, police, sobbing, fear and eventually the delivery of four young children to an orphanage of sorts, where they will stay for a while as their mother recovers from the emotional and physical trauma of a severe beating and internal haemorrhaging."

Ms Doyle revealed "that small girl of eight is now the woman that stands before you".

We all need to do something as a parliament and at all level of government.