Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Today, I rise to mark International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. Sandra Dobrila, Yuko, Heang Kim Gau, Pauline Slater, Charlyze Hayter, Sally Li, Khouloud Hawatt, Chloe Jade Mason, Kristy Louise Hunter, Yvonne Beres, Mrs Multa, Katie Tangey, Merril Kelly, Lilian Catherine Donnelly, Rachel McKenna, Rachel Moresi, Justine Hammond, Elizabeth Pearce, Kara Jade Weribone, Crystal Beale, Audrey Griffin, Irene Herzel, Cecilia Webb, Czarina Gatbonton Tumaliuan, Louise Hunt, Claire Austin, Thi Kim Tran, Jocelyn Grace Mollee, Kylie Sanders, Kim Duncan, Talulah Koopman, Samia Malik, Caroline Smith, Muzhdah Habibi, Lauren Hopkins, Norma Diana Dutton, Krystel Paul, Pheobe Bishop, Leanne Akrap, Julia Neira Marican, Angela Gauld, Sally Bartlett, Shelley Spinks, Jeanette McIver, Amanda Rahan, Shafeeqa Husseini, Zoe Walker, Athena Georgopoulos and her unborn child, Summer Fleming, Anu, Ali Lauren, Carra Samantha Luke, Diane Harness, Ashleigh Grice, Carolyn Campbell, Ms Chainsaw, Rajwinder Kaur, Jordana Johnson, Lisa Ward, Rhukaya Lake, Irene Selmes, Marcia Chalmers and 12 more unnamed women from across our wide land, including those not named publicly for cultural reasons. These names are women, women taken from us—mothers, daughters, sisters, friends.

These women have been identified by the Red Heart Campaign, and I acknowledge Counting Dead Women Australia researchers of Destroy the Joint for recording the stories of these women. Today, I stand here in our national parliament and read these names into our national record, as I have done before and will do again, because these women matter. These names should echo through this building and across our country. Seventy-four women have been killed in Australia since this time last year.

Imagine these women surrounding us here today. What would they say? What would we do? Can we imagine what the response would be if 74 Australians were killed on a single day at a single event? It wouldn't just be me or the member opposite reading out their names; our nightly news would have them emblazoned across news packages. We as a country would stand together. We would lower flags. We would pause to reflect and to mourn. Their names would be etched into marble and memorialised and, year after year, we would reflect on the loss. These women's names and the names of those who have come before them are all too often lost—lost amidst the noise and lost amidst the silence—or spoken once in a blaring moment of national attention and then never again. It takes yet another horrific event to force us to reckon with the scale of the challenge this list of women represent.

But we don't need new horrors to remind us here today that violence against women is pervasive and present in every corner of our country. So how do we maintain the rage? How do we cut through? How do we overcome the fatigue? Let us use that hope to drive us, because we must not look away. We must continue to go into the dark places. We must continue to shine the light. These women have stories. These women have names. We must not ever forget them.

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