It's a privilege to rise and say a few words about our colleague and friend Helen Haines, the member for Indi, in this terrible time of trial that she is going through, as well as her family and her community in Indi. I want to extend on behalf of my electorate all our thoughts and wishes, our concern for her and her children and grandchildren and her husband, Phil, and for the community and their safety and all the things that go with such a horrible and tragic incident of this nature.

Helen is a special person. She is a gentle person and a person with a very kind soul. It is very hard to process that something of this horrific nature could happen to someone who is so good. It's been a real privilege to get to know her here in this place and to work with her. I've seen her up close, and I think the Prime Minister said it very well when he said that she has an 'irrepressible twinkle in her eyes'. She does have that ability to constantly speak to you with her eyes in a way that you know that she actually cares about what you are saying and has an interest in what you are doing.

We heard about this extraordinary attack, and people have tried to process it after hearing about it. I think we have to be careful not to rush to an interpretation or overcorrect on something so terrible and have to take the time to allow the investigative processes and the proper things to occur in a rule-of-law country like Australia, which they are doing. But of course there will be things that need to change following something of this nature, and there will be things we can improve. Helen, through her husband, Phil, spoke to us as parliamentarians this morning. I've got to say, Phil has been an amazing contributor to the national stage himself in stepping up for Helen at this moment and setting an example for men and boys around the country of a supportive partner of a strong woman like Helen as well as speaking her words for her at the moment to say it is something she wants to see change. We heard from him this morning particularly about the two police officers who were killed at Porepunkah, in Helen's electorate, sadly, an example of other violence.

We see too often the instinct in Australia today to initiate force or to use violence as a means of expressing a frustration or resolving a problem. Every one of us has an inherent interest in community safety and setting a standard where violence is unacceptable. You have no right to initiate force against another citizen, and we must protect that right and protect all the people in our society, all the frontline people who do difficult jobs in emergency departments—and Helen was in an emergency department for our police, who have to turn up and administer our laws and protect our society—and also our representatives in parliament.

So whatever the reasons that come from this, and we should look at them—whether it is mental health facilities or services, as members of the teals have raised, or whether it is long-term drug use and its effects on people and how we handle that—we must address those things and continue to address them to make sure we minimise the prospect of violence of this nature happening to anyone.

I do want to say, on Wangaratta, that my wife and her family are from the electorate of Indi. We spend a lot of time in Wodonga. Wangaratta is probably one of the most quintessential Australian towns. That part of the world is just so beautifully Australian, and Helen really embodies that electorate so well. She's part of that community and from that community.

You see out of this tragedy that Helen's instinct is to make sure that Save the Children sees money out of this—a very Australian reaction. When something horrible, that we can't really process, has happened to her, she has asked people to give to a charity organisation. I saw the same in Danny and Leila Abdallah, who lost their children near my electorate and became close friends of mine. When they were wiped out, their instinct was to start a charity and forgive the perpetrator. The Australian reaction to violence is to beat it with a commitment to peace, hope, love and charity. Helen told us today, in simple words through the Speaker and her husband, that she loves us all in this parliament, again showing that Australian response to tragedy, horror and violence that we should all be very, very proud of. We are very proud of you, Helen. We're proud of your response and of your family coming together and showing us the Australian way to handle this terrible tragedy. We're right behind you, and we're with you. All our best wishes are for you. Anything we can do for you and your electorate—we will come together at this time.