It is with a heavy heart I stand here to talk about the incredible member for Indi, Helen Haines, with her beautiful face, her kind smile, her generous heart and her outstanding intellect—someone who is so special, is so near and dear to all of us. Indeed, many people are respected across the aisles, but not everybody is respected and loved, and Helen Haines is. I, along with my wife, Catherine, pass on our best wishes to her husband of 40 years, Phil, who spoke to us this morning. In her inaugural speech on 1 August 2019, Helen had this to say about Phil:

And to that ag scientist from Rutherglen, Phil Haines, my husband of 33 years—

at the time—

who has always believed I could do things I never thought I could: no-one could ask for a more loving soulmate.

And indeed they have been a beautiful pair, and they will continue to be a beautiful pair. They've produced three amazing children, remarkable young people: Nick, Will and Georgia. Phil and Helen are grandparents as well, and that's what she most cherishes in life—her beautiful grandchildren. And getting on and representing her community as she does it—what incredible presence she had when the incident occurred and her first thoughts were with the first responders, the people who came to her rescue. When she regained consciousness late last week, again she was thinking of her staff and of her community and of her family. Who has that presence of mind? Helen Haines does—quite remarkable.

She gave a tremendous speech during the last sitting week. It was her last public address during that parliamentary sitting week—an eloquent thankyou to the keynote speaker at the third annual Sarah Carter Memorial Oration. Delivering the 2026 oration was Luciano Moreira, who for more than two decades has played a significant role in the development and large-scale deployment of the World Mosquito Program's Wolbachia method of breeding mosquitoes to prevent deadly diseases such as dengue fever and others. It was up to Helen as one of the Save the Children parliamentarians who'd been on one of those trips with Mat Tinkler and Sarah Carter and others to deliver the gratitude and the thanks, and she did so in her own inimitable style. But more than that, when this horrendous injury happened to her, she and the family wanted any donations to go to Save the Children Australia, and Mat Tinkler just told me $1.32 million—what a remarkable amount!—has been donated by generous Australians. That is truly remarkable.

I want to thank those many people—in particular, Maree Bernoth from Wagga Wagga, Helen Ducker from Trungley Hall and Bianca Harman from Junee—who've sent emails and messages of love and support. Helen is going to need all of those in the weeks and months and, dare I say, years to come. Gail Meyer from Wagga Wagga had this to say:

We all deserve to be safe in our workplace. I think that the broader implications for what this also means in our democratic country is both very sad and very concerning.

Of course, she is right, and so is every parliamentarian who has stood today to send out their love but also to send out a message of hope but warning as well, because we are living in a divisive country and a volatile world.

We need to be more like Helen Haines. We all need to be more like that incredible member for Indi who only has ever wanted the best for her community so that she can pass onto her grandchildren and others to follow a better world in which to live. Her advocacy for regional Australia has been second to none. I just wish her all the very best as she confronts these difficult days and weeks and months and years ahead. It won't be easy, but she has the support of the whole nation, and she certainly has the support of her incredible family. To Phil: we wish you and Helen all the very best. I seek leave of the parliament to put in the third annual Sarah Carter Memorial Oration thank-you speech that Helen Haines so eloquently gave during the last parliamentary sitting week. If I could table that, it would be greatly appreciated.

Leave granted.