I want to begin by associating myself with the remarks on both sides of this place that have taken place over the course of the entire day. In rising to make a contribution on behalf of the people of Barker, I extend their collective thoughts and prayers to Helen's beloved husband of nearly 40 years, Phil, to her three children and to her two grandchildren.

I first had occasion to meet Helen as she entered this place in 2019. It wasn't long before many of my colleagues were remarking privately what a thoroughly decent human Helen was. We've been hearing echoes of that all day in this place. The reality is that, as the Leader of the House made plain in his contribution, this isn't a place that lends itself to universal acclaim, but I can't imagine that anyone in this place, even before this tragic incident, could bring themselves to think of even one occasion where they could speak ill of Helen. Helen and I have very little in common, except that we both represent regional electorates. On that, Helen and I bonded. There are about 30 of us in this place—you're amongst them, Mr Deputy Speaker Boyce—who represent generally rural and regional communities. In a bearpit of 150, that means that we need really strong voices, and some of us can be a bit shouty. I'll put my hand up for that. Others can go about their work quietly and diligently, and that was Helen.

There is one thing we need to do as a result of this incident, and there is one thing we mustn't do. I'll address the thing we mustn't do, and that is change. If, as a result of this incident—the motivations of which we will learn in the fullness of time following proper and appropriate investigations—we change the way we behave, then democracy loses out of this experience. Helen and Phil and their family have all of my sympathies and all of my prayers. I hope that Helen returns to this place and I look forward to the Speaker giving her the call, which I'm sure he will do. But the reality is we can't let evil triumph. So, like others in this place, I spent the weekend being very visual and very present.

That is the one thing we can't do, but there is one thing we must do. If you come from rural, regional or remote Australia, there's one thing that is clearly obvious to anyone who spends time in the community, and that is that there is a need for us to pause and reflect on the need for mental health services in rural, regional and remote communities. We see it every day. People come to our offices who are in desperate need of help. That help is not the kind of help that a local MP can provide. It's the kind of help that a trained medical professional like Helen and others can provide. We need to ensure that we appropriately fund drug and alcohol counselling in our regions as well. No-one, and I mean no-one, in their right mind would have acted in the way that this individual did relative to Helen, and we need to make sure that we don't change the way we act and that our democracy remains robust but that we acknowledge there are people in our community who need that help. Listening to Phil this morning as he addressed members and senators, I got a sense that Helen, even in her darkest hour, knows that. She knows that we need to wrap our arms around our fellow Australians living in rural and regional communities in need of that mental health support.

Helen, go well. I look forward to you returning to this place. You go with the thoughts and prayers of everyone in Barker.