To the member for Indi, Helen, my friend: I'm so sorry that this has happened to you, and I'm thinking of you every day. As many people have said, I am looking forward to when you come back into this chamber and the Speaker calls on you. And thank you, Phil, who I spoke to this morning at a morning tea for your words today and also last week when updating us on Helen's condition.

Nicholls and Indi share a very long border and the communities of Euroa, Violet Town and Longwood. These communities are partly in Nicholls and partly in Indi, and therefore I have the great pleasure of being able to spend a lot of time with the member for Indi, with Helen, at events. I also work with her when those communities are threatened. When I first came to this place—and the Minister for Regional Development pointed this out—I don't know if I was ordered or invited, but I was told to come up and have a cup of tea with the member for Indi, and there was that commitment to saying, 'We are neighbours, and we've got a lot of joint things we need to work on.' I also sat next to Helen when I first came into this place, and that was a great way to understand the way this place worked, sitting next to someone who was showing the decency and compassion that I think that we need to show towards each other.

Earlier this year, our communities were affected very badly by the Longwood bushfires. I think the community wanted to see their political representatives not in terms of parties or where they happen to sit in the chamber but in terms of their care for their communities. I saw that with Helen. It was actually great that the community saw me, a National Party person; Helen, an independent; and the Minister for Regional Development, a Labor minister, all trying to come together and make sure that the No. 1 focus is them. I think that that's what communities want from this parliament, and Helen certainly led that. Just recently, the Governor-General came to visit the electorates of Indi and Nicholls, and so we were at a reception with the Governor-General together. It was very painful that the next time I saw the Governor-General was after what was such a horrific attack on Helen.

There's been some talk about political violence and what's causing that—social media, mental illness. Some people talk about the conduct in this place. I've found this place to be somewhere where there's a really robust debate, and I like the fact that it's robust. I was asked by the ABC as someone from the neighbouring electorate to speak the night after this horrible thing had happened, and I said something that has resonated with people. People have reached out. I said, 'I just wish people could see how good friends we are in the chamber.' I can see many people who I regard as really good friends and people I respect. I don't want to stop debating with you, because we have a different view, but I want to always make sure that we continue that friendship and that the community at large sees that friendship in the way that they saw with Helen, the minister and me in Longwood. That's what gives people heart. They want us to argue, because different people think that the way we go about things should be different—that's the way politics has got to work—but they want to see us get out of this place and say, 'Member for Macnamara, you're a very good friend.' That's an example; you all are. I think, if we can show that to people, that will diffuse some of the agitation that's going on out there. So I'm going to recommit myself to that.

The member for Indi, Helen, gives us that example. Helen, I've reached out to your staff, and I hope that we are able to help, because our electorate offices are so close. To you, I echo what the Speaker said. One of the greatest times in this parliament, in this chamber, will be when the Speaker can say, 'I give the call to the member for Indi.'