I rise to talk about a colleague, a friend and a woman who's given her working life to caring for other people. As we all know, last week Helen Haines, the member for Indi, was the victim of a terrible attack just outside her electorate office in Wangaratta. This is the place where she sat across from her constituents for years, listening to them. I want to begin with those who love her. To Phil, her husband, to her children, Georgia and Nick and Will, and to Helen's wider family, our thoughts have been with you every hour of this past week. You've been at her bedside through the hardest days of your lives, and yet you still found the strength to speak to us with grace. To Helen's staff, who've lost the sense of safety in their own workplace and have still shown up for their community, we say thank you. And, to the people of Indi, who have gathered in vigils, who've held each other and who love their local member, we are also with you. I want to thank the bystanders who ran towards Helen when others might have run away. They did not stop to ask who she was or what was going on. They just saw a person in terrible trouble and they helped. Their courage and their decency show us the very best of Australia.

This morning many of us met with Phil. I want to repeat some of what he told us because it says everything about Helen. He told us that, when Helen was woken by the doctors, amongst her first thoughts were thoughts for her staff, for her community and for the people who are caring for her. After everything that she has been through, she was thinking of others. This is not a surprise to any of us who know her. It's who she's always been. Helen came to this place as a nurse and a midwife, having been with people on the best and the worst days of their lives. When she first spoke in this chamber, she spoke about the place she calls home, about rural and regional communities and the people who live there, about listening and about public service as something that you do with others, not to them. She spoke about democracy as something that belongs to all of us and that we all have a responsibility for, built patiently, one conversation at a time, around kitchen tables. Helen has carried that spirit into this parliament every day since. She has never believed that disagreement was the same as disrespect. She has argued hard and has always argued with decency.

We all know that Helen faces a long road to recovery. It will be a long and a demanding one, and it will ask a great deal of her, of Phil and of their children. There will be very hard days, but those of us who know Helen know that she's a fighter. She will not walk that road alone. In her first speech she mentioned how lucky her life was due to her large and loving family. She has a family who adore her and will support her to heal. She has a community that is holding her up and colleagues from every part of this parliament who are willing her to heal.

Phil, her husband, also told us this morning that he hopes something comes from this. He wants this moment and the terrible things that happened to Helen, her family and her community to be the start of something—a turning down of the temperature and a better way of people speaking to each other, not just in public life but more broadly in the community. Whether you're a healthcare worker, whether you're a worker in a supermarket or whether you sit in this chamber, there's no doubt that so many people are aggrieved and angry right now, but all of us have a responsibility to turn the tone down. People in this place, people in the media more broadly, the social media platforms—everybody in the community—we all need to be kinder to each other.

I can think of no more fitting way to honour Helen than to take those words to heart. She would not ask for a speech for herself. She would be asking us to look out for each other. So my final words here today are for Helen. If ever you're listening to this, know that we are thinking of you. We are grateful for everything that you have given to the people of Indi and to this country. Your seat is waiting and so is the whole of this parliament, and we'll be here when you are ready.