House debates

Monday, 17 October 2016

Statements by Members

Mackellar Electorate

4:05 pm

Photo of Jason FalinskiJason Falinski (Mackellar, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

Today in Davidson, a terrible tragedy has occurred. This morning, police found two children and their parents dead in what appears to be a murder-suicide. Our community is in shock and cannot quite comprehend what has happened. This is a tragedy without meaning. Those of us with children will find it hard to understand how this could have happened or, indeed, what has happened to push someone, anyone, to this point. We often hear of these things happening in other places, but never in our own communities. Today's events remind us that there are no boundaries to these tragedies. There are no places where they cannot happen. It is not restricted to a particular age, wealth, position or stage of life. It can happen anywhere. As the member for Berowra reminded us in his moving inaugural speech, we are stronger together and there is no shame in reaching out and asking for help.

In the next few days, more will become clear. We will need to talk about this, most importantly, with the children's schoolfriends. In the meantime, all we can do is offer our prayers and thoughts to their family, schoolfriends and community. I say to our community: we will work to ensure that what little meaning can be drawn from this tragedy is given full voice so that this may never happen again.