Louise Miller-Frost (Boothby, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This past Saturday I joined the Pay Our Respects vigil to remember Australian women murdered in 2022. We gathered on the steps of South Australia's Parliament House holding placards numbered one to 60, one for each woman murdered last year. Each one of us physically represented a woman who had been murdered. We stood and paid our respects as their names and a few details about their lives were read out. Each one was a future cut short. We also paid our respects to the 37 Australian children murdered in 2022, to Australian women murdered but not yet found and to women murdered globally. It's a devastating fact that the number of women murdered in Australia in 2022 was higher than the previous year. We are not heading in the right direction.

Saturday's vigil was a physical reminder that ending gender based violence remains a goal about which we must not become complacent. Women's lives depend on us working to end violence, and that's why I welcome the Albanese government's 10 days of paid domestic and family violence leave for every Australian worker. It's a policy that will literally save lives. And because gendered violence has its roots in gender inequality, this government is committed to closing the gender pay gap; committed to giving women more choice, more opportunities and a better future. Sadly, we know we'll be back for the vigil next year.