Dorinda Cox (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today with a very heavy heart to offer my deepest condolences on the death of Kumanjayi Little Baby. I begin by acknowledging her mother, her brother, Ramsiah, her family, her kin, her elders and all those across Alice Springs, Central Australia and beyond who are carrying this unbearable grief.

Kumanjayi Little Baby was five years old. At five years old, most children are learning to tie their shoes. They are learning songs and they are asking questions about the world. They are running, they are laughing, they are playing and they are beginning to show the little personality that they are becoming. When you are five years old, the safest place in the world should be wherever your mum tucks you in bed. Kumanjayi Little Baby should still be with her family. There are moments when words feel too small for the sorrow that they are asked to hold, and this is one of those moments. A little girl has been taken from her family. A mother is burying her baby. A community that searched, hoped and prayed has been left with the most devastating grief. For her family, this grief is an empty space where a child should be. It is a future that has been taken. It is the deep pain of every parent, grandparent, aunty, uncle, cousin and loved one who knows that a young life should be protected, nurtured and allowed to grow. To Kumanjayi Little Baby's mother, this parliament cannot carry that pain for you, but today we stand beside you. We say clearly that your little girl mattered, and your baby, who loved watching Bluey, playing Minecraft with her brother, and going to kindy, and who loved the colour pink, mattered. Her life mattered, her name matters and her family matters.

Kumanjayi Little Baby's mother has thanked the police, first responders, Aboriginal liaison officers, volunteers and organisations who searched that day and night for her baby girl. That outpouring of support should be remembered. In the middle of horror, it showed that love existed in Alice Springs, and the strength of community who did not wait to be asked before they stepped forward. Hundreds gave their time, their care and their hope, because a child was missing and every single child deserves to be found. They searched because, in moments like this, community means showing up. But now the search has ended in grief, and that grief must be treated with respect. This is not a time for division. It is not a time for people to use the family's trauma for political point-scoring. It is not a time for anyone to inflict pain on a community already carrying too much. There will be time for those difficult conversations, there will be time when we ask what must change, but first there is a family that is burying a child. First, there is a mother who needs love around her. First, there is a community in trauma that needs calm, care and culturally safe support.

This grief does not stop at the boundaries of Alice Springs. First Nations people are grieving deeply, but they are not grieving alone. Across the Territory and Western Australia, President, you and I and the member for Perth, Patrick Gorman, stood together alongside my three nieces, who are also Gurindji, at vigils across this country in a pink wave for Kumanjayi Little Baby and her family. We lit candles, and shared poetry and silence to honour a little girl whom most of us have never met but whose death still haunts us. In that grief we must be mindful of one another and the toll that it takes. Respect for Kumanjayi Little Baby means respect for her family. It means allowing them the space to mourn and not adding to that burden. Today, I want this chamber to sit with the simple truth at the centre of all of this—a little girl has died. Kumanjayi Little Baby was five years old and she will be forever five. She should still be learning, laughing, playing and growing. She should still be held in the arms of the people who loved her and loved her deeply.

Today, we hold her name in this chamber. We hold her family in our hearts. May Kumanjayi Little Baby be remembered with love, may her family be surrounded with strength, may we look at the night sky as her mother asked and think of the brightest star, and may we honour her life with the responsibility that this grief asks of all of us.