Michelle Ananda-Rajah (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to pay tribute to a beloved son, friend and young schoolboy, 16-year-old Chris Rua Antony, who was killed while walking home from school on 13 February. Chris was a year 11 student at Mazenod College in Mulgrave Victoria. He was the younger brother to his sister Auxilia and the only son to his grief stricken parents, Antony Francis and Agal, both teachers. He was so loved and respected for his 16 years that a memorial service held at his school on 23 February attracted over 1,200 people, many of whom had never met him. Not many grown-ups would attract such a crowd at their passing, but Chris did.

On the day of the accident, he was a mere 10-minute walk from home. Having come off the bus after his school's athletics carnival, he was struck from behind by a car driven by a 48-year-old woman. The car crossed two lanes of traffic on Pound Road, Narre Warren South, mounted the grassy verge, crossed a ditch and struck him before crashing into a large tree. Notably, the traffic travels down this road at 70 kilometres per hour and the footpath is only a few metres from the edge of the road, with no barrier to separate the two. When I walked this path myself, I felt vulnerable, too exposed to cars travelling at speed.

The tree where the incident occurred is now a shrine swathed in flowers, bearing witness to a tragedy, with plastic debris from the vehicle at its feet. With his last words to his father—'I'm close to home'—he was gone. His parents, driving past, saw the commotion and stopped to a harrowing scene: their son being resuscitated by a couple of tradies. The ambulance arrived soon after, and Chris was airlifted to the Alfred hospital, my former workplace, where he died some seven days later. Like a bolt of lightning on a sunny summer's day, this accident has left a family, community, friends and teachers shattered, an unimaginable grief that feels all-consuming. We are unable to process the senselessness of it all.

As parents, we raise our kids the best we can. We protect them, nurture them and mitigate risks as much as possible. But, when tragedy strikes, it feels unnatural because it is. The passing of a child feels like the laws of the universe, the laws of physics, the very laws of nature have been violated. Trying to process this takes me down a dead end of despair, so I instead choose to focus on Chris's life, characterised by engagement underpinned by an unshakable Catholic faith that ran like a golden thread through his life.

Chris loved rap music, artists like J Cole and Kanye—but, importantly, only Kanye's old stuff from 'back when he was good', Chris used to say. He played tennis for years at Hampton Park Tennis Club before recently moving over to play basketball with the Berwick Saints. Since receiving his communion, he dutifully served as an altar boy at Our Lady Help of Christians church, and he prayed the rosary every day since he was two years old—remarkable. During COVID, he took up the Rubik's Cube, teaching himself to solve it by watching YouTube videos. As a quick learner instilled with determination, Chris was able to get his solve time down from one minute 30 to just 30 seconds.

At school he excelled, studying most nights to 11 pm, saving his parents tutoring fees. Chris had aspirations to become an engineer, a desire reflected in his intricate and impressive Lego creations. Driven, kind and intelligent—these are the words Chris's father used to describe his son. A photo of Chris shows that he stands smiling in front of a photo and small statue of the youngest saint, Carlo Acutis, who died at 15 from leukaemia. The poignancy of this image is not lost on me. Chris was one year older to the youngest saint in the Catholic religion. He now has a friend in heaven, the best kind—God's pick, no less.

What is left now is unimaginable grief and loss, a void nothing can fill. Chris's parents have set up a GoFundMe page to support pedestrian safety and to aid in immortalising Chris's name through an educational scholarship. I ask our Victorian and, indeed, Australian community to wrap your arms around this family and his friends. Say his name: Chris Rua Antony. It will help recall his full humanity every time it is uttered. Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him. He rests now in the warm embrace of God.