Catherine King speaks about violence against women

The Courier

Catherine King discusses Samantha Murphy, Rebecca Young and Hannah McGuire in the Federation Chamber on February 6. She spoke about what the Ballarat community is doing to make change in the community to end violence against women.

Transcript

00:00It has been the saddest of years for the family and friends of Samantha Murphy, an unfathomable

00:09loss of a wife, a mother and a friend. We continue to hold them close in our thoughts

00:17and to support them. Amid the shock and sadness we all feel, the community has stepped up

00:25in a way that shows the best of us in dealing with the worst possible news. And not just

00:31once, the community has also stepped up following the deaths of Rebecca Young and Hannah Maguire,

00:38which also happened during the last 12 difficult months. Grief can be a long path to walk and

00:45having the support of people around you actually helps. As I've said before, we the community

00:52have another task as well, making the world that we live in a safer place for women. Simply

00:59living your life shouldn't put you in danger. Women shouldn't have to worry that being out

01:05by themselves at night or in the early morning or even being behind closed doors in their

01:11own home puts them at risk. I wrote an op-ed last April that how we educate our boys in

01:20this community matters. What opportunities they have to learn how to be the fabulous,

01:27beautiful men we all know in some aspects of our lives actually really matters. Governments

01:34have a role to play too, with campaigns, early intervention services, a national plan from

01:41all levels of government, as well as legislated paid family and domestic violence leave, better

01:47access to childcare and early education. There are, of course, small signs of change. Ballarat

01:54resident Pauline O'Shannessy-Dowling has told the ABC that when she is out running, which was

02:00what Samantha was doing, men who are also running are making the effort to let her know that they

02:08are not a threat. We saw at the Ballarat Marathon, the first one last year, a concerted effort of

02:16dads running with their daughters and really wanted to come together as a community to show

02:21how much they care about their girls. There are signs of a much bigger change underway in our

02:28community. A partnership of organisations, business clubs and groups led by Women's Health

02:33Grampians and called Communities of Respect and Equality, CORE, Alliance shares a vision for safe,

02:41equal and respectful communities. Membership of CORE Alliance usually has between one and five

02:47new organisations join each year. Since February last year, when Samantha went missing, 19

02:55organisations have joined, 13 of these from Ballarat, including a number of schools. This

03:02significant increase has been driven by students themselves. There has also been a notable increase

03:09in inquiries from organisations and individuals, particularly men, interested in CORE and what

03:15they can do to prevent gender-based violence. Men's Initiative information sessions saw a

03:21massive increase in registrations. In December, Women's Health Grampian and the City of Ballarat

03:27held a leadership forum for men interested in learning more about how they can lead change to

03:32prevent gender-based violence in the organisations they're part of. 188 people attended that event,

03:3960 per cent of whom were men. These are all the positive signs of change that we want.

03:46Again, the community is stepping up and, importantly, men are stepping up very much

03:50as part of that. We all need to see change across our communities. In mine, that has been incredibly

03:57important and felt very deeply by the deaths of Samantha, Rebecca and Hannah.

04:05We want a community that is safe for everybody—everybody, but particularly women.

04:11We need everywhere, in every community, in every place, to stop seeing violence against women,

04:18to stop losing women like beautiful Samantha Murphy, who still had so much to give.

04:23In this week's anniversary of her loss, and as we're leading into the deaths of Rebecca and

04:30Hannah, my thoughts and my condolences continue to go out with their family. The legacy that we

04:38leave or that we have from their deaths is that we do so, so much better to keep women safe in

04:43our communities.

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