House debates

Monday, 24 February 2020

Statements by Members

Domestic and Family Violence

1:36 pm

Photo of Tim WattsTim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Communications) Share this | | Hansard source

It's sadly familiar to speak of the scourge of men's violence against women. The recent murder of the Clarke family has struck a collective nerve across the nation. I know that I'm not alone in choking up when considering the smiles of those three children Laianah, Aaliyah and Trey—they were splashed across newspapers and television broadcasts across the nation—and choking up at the furious obscenity of this crime and the injustice of the murder of their mother, Hannah. It's no compensation, but my thoughts are not only with their anguished friends and family but also with the witnesses and emergency responders, the other victims of these horrific crimes.

I recall Fiona Warzywoda, who was murdered on the main street of my electorate in the year I was elected into this place. She was stabbed to death in front of people going about their business—passers-by, women and children. Sometimes it feels like we have made very little progress since then. I know that community attitudes are changing and that government is changing, but we need concerted action across all aspects of Australian society, because we cannot continue with more than one woman being murdered every week by a man in this community.