Juliana ADDISON (Wendouree) (10:00): I am going to try and bring the tone down –

Members interjecting.

The SPEAKER: Order! I remind members about this debate being very triggering for some members. The emotion in the chamber is palpable. Without interjections, the member for Wendouree.

Juliana ADDISON: because we are all angry. We are not just angry today, we have been angry for decades. That is why we have 16 days of activism and decades of women campaigning around the world against gendered violence – and Australia is really good at it. We are world leaders in killing women. We are world leaders in bashing our loved ones. We are world leaders at gendered violence. That is why this state – our state – did the royal commission, the first one in the world, because we said: we do not want to be the best at this, we do not want to be the best people in the world at killing women, at impacting our children, at bringing about intergenerational trauma where we stuff up our future because we do not address violence.

That is what the Royal Commission into Family Violence was. It was not political, it was getting independent commissioners to speak to experts, to speak to people with lived experience, to speak to people who have researched this. It was not about a media grab, it was not about a moment in time; it was about getting the best evidence to make sure that we are spending taxpayers money to address this scourge on our whole society, in every household, in every electorate. There are some issues that do not impact every single electorate in this state, but this is one that does. It unifies all of us.

The member for Warrandyte mentioned the women who got killed in my electorate this year. Of the 82, three lived in my community. We are leading the pack; Ballarat is really good. We are the gold-medal winners. We have got three out of 82 nationally. This is why we have to make a stand, for people like Rebecca Young in Sebastopol, who was killed by her husband, whose kids go to the local school with so many other people.

The ripple effect of Rebecca Young’s murder in Sebastopol by her intimate partner started in February. Not many people know about Rebecca Young. She did not get a lot of coverage, because it was just another murder. But we all know about Samantha Murphy, going for a run. And now my community, the schools that her kids went to and the schools that the alleged murderer went to are all impacted.

Everyone is impacted in Ballarat. Then Hannah McGuire, during the school holidays, was a teacher’s aide at Delacombe Primary. They had their writers festival last October – the most amazing thing – and I met Hannah McGuire. She showed me her kids’ work. She was so proud of those kids. She was killed by her intimate partner. That is three murders in Ballarat within two months because of family violence, because of gendered violence. That is why we need to listen to the people who know best – the experts.

I take up what the member for Mildura said – that we need to talk about lived experience. We need to amplify and hear the voices of lived experience. That is why the saturation model that is being brought to my community in a world first will be co-designed with service providers: with WRISC, with the Central Highlands Integrated Family Violence Committee, with BADAC, the Ballarat and District Aboriginal Co-operative, with CAFS – all of these locals who know what is best.

It will not by me, not by a member of Parliament, but by the people who work with survivors, who deal with the trauma of children, who deal with the men who are responsible for violence in my community.

You can take a look at more of my contributions to Parliament here.