As the House meets for the first time since the horrific events of last Monday, it is appropriate that our very first act is to speak about the Member for Indi, Dr Helen Haines.
Her husband, Phil Haines, is with us this morning. He has shown a level of grace that, for most of us, is simply beyond reckoning.
This morning Phil spoke lovingly of Helen’s superpowers as empathy, kindness and compassion.
He spoke of hope and change, and the need for a gentler, more cohesive path.
I want Phil to know that we are with him and Helen, and with their children and their grandchildren – and will remain with them.
The shock from what happened last Monday is like a stone in our hearts.
What brings it home is being back in this chamber, on what should have been an ordinary sitting day.
And looking across at the Member for Indi’s seat over there, and hoping and looking forward to the day in which she’s back here representing the community that she loves.
A community that, right now, is hurting badly, as are her wonderful, close-knit staff here and in Wangaratta and Wodonga. Our hearts are with you.
We look across to the Member for Indi’s place and, despite ourselves, half expect to see her face – like a trick the heart plays on the mind, if only to grant us a moment’s respite from the truth.
Right now, our friend and colleague is in hospital, grievously injured, the shape of her life and her family’s lives changed forever.
The day will come when we look across this chamber and see the Member for Indi’s face in here again.
As the Victorian police, AFP and ASIO continue their investigations, we give our thanks to them, just as we give our thanks to the health and emergency service workers, and all who have provided assistance to Helen.
We are also uplifted in the knowledge that on that terrible afternoon, we saw examples of the best of the Australian character.
From Ricky Jefferies, the barber who rushed without concern for his own safety to ensure the alleged perpetrator was secured until police arrived.
From Xavier Norden, a director of the local technical school, who was one of the first to Helen’s aid.
From Jacob Evans and Jacklyn Black from Melbourne. They were there looking at the local store on their way to a well-earned holiday in that beautiful part of Victoria, but they applied tourniquets, assisted paramedics, and provided invaluable assistance.
I have had the opportunity to speak with Ricky, Xavier, Jacklyn and Jacob and others in recent days and expressed the nation’s gratitude for their brave and invaluable interventions.
The Member for Indi – in all her decency, integrity, compassion, humour and empathy – has always embodied the truth that there is more that unites us than divides us.
That there is no stronger foundation than common ground.
Her capacity to do it all with such heart and unrelenting advocacy is in its own way, a reminder that she has served in far tougher places than this.
As a former nurse and a midwife, her rich personal background is something that she has brought to this chamber.
It is hard to think of anyone in this place with a more irrepressible twinkle in the eye, a twinkle that more than hints at a real inner strength.
Last Monday, the Member for Indi was just doing her job when she was attacked.
While the investigations go on, we must not rush to conclusions.
But nor can we shrug off the very real rise in anger that distorts and corrodes our public discourse.
Enabled by the anonymity and speed afforded by social media, we are seeing rage and aggression increasing, not just in politics, but towards workers in hospitality, in retail, in schools and in hospitals, towards police, paramedics and other officials.
We’re seeing a normalisation of the language of grievance and violence.
We must not conflate the robustness of Australian democracy with this rising tide of rage.
We have always had disagreement in Australia – it’s part of our story.
Ours is an unbroken democracy and our continuous system of government shine as a beacon to the world.
But we cannot allow disagreement to become a full stop. We keep talking. We keep working towards something better.
And that is why the Member for Indi is such a natural in this place, working with conviction, working with an unrelenting advocacy for her community, and moving through this building with a sense of purpose and momentum that says she is absolutely here to get things done for others.
Like many of my ministers, I have the regular pleasure of sitting across the table from the Member for Indi, including during the last sitting week, when Helen took up the issue of rural and regional health that she is so passionate about.
She always engages, always looks you in the eye, and never lets up.
And she always works on the principle that disagreement only functions when it doesn’t depart from respect and humanity.
Right now, the Member for Indi is on the hardest road of all.
As we pray for her, we console ourselves with this one solid truth, as Phil, who I’ve spoken to daily keeps reminding me every day: Helen Haines is a fighter.
As Phil returns to Helen and their family, may he take with him our love – and the love of the nation.
