Thursday, 20 February 2020

Family violence

Ms HUTCHINS (Sydenham) (09:57): Most people would have woken to the news today that Hannah Baxter was murdered by her former husband, who set her and her three children on fire in the family car in Queensland yesterday. According to some quarters of the media, he has been described as a father who loved his kids, as an NRL star and as suffering from a marriage breakdown. But make no mistake: he was a murderer and scum of the earth.

Helena Broadbent, Lindita and Veton Musai, Rosalie Rowen and Yingying Zhou—these are just some of the names of victims of family violence-based murder who were killed here in Victoria in the last six months. Across Australia the death toll from family violence in 2019 was 61 people. Men who perpetrate family violence against their family—women and children—are not loving dads and they are not stars. They are controlling, abusive, dangerous murderers—and yes, they are cowards. The media will spend a lot of time talking about him and the theories of why he snapped, and far less about Hannah and her three beautiful children, but remember her name and remember their names.

I want to thank our Premier for taking leadership on family violence and for implementing the royal commission findings, and I ask the Prime Minister to step up, end the cuts to family violence services and increase the funding that is needed now—urgently—for the services that save women’s and children’s lives across Australia.