February 13th, 2025Signs of change underway
It has been the saddest of years for the family and friends of Samantha Murphy.
An unfathomable loss of a wife, mother and a friend. We continue to hold them close in our thoughts and to support them.
Amid the shock and sadness we all feel, the community has stepped up in a way that shows the best of us in dealing with the worst possible news. And not just once.
The community has also stepped up following the deaths of Rebecca Young and Hannah McGuire which also happened during the last 12 difficult months.
Grief can be a long path to walk and having the support of people around you actually helps. As I have said before, we the community have another task as well – making the world we live in a safer place for women.
Simply living your life shouldn’t put you in danger. Women shouldn’t have to worry that being out by themselves at night or in the early morning, or even being behind closed doors in their own home puts them at risk.
I wrote in an op-ed last April that how we educate our boys in this community matters, what opportunities they have to learn how to be the fabulous, beautiful men we all know in some aspects of our lives, actually really matters.
Governments have a role to play too – with campaigns, early intervention services, a national plan from all levels of government, as well as legislated paid family and domestic violence leave and better access to childcare and early education.
There are signs of small change. Ballarat resident Pauline O’Shannessy-Dowling has told the ABC that when she is out running, which is what Samantha was doing, men who are also running make the effort to let her know they are not a threat.
We saw at the Ballarat Marathon, the first one last year, a concerted effort of dads running with their daughters, and really wanting to come together as a community to show how much they care about their girls.
And there are signs of a much bigger change underway in our community. A partnership of organisations, business clubs and groups led by Women’s Health Grampians and called Communities of Respect and Equality – CoRE – Alliance share a vision for safe, equal and respectful communities.
Membership of CoRE Alliance usually sees between one and five new organisations join each year. Since February last year, when Samantha went missing, 19 organisations have joined – 13 of those from Ballarat including a number of schools. And this significant increase is being driven by the students themselves.
There has also been a notable increase in enquiries from organisations and individuals – particularly men – interested in CoRE and what they can do to prevent gender-based violence.
Men’s initiative information sessions saw a massive increase in registrations, and in December, Women’s Health Grampians and the City of Ballarat held a leadership forum for men interested in learning more about how they can lead change to prevent gender-based violence in the organisations they are part of.
(A total) 188 people attended that event, 60 per cent of whom were men. These are all the positive signs of change that we want. Again, the community is stepping up and importantly, men are stepping up very much as part of that.
We all need to see change across our communities, and in mine, that has been incredibly important, and felt very deeply after the deaths of Samantha, of Hannah and of Rebecca.
We want a community that is safe for everybody. Everybody, but particularly women. We need everywhere, in every community, in every place, to stop seeing violence against women. To stop losing women, like beautiful Samantha Murphy, who still had so much to give.
And this, the week of the anniversary of her death, and as we are also leading into anniversaries for Rebecca and Hannah, my thoughts and my condolences continue to go out to their families.
The legacy that we have from their deaths, is that we must do so, so much better to keep women safe in our communities.
– Catherine King, Ballarat MP (Adjournment Speech, Federation Chamber, Thursday, February 6, 2025
