00:00It has been the saddest of years for the family and friends of Samantha Murphy, an unfathomable
00:09loss of a wife, a mother and a friend. We continue to hold them close in our thoughts
00:17and to support them. Amid the shock and sadness we all feel, the community has stepped up
00:25in a way that shows the best of us in dealing with the worst possible news. And not just
00:31once, the community has also stepped up following the deaths of Rebecca Young and Hannah Maguire,
00:38which also happened during the last 12 difficult months. Grief can be a long path to walk and
00:45having the support of people around you actually helps. As I've said before, we the community
00:52have another task as well, making the world that we live in a safer place for women. Simply
00:59living your life shouldn't put you in danger. Women shouldn't have to worry that being out
01:05by themselves at night or in the early morning or even being behind closed doors in their
01:11own home puts them at risk. I wrote an op-ed last April that how we educate our boys in
01:20this community matters. What opportunities they have to learn how to be the fabulous,
01:27beautiful men we all know in some aspects of our lives actually really matters. Governments
01:34have a role to play too, with campaigns, early intervention services, a national plan from
01:41all levels of government, as well as legislated paid family and domestic violence leave, better
01:47access to childcare and early education. There are, of course, small signs of change. Ballarat
01:54resident Pauline O'Shannessy-Dowling has told the ABC that when she is out running, which was
02:00what Samantha was doing, men who are also running are making the effort to let her know that they
02:08are not a threat. We saw at the Ballarat Marathon, the first one last year, a concerted effort of
02:16dads running with their daughters and really wanted to come together as a community to show
02:21how much they care about their girls. There are signs of a much bigger change underway in our
02:28community. A partnership of organisations, business clubs and groups led by Women's Health
02:33Grampians and called Communities of Respect and Equality, CORE, Alliance shares a vision for safe,
02:41equal and respectful communities. Membership of CORE Alliance usually has between one and five
02:47new organisations join each year. Since February last year, when Samantha went missing, 19
02:55organisations have joined, 13 of these from Ballarat, including a number of schools. This
03:02significant increase has been driven by students themselves. There has also been a notable increase
03:09in inquiries from organisations and individuals, particularly men, interested in CORE and what
03:15they can do to prevent gender-based violence. Men's Initiative information sessions saw a
03:21massive increase in registrations. In December, Women's Health Grampian and the City of Ballarat
03:27held a leadership forum for men interested in learning more about how they can lead change to
03:32prevent gender-based violence in the organisations they're part of. 188 people attended that event,
03:3960 per cent of whom were men. These are all the positive signs of change that we want.
03:46Again, the community is stepping up and, importantly, men are stepping up very much
03:50as part of that. We all need to see change across our communities. In mine, that has been incredibly
03:57important and felt very deeply by the deaths of Samantha, Rebecca and Hannah.
04:05We want a community that is safe for everybody—everybody, but particularly women.
04:11We need everywhere, in every community, in every place, to stop seeing violence against women,
04:18to stop losing women like beautiful Samantha Murphy, who still had so much to give.
04:23In this week's anniversary of her loss, and as we're leading into the deaths of Rebecca and
04:30Hannah, my thoughts and my condolences continue to go out with their family. The legacy that we
04:38leave or that we have from their deaths is that we do so, so much better to keep women safe in
04:43our communities.
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