Motions

Cox, Ms H.J. MP

Debate resumed.

Mr GARDNER (Morialta) (17:58): Again, as earlier, I am very sad to be rising on a motion such as this. I certainly echo the comments just made by the Minister for Multicultural Affairs, and I will come back to those in a moment. Today, we are as a house expressing our deep sorrow at the senseless death of Jo Cox MP and expressing our condolences to her family and constituency and recognising her service. Indeed, the second part of the motion is very important:

Expresses its sorrow that parliamentarians and others dedicated to public service around the world, who are committed to progressing ideas, can be subject to violence and hate.

I did not know Jo Cox, and I first became aware of her service after her cruel murder, but what she stood for was a set of values that she put forcefully, coherently and articulately to her community, and they entrusted her in turn with their confidence to represent them in the Westminster parliament. When she was murdered, it was not just a cruel attack on her. It is not just her family's loss, significant as that loss is, but it is an attack on the free expression of the political will and interests of all those people who voted for her, who put their confidence in her to represent them in the parliament. It is an act of terrorism when something like that happens, and it is a most heinous crime indeed.

I noticed that today Jo Cox's husband, Brendan, spoke publicly about his loss and said that she had 'very strong political views, and I believe she was killed because of those views'. He said that his wife was very worried that the language was 'coarsening', that people were being driven to take more extreme positions and that, if I can paraphrase, the polarisation of the political debate had a role in her death. That is deeply troubling.

What the minister said that I thoroughly agreed with was that in Australia, and I think to perhaps to a lesser extent, but certainly to an extent in England, we are very proud of the accessibility of our politicians and the fact that it is an expectation of all of us that we will have to doorknock, that we will have to hold the street corner meetings, that we will be available to those constituents who want to come in and see us when they have a grievance to express. Even if that grievance is personally directed at us, I would suggest that we are some of the most accessible politicians in the world, and the English system is also more accessible than most.

I know that this is something that most of us in this chamber are a part of, and we are all proud of, and our community expects no less. It is very important that in the years to come they continue to expect no less and that we continue to offer them no less. When New South Wales Labor MP John Newman was murdered in 1994, the Australian people continued to expect that openness from their politicians, and the Australian community has continued to have that expectation.

However, when a murder like this happens, when an assassination or an act of terrorism like this happens, it is a reminder to us all that we need to redouble our efforts in supporting free speech. It gives us pause to think that when we have coarsening of behaviour, as clearly has been attributed to her death by her husband, we must give thought to the fact that politicians are human beings and that we act in a role as representatives of our communities. That is a role and that is a job, but in doing so we try to be the personification and the expression of their interests.

I hope that her death will have some meaning in some positive way. It is very hard to see how that could be. I hope that it is not just a precursor to a restriction on the freedom of expression and the freedom of people in England to have confidence in their system. I know that is not what she would have wanted, but the cruel atrocity that has been visited upon her family and her community by this murderer is despicable. We hope that justice can be done, but we know that her husband and her family will grieve for the rest of their lives. It is therefore appropriate that this house expresses its condolences to that family and to that community and that it recognises her service and her passion.

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (18:04): As other members in this place have said, this is a very sad motion. I thank the Premier for bringing it to the house. I also thank the member for Reynell for introducing this motion about the senseless death of Jo Cox MP. The more I found out about Jo Cox and her political agenda and work the more solidarity I felt with her and with the campaigns she has been involved in.

As the member for Florey said, through the Muriel Matters Society we have had an amazing opportunity to get to know some of the progressive members of parliament under the Westminster system and also some of the activists, who are feminist, who are people fighting against discrimination and for equal opportunity. As much as I in South Australia have not been involved in the antislavery movement, it is very interesting that it is one of the things Muriel Matters campaigned on all that time ago. It is still obviously a very big issue in many places in the world. I commend the work she is reported to have done with their family at Oxfam and with all the other progressive organisations she was involved in.

Living in an activist family, I can only think about what it must be like for her husband and children, family and friends. She obviously lived in that circle of people who believe that their actions are really important. Just looking at what has been reported about her, she obviously was a most impressive activist and a fantastic local member who made herself available to constituents. When I listened to the TV news last night, I was very impressed with what both David Cameron and Jeremy Corbyn had to say. I felt very sad but also very proud of the solidarity they showed in the acknowledgements that they gave to their late fellow member of parliament. It did give me some hope that there is enough that we all share that means that we can all go forward to try to campaign on those progressive issues.

Interestingly, many female and male constituents have rung me or come into the electorate office to talk to me about this particular issue. They are very shocked and upset about what has happened. I know that I certainly reflect the concerns and condolences of a number of Ashford residents as well as friends and fellow activists who are a part of my life. In saying that, I would like to acknowledge that my extended family tell me that they will be at the vigil—which will be happening, because London time is behind us, in eight hours' time—along with friends who have also been involved in progressive campaigning, Ben Waters and David Lee, along with the Muriel Matters chapter of South Australia in London. To all those activists, this is a very sad day, but hopefully it will make us even more determined to campaign for those issues that we believe in.

Ms COOK (Fisher) (18:08): I rise in strong support of this motion. Jo Cox was a community campaigner, an advocate, a voice for the voiceless, a friend, a daughter, a sister, a wife and a mum to young children. Today should have been one of the happiest days of the year for this family, in particular for her children. I understand that as we speak today they are waking up on a day when Jo would have turned 42. It is very difficult for all of us to speak, particularly those of us with small children.

I imagine her children would have run to her with gifts, giggles, kisses and a hug. Instead, they will feel nothing but sadness today. She had much more to give and much more to achieve as a mother and as a politician. Unbelievably, Jo was murdered in the course of her duties, serving her constituents in need, as so many of us do on a daily basis while doorknocking, holding street corner meetings and other community listening posts. She has lost her life.

Of course, I did not know her, but I have read so much about her in the last few days. Jo Cox fought for all she had met and for the many whom she had not—victims of poverty, discrimination, injustice—and she would have fought very hard for the very person who took her life. Like many of us here in this place, she championed the most vulnerable and marginalised and worked very hard for an equitable and peaceful community full of love and tolerance. It is almost beyond belief that somebody working towards those ends can be cut down with such hatred and violence.

I urge other people in this place as well as those with a broad voice in the community, such as in the media, to think about how they portray themselves and also the language they use when talking about others who stand up to represent their communities. I urge those who are moderating the online communities to consider the language being used in discussing people who stand up to represent. It is not that those on the receiving end, such as us here in this place, of such commentary or language are precious or thin skinned. It is that others, silent participants, are easily incited by such language.

This act was committed by a person who lacked the empathy or the capacity to moderate their actions. They were seemingly very unwell. It would take very little to incite such a person to violence. Commentators, shock jocks and attention seekers, please consider the language you are using. Moderators, please moderate the comments and the language being used. Many silent participants are vulnerable and fragile. We may never know what incited this act, but we will always know the consequences, which have been devastating.

I did not know Jo Cox, but I do not believe that she would want this despicable and unspeakable act to change the open and accessible relationship we all enjoy in our own communities. Today, we remember that compassion and her passion to create a much better world. We should continue with our work, as we do, accessibly, honestly and openly, and recommit ourselves to that task. Commending this motion from across the miles, vale, Jo Cox.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (18:11): I stand to support this motion. I will not repeat what has already been said by other members, but I would like to add that what I am about to say is certainly true of what I know of Jo Cox, her family and her community. I would also like to extend my comments to all those MPs and community leaders who have actually given up their lives in the course of their work across the world. I think anybody who puts themselves forward is worthy of this motion as well. In particular, I would like to speak to the second part of this motion.

One important thing I would like to pick up on, which the member for Fisher did really well, is the use of language. Language can be a very powerful thing both as a positive but also as a negative. We need to be mindful that the language we use does not seek to exclude people, even those people with whom we disagree. Often people will use freedom of speech or the right of free speech as an excuse either to harm others or to exclude others.

I will come back to that point because I think it is a key element of this debate because this discussion we are having right now is very similar to the one we had a bit earlier when we were talking about Orlando. Some of the motivations and issues involved are very similar. It was a different circumstance and clearly a different event, but some of the background issues are the same. The murder of Jo Cox is a tragedy on so many levels. Obviously, at a personal level it was a life unnecessarily and prematurely cut short. It was an unimaginable loss to her family, friends and community. This is where we come in. If her death is not to be in vain, we must learn the lessons that this horrific event teaches us.

If we are to maintain a civil and democratic society, we all have a duty, an obligation and a responsibility to discuss and debate our different views in a manner which can still be powerful but at the same time respectful and civil, not to incite others and certainly not to incite hatred. I think we have lost that in the public square, which I think is the terminology that was used. Whether it is here in Australia, in England and certainly in America, we use the excuse of freedom of speech, but with freedoms come responsibilities.

As in the UK, as the member for Morialta said, our members of parliament are quite rightly very accessible and very visible in our community. I think we need to value and protect this accessibility because that is an essential element of our democratic and civil society. I certainly value my accessibility to my community. My community may not think so, but that is an issue we will discuss another day. Certainly, I value my ability to walk freely through my community and meet with people and, hopefully, I do it in a way that is respectful of people whose views differ from mine. We need to maintain that because I think that loss would be a loss to society. I believe that the greatest honour we can pay Jo, her family, friends and the community is to maintain that accessibility and not give in to hatred or to behaviour that is clearly designed to hurt.

I think this motion is an important symbol of the tragedy not only for Jo but also in some way for all those people in public life. We have a responsibility to make sure that we carry ourselves in public life in a way that does not give licence to people who want to do the wrong thing. I offer my condolences to Jo's family.

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (18:16): In closing, I want to say thank you very much to all the members who have contributed for their deeply thoughtful and heartfelt words. Given what we have been discussing today, I also thank all the members for their deep commitment to being accessible and open in all our communities and also for striving to speak up for all people in the communities we represent.

Also in closing, thank you and vale, Jo Cox—an absolute champion of compassion, inclusivity and diversity. As I said in my remarks, I am sure that her work and her passion to make a difference will inspire generations of parliamentarians and other community activists for a very, very long time. Finally, as you mentioned before, Madam Deputy Speaker, I invite all members to gather in silence for just one minute on the steps of Parliament House in memory and commemoration of Jo Cox's life.

Motion carried.

At 18:17 the house adjourned until Thursday 23 June 2016 at 10:30.