After the Bondi Massacre on Sunday, I have contemplated “what to do” because as a young mother after the Port Arthur massacre, I felt compelled to act and I did.
My two children were similar ages to Alannah and Madeline Mikac that were murdered along with their mother Nanette. I couldn’t sleep for days after Port Arthur for fear that our gun laws rendered Australians to inflict violence on our citizens like America. I voiced my concerns to every woman I knew and asked for support should I organised a rally in support of gun reform.
The Friday after Port Arthur we held our first rally in Cavill Mall on the Gold Coast. The next day I was on the front page of the Gold Coast Bulletin and so began the storm of support and media attention. The invitations to speak at subsequent rallies started to trickle and then pour in.
Before each rally I spoke at my husband, and I made 35 crosses and wrote the name of each victim on the cross then handed these out to the people in the crowd who were called forward to represent that victim on stage and then I asked for a minute’s silence. I didn’t use a long speech or many words to introduce the process that was about to happen. However, the process moved people so much that I often received emails after a rally from a crowd member to let me know what they had done with the cross they had inherited.
Eventually Kathy Sullivan MP for Moncrieff telephoned me and asked if I would spearhead the ultimate rally in support of John Howard’s legislation to reform gun laws and outlaw automatic and semiautomatic rifles.
Sullivan suggested calling the event Citizens Rally Against Violence. I agreed to Sullivan’s proposal and the event took place six weeks after the Port Arthur Massacre. The event was held at the Gold Coast Arts Centre and there was standing room only. There were approximately 12 guest speakers over about two hours and this culminated in John Howard speaking about the reforms.
I met John Howard backstage before the event, and I was introduced to him as “one of the leaders of the event”. Mr Howard looked me up and down then asked Ms Sullivan, “will she be introducing me?”. I felt targeted by Mr Howard as though I was too young or too something to be involved. This was in total contrast to how I felt about Mr Howard, I was so grateful for the opportunity to vocally welcome the reforms no matter what side of politics I sat on. When Mr Howard walked out into the auditorium he received a standing ovation. Collectively, we were all so grateful for the introduction of the reforms.
Once we all took our seats, I found myself sitting between Howard and Cheryl Kernot. During one of the guest speaker’s speech the gun lobby who had been let into the auditorium began to shout in protest and raise their banners and stand on their feet.
Howard rose to his feet in the first row turned around to face the gun lobby members and shouted to them “sit down” and they did. Another brave move by Howard.
In the weeks leading up to the final event of Citizens Rally Against Violence, my husband and I received three death threats from an anonymous caller. And I received countless phone calls from people who had read about me in the newspaper or heard me on the radio to support what I was doing. Which all in all was to support the proposed legislation to change the gun laws.
At that time on the Gold Coast the property market was at a low and my husband and I and our two little girls were surviving on one wage. For one of the larger early rallies I spoke at, I had to use our lounge room curtains as the painted back drop banner which I still have folded up in my linen press.
Like Jessica Watson and Joanne Lees I too went onto study Social Work. I have been practicing for 10 years and have worked in Darwin and remote Queensland. I have seen people living in the most horrific circumstances and the best of Australia.
As I said at the beginning of this piece: I just didn’t know what to do after Sunday’s mass shooting at Bondi.
I am a grandmother now; my two little girls have grown into amazing women with one living in London with her family. We added a third child to the pack – a boy who wants to study medicine.
I have probably only told a handful of people about the advocating work I did for gun reform because I can’t be sure my efforts made a difference. But if they did, then the solution to reform and change is what comes from the ground swell. It is not the politicians but us: normal mums and dads and grandparents and aunts and uncles, friends and allies who believe in the rights of people to have a barbeque or any kind of celebration in any park in any suburb in Australia.
Sunday’s terror attack at Bondi shocked me to my core.
I was preoccupied by what the emergency services must have been confronted with and the screams of the children running as they were filmed and put up on social media.
I don’t want to be misquoted or taken over the coals for what I believe in, as I was back in 1996. But I cannot stay silent. I have been a part of change, and I know how it can happen. It’s not with silence or politics, it’s with the power of people.
Like any system, the gun legislation system needs to change with time and continue to adapt to demand. The demand of the people – us.