Thursday, 17 October 2024

Suicide prevention

Nick McGOWAN (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (10:15): This time next week we will not be sitting here in Parliament. This morning I had the great honour of yet again seeing Wayne Holdsworth. I met Wayne in the course of this work, being a member of Parliament. It has been my great privilege. In fact I first approached Wayne when a local constituent, Bree, on behalf of her son Patryk, who took his own life, approached my office and sought some assistance. Bree and Stacey did an amazing job at raising money to help prevent youth suicide. Through that I connected with Wayne. Wayne’s son on 24 October a year ago took his own life. This year Wayne would like as many Victorians as is possible to turn off their social media for 24 hours on 24 October, so I will do that. It is a small token but the message is a powerful one, and he conveyed that this morning not only to me but to parliamentary colleagues right across all divides, of all parties, who came and met this morning at 8 o’clock to hear from Wayne, to hear the tragedy that he and his family have gone through and that way too many families still continue to go through every day here in Victoria and Australia and worldwide for that matter. His son was sadly a victim of sextortion, and so there is also a very serious conversation any parent can have with their children about being aware of what they do, the consequences of what they do, but also the love and support of those around them and that any problem can be worked through together.