ABC Newsradio Audio: MP Kate Chaney says community outraged over Perth shooting (26 May 2024)
Federal Member for Curtin in WA, Kate Cheney, says her community has been left outraged by the shooting deaths of a Perth mother and daughter. A 59-year-old woman and her 18-year-old daughter were killed in their flurry at home on Friday by a 63-year-old man who believed his ex-partner was at the property. Ms Cheney spoke to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese after the incidents and says he reiterated his commitment to addressing gendered violence but she says a of community response is needed to prevent further deaths.
Kate Chaney: These two women have not yet been formally identified. Of course the community WhatsApp groups are providing a lot of information and probably misinformation as well. So until that formal identification process happens I won't comment on that but certainly there are a lot of people in this highly connected community who have really taken this hard and are connected in some way to the people involved.
Reporter: This kind of follows on from your question but what is the Floreat community I guess doing to tribute these women?
Kate Chaney: Well once these women have been formally identified then I'm sure there will be a response to commemorate them. I'll have a condolences book here in my office at the appropriate time so people can come in and send a message to the family of the people who have been killed.
Reporter: Police have obviously confirmed that he used a gun currently before state parliament but they're obviously looking to bring in some sweeping changes to that. Is that something that you would like to see? Do you back those changes in that's currently being debated?
Kate Chaney: Look I think that it's really not helpful having people with guns and I understand that there are circumstances in which guns are needed. I don't know the circumstances in which this man acquired his gun or whether any of those law reforms would actually have an impact on that.
Gun reform is an important part of it but there's this broader underlying issue that men have to stop thinking that violence is a way to solve problems and that goes to what we see in pornography, the people like Andrew Tate who are setting those different expectations for young men and we see that going all the way through. So it's not just about guns, it's about a systemic change to how we think about violence.
Reporter: Were you in the area? What did you see and hear when this was happening?
Kate Chaney: My office is about 200 metres from the place where this incident happened. I was down the road and heard the police response, I didn't hear the gunshots themselves but I spoke to plenty of people who did and that's been a very disturbing thing.
I was talking to someone whose nine, ten year old was babysitting a few doors down and heard the shots and obviously everyone in the area who has had that experience, it feels very, very close to home and I think that's, you know, this community is really hurting thinking about the fact that this can happen right here in Floreat.
Reporter: Just lastly then, probably you've made quite rightly a point that enough is enough, you yourself, you're obviously a woman, is this, how does this make you feel in terms of just, we're saying I think what is about 30 women died at the hands of men this year as well, personally, how does that make you feel, politics and so on?
Kate Chaney: Well so many women I've spoken to and I too just have this sense of exhaustion and rage about it and it's horrible to think that this is happening all around us and I spoke to some women who were saying it's easy to think that this is something that happens elsewhere but so many of us are aware of people who are in difficult situations but you just never think it will come to this so I think it's been, you know, it's a nasty reminder of the prevalence of this issue and as a woman it is really really sad to think it's 2024 and we still have this fundamental problem in our community that a lot of men think that violence is the way to deal with things.
Reporter: That's the WA Federal Member for Curtin, Kate Chaney.
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