Darkness to Daylight Event

Representing the Premier and Minister for Veterans, Dr Christian Rowan MP; Minister for Police and Emergency Services, the Honourable Dan Purdie MP; Co-chair, Domestic and Family Violence Prevention Council, Mr Robert Atkinson AO APM; Challenge DV General Manager, Ms Linda Smith; Founder of Darkness to Daylight, Mr Robert Reed OAM; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.

I acknowledge the Original Custodians of the lands around Brisbane, the Turrbul and Jagera people, and pay my respects to Elders past, present and emerging, and to any First Nations people here this evening.

As Patron of Challenge DV, I am pleased to join you on the lawns of Parliament House this morning for the Darkness to Daylight event.

For 13 years, this gathering has brought Queenslanders together in a visible act of solidarity against domestic and family violence — to walk, to run, to raise funds, and to remember.

The number 110 sits at the heart of this event, and it carries a terrible weight. Each of the 110 kilometres represents, on average, one life lost each year in Australia at the hands of someone who should have offered care.  

These numbers are confronting, but they are important. Behind every figure is a person, most often a woman, and very often a child whose home has stopped feeling safe.

Communities, employers, schools and health services too, feel the weight of this harm. It is a public health issue, a human rights issue and a community issue — and it needs a sustained response from all of us.

Through Challenge DV, the funds raised at Darkness to Daylight support workplace training, respectful relationships education in schools, men’s behaviour change programs, and frontline services including women’s refuges across the State.  

Year after year, this event continues to draw generous support from across the community, helping Challenge DV extend its work in prevention, education and frontline response.

That support reflects the many people and organisations who make this event possible — the Queensland Police Service, partners in government and local government, sponsors and donors, the Challenge DV board and staff, and the many participants who run or walk with purpose.

I also want to acknowledge Mr Robert Reed OAM, whose vision in 2014 brought this event into being, and whose leadership has helped carry it through to its 13th year.

To those who have completed the 3 kilometres this morning, and to those who have taken on the full 110, thank you for taking a stand.  

The walk from darkness to daylight is one this community will keep making together, until the violence ends.  

Thank you.