Remembering comedian killed in Melbourne, Shorten says women’s safety depends on the ‘example we set for our sons’

Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten have paid tribute to Eurydice Dixon, the 22-year-old comedian killed in Melbourne last week, and have called for cultural change to ensure respect for women and to make public spaces safe.

“Women must be safe everywhere. On the street, walking though a park, in their homes, at work,” the prime minister told parliament at the start of question time.

Dixon was found dead on Wednesday morning in Princes Park, Carlton North. She was allegedly raped and murdered by a 19-year-old man while walking home from a comedy show.

Adam Bandt, the Greens MP for Melbourne, asked Turnbull whether more needed to be done to change men’s behaviour.

It was important that through this “heartbreaking tragedy” a culture of respect for women was developed among men from a young age, Turnbull replied.

“Not all disrespect of women is violence against women but that is where all violence against women begins. And so ensuring that we start from the very start, ensuring that our sons and grandsons respect the women in their lives, is vitally important.

“We start with the youngest men, the little boys, our sons and grandsons, and make sure that they respect their mothers and sisters and all the women in their lives.

“We all as parents and grandparents have a duty to do that. And also we have a very profound duty to ensure that our public places, our streets, our parks, are safe places in which to work and walk. I know that we are all united in this.”

Bill Shorten joined the tribute and said that it was important that Dixon’s death was not treated as “a statistic or a cautionary tale.”

“She wasn’t seeking to make a statement that night, she was just living her life. She had her phone with her, now full of a hundred unfinished conversations. She was happy that her comedy performance had gone well, she was messaging a friend to check in and to let him know that she was nearly home safe,” he said.

“None of that cost her life. Nothing she did or didn’t do in any way makes her responsible for what happened. Walking home should not mean that you are risking your life.”

Shorten said the right of women to move about in safety was “about more than better lighting and more CCTV cameras.”

“It’s about attitudes, it’s about actions. It’s about honesty. It’s about stopping violence and stopping the enablers of violence. It’s about deciding as a nation that violence against women is ultimately preventable. It’s about the example that we set for our sons. Our hearts go out to Eurydice’s loved ones today. May she rest in peace.”

In Melbourne, people gathered at Princes Park on Monday to leave flowers ahead of a vigil there on Monday night. Vigils will also be held in Perth, Sydney, Adelaide, Hobart and Launceston.

Organisers of Melbourne’s Reclaim Princes Park event said all women should be able to walk home, “whenever we want, wherever we want, and assume we will make it home safe”.

Jaymes Todd, 19, who handed himself into police on Wednesday night after a police and media campaign, has been charged with Dixon’s rape and murder. He has been remanded in custody and will next appear in court in October.

The City of Melbourne, the state government and police are expected to meet on Monday to discuss community safety.

“This is a tragic reminder, if we needed any reminding, that violence against women is still a feature of contemporary Victorian society,” the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, told reporters on Sunday. “We shouldn’t settle for that.”