Usually when I speak in this place, I say it is a pleasure. That is not the case this afternoon. It brings me no pleasure to present this petition to Parliament today, because of the circumstances that deem it necessary. Alina Kauffman and Ernesto Salazar should be alive today. Alina should be joining our healthcare system as a registered nurse helping to save lives. Ernesto should be at school right now. He would have just started year 11 at Cecil Hills High School. Ernesto wanted to be a social worker helping some of our community's most vulnerable people. Instead, their lives were stolen in a tragic and callous incident just metres from their home in Heckenberg on 1 September last year.

Why were they taken? It was because of the actions of someone who should not have been on the road at all. Alina did what siblings across our community do. Indeed, it was something that I did as a young person. She offered to pick up Ernesto from his part-time job at Kmart. As they returned home, the car they were both travelling in was hit by someone allegedly travelling at 100 kilometres per hour in a 60 kilometres per hour zone. Adding insult to injury, the police allege that the driver and other occupants of the other vehicle left the scene without rendering assistance. They saw the carnage that they had caused, and their first instinct was to call on others to take them from the scene. They allegedly called on those people to assist with hiding their involvement.

Alina and Ernesto's mother, Angelina, who joins us in the gallery this afternoon, will never see her children grow up, embark on their careers, get married or have kids of their own. That is an unbearable weight that no parent should have to bear. Anyone who has experienced grief knows that it can be debilitating. It can be hard to find the means to go on and to find purpose. I imagine those who have lost a child feel that pain even more intensely. However, Angelina has not allowed grief to immobilise her. She and her incredible support network of family and friends have channelled grief into action. She wants justice for their children, and it is for that reason that we are here this afternoon debating the petition.

The petition before the House asks us to consider whether maximum penalties for such road offences exact justice for victims of serious road crimes. In the case of Alina and Ernesto, the alleged offender faces a maximum penalty of 14 years imprisonment. That is seven years less than the potential sentence that awaits those who tried to cover up the crime; they face a maximum sentence of 21 years. The current state of the law in relation to such offences is varied and is applied inconsistently. Recently the driver in an incident which killed five teenagers in Buxton was charged with five counts of aggravated dangerous driving occasioning death—the same charges as the driver in this instance. If the maximum sentence was applied across all the lives taken in that tragedy, he would have received a sentence of 70 years. Instead, he was sentenced to just 12 with a non-parole period of seven years. That is a sentence of 2.5 years imprisonment per life taken if the full sentence is applied, and just 16 months otherwise. It therefore begs the question of what is fair and just? What is the value of a life? What if remorse is not shown?

It is clear that change is needed. Angelina began this petition by asking for signatures at Liverpool railway station. Anyone who has tried to stop commuters in the morning rush knows how difficult it can be; however, Angelina's motivation did not waver. She turned up every morning and talked to anyone who would listen—and listen they did. The petition has collected over 20,000 signatures. It also caught the attention of journalists, community advocates and people from across the State who enabled Angelina and this petition to reach a broader audience. I acknowledge and thank Chris O'Keefe, Robert Ovadia, Michael Andjelkovic and many others in bringing this issue to prominence and getting it the attention that it deserves, because it is clear that not only is change needed but also our community agrees and wants us to change things.

I was elected to this place by my community to not only celebrate and share the many good things that happen but also stand with my community to try to resolve the challenges and injustices that occur. That is at the heart of what is being sought by the many people who have signed this petition. Those who have joined us in the gallery today and the many members of this House would agree with me in saying that we need justice. We need justice for Alina, we need justice for Ernesto, and we need justice for the many people whose lives have been irrevocably changed by tragedy and the actions of others.