Ipswich stabbing death jarring on so many levels – Kylie Lang

Once a great example of multiculturalism – a beacon even – Australia appears to be on a downward trajectory, writes Kylie Lang.

Life is cheap in some countries. Until now, Australia wasn’t one of them.

The stabbing death of a 70-year-old woman during an alleged carjacking on Saturday evening is jarring on so many levels.

You might say Vyleen White did nothing but be in the wrong place at the wrong time – but since when has a suburban shopping centre been the wrong place?

Vyleen White was fatally stabbed in the chest. Picture: Supplied

It is frequented by hundreds of Queenslanders happily going about their business, never fearing they won’t make it home alive.

Onlookers had to witness the brutal scene when the beloved wife, mother and grandmother was fatally attacked – but one in particular will bear the deepest scars, the young child who was with her at the time.

Here is another life dreadfully impacted and forever marked by a level of violence seasoned police officers say they have not seen before.

On Monday morning one 15-year-old boy was charged with one count of unlawful use of a motor vehicle in relation to the alleged stolen Hyundai Getz, and three other males – also said to be of African descent – remained at large.

By Monday afternoon five teens in total had been arrested.

Community outrage is at fever pitch and so it should be.

Flowers at the scene at Town Square Shopping Centre at Redbank Plains. Picture Lachie Millard

Once a great example of multiculturalism – a beacon even – Australia appears to be on a downward trajectory, like France, where it seems a disproportionate number of alleged crimes are committed by minorities who have failed to take note of the culture into which they’ve come.

Instead of assimilating, like European immigrants did so well after World War II, it appears that some permitted to call Australia home are squandering that privilege.

Mrs White’s stricken family want justice.

So do we all, because crimes of this nature have no place in this country. Not now, not ever.