How a tragedy at a comedy show turned Murray into an unlikely activist

Murray Wight takes another cigarette from a green plastic box, his back towards Melbourne’s Palais Theatre.

“I understand where you’re coming from,” he says sternly.

“IT “I’m helping people out there understand that if this old fart can do it on his own, then maybe I can fill out the petition and something can be done.” He clears his throat and puts the cigarette to his lips.

“I don’t find it particularly interesting.”

So what’s the interesting part?

Wight gestures with his free hand towards the theater behind him. “Common sense,” he says. “This is just stupid.”

The last time Wight was here, he was struggling to stand in a tight dress circle seat inside the theatre, shouting on stage with his hands clasped around his mouth: “Stop the show, a man is dying.”

The crowd’s laughter turned into a murmur, and the comedian, who had hitherto been an unsuspecting performer, fell into shocked silence. Finally the house lights flickered to life, revealing a man sprawled on the theater steps.

Two nurses and an off-duty paramedic had tried desperately to resuscitate him in the dark on March 26, 2025, but it took nearly 15 minutes for paramedics to arrive and for Wight to hear the first beeps of the defibrillator.

More than a year later, Wight was irrevocably changed that night – his own grassroots campaign Make defibrillators mandatory in public venues and buildings in Victoria.

Wight reenacts the scene on the footpath; She ran her hands over the invisible red chairs on which she and her son leaned to support the man after he collapsed in the corridor.

Every minute a defibrillator is not used during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) reduces a person’s chances of surviving a heart attack. 10 percent.

Ambulance Victoria’s average response time For patients having a heart attack, this period is eight minutes.

“The people who run the country, this state, the people who are responsible for our health need to say, ‘This needs to happen because it’s going to save lives,'” Wight says. “The advice I was given was: When you write a letter to a politician, you should give them six weeks to respond. After six weeks, they had plenty of opportunities. They can’t say they didn’t get a fair chance.”

Wight, a gruff but good-hearted 66-year-old retiree who lives in Reservoir, north of Melbourne, did just that: 128 Victorian MPs, including Health Minister Harriet Shing, and all Australian health departments were given ample time to express their support for the legislative change. There is no legal requirement in any state or territory other than South Australia for public venues and buildings to have defibrillators on-site.

Since March, Wight has received no response from Shing and only three personalized responses from MPs’ offices; among them was Sarah Mansfield, who had become a GP weeks earlier. He appealed to the state government Committing to a public defibrillator mandate. “I don’t even know which party he belongs to,” says Wight.

I tell him he’s the deputy leader of the Victoria Greens. “Okay, good for him,” he said, waving his hand. “To me, this has never been a political issue; it’s about public health.”

Mansfield agrees. Without CPR and bystander defibrillation, the survival rate for people who have a heart attack outside a hospital is around 5 percent. With quick access to a defibrillator, this rate can exceed 60 percent.

“This is a situation where there is very clear evidence that access to AEDs makes a difference, so I’m not entirely sure you can’t at least make sure they’re available in public spaces,” Mansfield says.

“We know there’s a real disparity across Victoria as well. If you look at the western suburbs of Melbourne, we know they have quite high heart attack rates compared to other parts of Melbourne and the state, but there are very few AEDs available to the public.”

Shing does not suggest his government is considering authorisation, but instead reiterates that Victoria has 10,000 registered defibrillators; this number is more than any other state or territory. He agrees that “when combined with CPR and used before paramedics arrive, public defibrillators significantly increase a person’s chances of surviving a heart attack.”

“Knowing CPR, downloading the GoodSAM app [for cardiac arrest first-responders]Keeping our AEDs accessible and well-maintained will give more people the best chance of survival in an emergency,” says Shing.

The Victorian Liberals have no policy on whether they will support a public defibrillator mandate.

Defibrillators were located in both the front and back of the theater and were available to those working on the man that night, Palais said. But when Age When visited later, there were no clearly marked public defibrillators in the foyer, on the mezzanine outside the theater, or in the dress room. When Triple Zero operators are checked defibrillator registration – one of the first things they do when they receive a call – is that there are no calls recorded. This situation is still valid.

A spokesman for Live Nation, which operates the Palais, said: “We extend our sincerest condolences to his family and loved ones.”

“Out of respect for the family, we do not deem it appropriate to comment further.

“The Palais Theater continues to have defibrillators on site, with relevant staff receiving training in their use.”

When I ask Wight what he wants from his campaign, he points to the theater. “Next time I come here, there will be an AED on every floor,” he says. “My focus is, let’s get these things to these places. Let’s shame the politicians. Let’s kick their asses, because it’s possible to do it.”

Minutes before our meeting – the culmination of months of emailed updates and musings – Wight received an alert from the Victorian parliament confirming that his online petition to commission public defibrillators had been approved. He was triumphant as he pulled his ute into a parking lot near the Palais and stared at his phone.

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