More than $70,000 raised after ACT mum was murdered one week after giving birth.

The Canberra community has rallied around the family of Tara Costigan who was found dead on Saturday.

More than $72,000 in donations have been raised for Tara Costigan’s three children since her body was discovered in her Calwell townhouse in Canberra’s south on Saturday afternoon.

For more on this story: “A week ago Tara Costigan was celebrating the birth of her daughter. Now she is dead.”

The 28-year-old, who police suspect was murdered by an ex-partner, left behind a newborn daughter and two sons aged nine and 11.

A crowd funding website was set up by Ms. Costigan’s friends on Monday to raise money for her family.

One of the organisers of the fund, Emma Luke, said she was overwhelmed by the response so far.

“I’m hoping it will go towards the kids, they’re never going to get their mum back, but a little bit of money can go a long way,” she said.

Marcus Rappel, 40, has now been formally charged with Ms Costigan’s murder and with breaching a domestic violence prevention order.

In a powerful speech delivered to the lower house today, Deputy Leader of the Opposition Tanya Plibersek offered her condolences to the  family and spoke out about the scourge of family violence in Australia.

Bill Shorten: “We need a national crisis summit to tackle domestic violence.”

“This morning we woke to a front page story in the Canberra Times about the brutal murder of Tara Costigan,” she said.

“Tara had sought, and gained, an interim domestic violence order against the man now charged with murdering her, just one day before her death.

“Tara hoped that the provisions of the law and the resources of her government would protect her. They did not.”

Ms Plibersek reminded the house that Ms Costigan’s death was not an anomaly – far from it.

“Tara Costigan is not the only, is far from the only, Australian woman our community, our legal system, our governments have failed,” she said.

“How many thousands of women, right now, how many thousands of women and their children are living in terror in their own homes?

“These women are not statistics. Each and every one of them is a daughter, a sister, perhaps a mother, an aunt – each and every one of them is part of our community and to each and every one of them we owe an unyielding determination that this will stop.”

Watch the full speech here.