Thank you very much to my parliamentary colleague Joel Fitzgibbon for that welcome. Can I also acknowledge my Federal parliamentary colleague Sharon Grierson and Jill Hall who are here, as well as state and local members.
I specifically want to acknowledge our colleagues and friends from the CFMEU, Tony Maher the National President, Grahame Kelly the District Secretary and Peter Jordan the District President of the United Mineworkers' Federation.
And I want to acknowledge every unionist here today, their family members and friends and those who have come to mourn and reflect .
This is a sacred day for this place, a day that you gather to mourn and reflect and you've chosen to do it today, a day when the world is gathering to mourn and reflect on events which changed our world ten years ago.
I'm sure all of us here will always remember where we were when we first heard news of the terrorist attacks in the United States.
We felt the shock, we felt the sadness , we felt the grief, and then we felt the sense of resolve that we never again wanted to see lives lost, including Australian lives lost through acts of terror.
Unfortunately, tragically, in the decade in between we have seen lives lost, including Australian lives lost, through acts of terrorism.
So on this day, on this day that marks an event that changed our world, I know that we gather here thinking of the people in the coal mining industry , but also thinking of those Australians who mourn lost loved ones in terrorist attacks ten years ago and on tragic days since.
This is a fitting place for us to gather and to reflect.
We are here to gather and reflect on those lost directly to you through mining.
Paul Keating first led the first service here in 1996.
I feel deeply privileged to follow in his footsteps today.
On that day, Paul Keating stood alongside the greatest son of these coalfields, Jim Comerford, who is sadly no longer with us.
I honour Jim's memory and I pay my respects to his widow Mabel, who is with us today.
Remember Before God the Men and Boys Who Gave Their Lives in Northern District Mines
These are the words inscribed upon this wall.
Solemn words.
Words that even in this desensitised age are still able to move us and to disturb us.
Because the men and boys killed here in these coalfields number more than 1800.
More than all the soldiers killed in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan combined.
The youngest of them was just 11. The oldest 73.
And reflect on this fact:
Coal mining began in the Hunter in 1801.
Yet according to the former State Member John Mills, there was no year before 2001 where a miner was not killed in NSW.
Two centuries.
Two centuries of relentless loss and death.
Deaths that have left fatherless children and grieving partners and shattered mates.
Deaths that have diminished us as a nation and as a people.
But friends, those 1800 deaths are not just historic events lodged in a more primitive and distant past.
They are, to our shame, a contemporary reality in this Valley and in this industry.
Four men were killed in the Gretley disaster in 1996.
And three since 2009, including one man - Peter Jones - killed at Lake Macquarie just 13 weeks ago.
It is well that we mourn them.
We must always do that.
But for a Labor Government and the Labor Movement, it is not enough to be sorry after the fact.
Every employee has the right to leave for their job in the expectation they will return safe home, they will be there for their family and friends when the working day is done.
It is as fundamental a right as there can be in our workplaces and in our laws.
For over 100 years, the union has preached the message of safety at every turn.
Thankfully we now have some of the best mine safety laws in the world.
But in the Labor Movement we know that our duty of solidarity does not stop at Australia's shores.
Workers everywhere deserve the same high protections that the nation now enjoys.
We know from the recent mining accidents overseas how far some countries are yet to come.
And we know that journey will be accomplished faster if the global community speaks with a united voice.
The International Labour Organisation has proposed a Convention Concerning Safety and Health in Mines, known as Convention 176.
While Australian laws exceed this standard, we must play our part in lifting standards in other mining nations.
I can therefore confirm today that Australia will ratify Convention 176.
And having ratified it we will work with other mining nations around the world to ratify it as well.
Friends, consistent with long-standing practice on ratification, we will of course consult State and Territory governments and your union, but we will get this done.
Friends, we should lead.
This wall shows us why we must.
Too many lives lost.
Too many futures stolen.
Too many homes that received a knock at the door or a phone call and the realisation that a morning's hurried kiss goodbye was an unintended last farewell.
Such irreplaceable, wasteful, needless loss.
A tragedy. A reproach.
And a call to do better.
Because there must come a day when no more names are added to this wall.
May that day be soon.
There has been enough pain and enough loss.