I move:
That this House:
(1) marks the first anniversary of the Bali tragedy by honouring those who lost their lives or were injured in the horrific terrorist attacks of 12 October 2002;
(2) offers its continuing support and compassion to all those who have been hurt by this terrible event, especially the bereaved and the injured;
(3) sends its heartfelt sympathy to the people and Government of Indonesia and the other nations whose citizens were killed or injured in the attacks;
(4) conveys its deep appreciation to those who volunteered to assist in the terrible aftermath of the attacks;
(5) expresses its gratitude to the Indonesian Government and authorities for their cooperation and support in bringing those who perpetrated this horrendous crime to justice;
(6) reiterates its condemnation of those who employ terror and indiscriminate violence against innocent people, and
(7) reaffirms Australia';s commitment to continue the fight against terrorism in our region and in the rest of the world.
Mr Speaker, 12 October 2002 is a day that will ever be remembered as a day on which evil struck with indiscriminate and indescribable savagery. Today, almost a year on from the terrible attack in Bali that claimed the lives of 88 Australian citizens and three people who had chosen to make this nation their permanent home, it is appropriate that this parliament pause for a moment and remember those who died, think about and express our compassion to those who were left bereaved and try and contemplate, as a national parliament, the significance of that event, both then and in a continuing sense, on the life of our nation. Especially today, we think of those who lost their children—their sons or their daughters—we think of those who lost their husbands or their wives, their mothers or their fathers, their brothers or their sisters, their mates or other loved ones.
We are reminded, as we have been over the past two weeks, that this is the end of season for the football codes of our country with the exception of one. It is an occasion when so many young men and their friends go abroad to let off some steam and to celebrate the successful end in some cases, but generally the end of a football season. Forever there will be linked with the terrible deeds in Bali the loss of so many young sporting lives, people who were doing nothing more provocative and nothing worse than having a bit of fun in a holiday resort at the end of a hard season.
This has been a very hard year for those touched by the Bali tragedy. It has been a very hard year for the families of those who died. Their grief and their loss, and their sense of injustice and alienation will go on for years. It is our task and responsibility, as their fellow Australians and as a nation, to offer as much support and compassion in an ongoing sense as we can but to understand that grief, by its nature, is intensely private; no one person handles it the same as another. Each handles it in a different way; some more readily than others. It is our responsibility, as friends and fellow Australians, to do what we can to lighten their personal burden.
It has also been a hard year for the people of Bali because inevitably this terrorist attack inflicted enormous economic cost on the people of that lovely island. Of all of the reactions I have had from Australians over the last year about the attack in Bali, one very deep impression that has been left with me is the fact that no malice is felt towards the lovely people of Bali. Nobody feels any hatred for the people of Bali. They all feel that the people of Bali suffered along with the rest, as they did, and that they have paid a terrible price for the terrible and foul deeds of those who were responsible for this terrible crime.
The last year has also told us something about the Australian character, something about the Australian personality. It was a terrible event and it brought forth an outpouring of national mourning and grief, the like of which I have not seen in peacetime in this country. But it also demonstrated that nothing will break the Australian spirit. It demonstrated that we are a remarkable people, that we are tough and durable and resilient—indeed, I have said on many occasions, as tough as tungsten. But we are also a warm and embracing people, and the compassion that we displayed towards our fellow Australians, the instantaneous marshalling of all of the efforts of the agencies of this country that were required to bring the horribly injured out of Bali and back to Australia, was quite astonishing. We saw in the days and weeks that followed, and we will see it again over the coming weekend, a great coming together of national mourning and grief and a common expression of outrage, but also a common expression of compassion and love towards those of our fellow countrymen and countrywomen who have lost so much.
In the last year, we have had scores of touching, tearful and very emotional human stories of tremendous courage of people like Peter Hughes, Jason McCartney and the lady, whose name escapes me, who was only released from hospital for first time three days ago, having been in burns treatment for almost a year as a result of the burns that she suffered on that night. We can reflect with grief, anger, a sense of injustice and a proper sense of revulsion about what occurred, but we can also look back with a sense of pride on the resilience of the Australian nation and of the Australian character. We can thank the people of Australia for demonstrating their basic humanity. We can thank all of those who did so much. There are the men and women of the Australian Defence Force—those wonderful people who were there on the spot immediately it happened. There was the work of our consul in Bali, Ross Tysoe, who carried the immediate administrative load. There was the work of course of those who were involved in the gruesome task of identifying the victims, having to carry out their task according to the dictates of international law governing the identification of victims of mass attacks of this kind. There was the assistance they received from volunteers—Balinese schoolchildren, Mr Speaker—who made their time and effort available to help in this extraordinary endeavour.
We have present in the gallery, Mr Bambang Yudhoyono, the senior coordinating minister in the Indonesian government. On behalf of the people of Australia, I want to thank the response of the Indonesian government to this particular tragedy. The Indonesian government responded immediately. There was the work of the Indonesian police and the work of the Indonesian military. There was the willingness as a result of a meeting which was held within two days of the tragedy between the foreign minister, the Minister for Justice and the President of Indonesia that resulted in the unprecedented formation of a joint team of investigation. I want to pay a special tribute to the Australian Federal Police for their cooperation. Their forensic skills and their assistance were made available to their counterparts in Indonesia. Without the application and the commitment of the government and the people of Indonesia, those responsible for these terrible crimes would not have been brought to justice. I want to say to the senior representative of the Indonesian government present in the chamber today how much we are in your debt, how much the Australian people, especially the relatives of those who died, appreciate the commitment, dedication and application of your police force and your military in the ongoing determination to bring these criminals and these terrorists to justice.
I also wish, in that context, to pay a particular tribute to the foreign minister and the justice minister whose early seeking of a meeting with the Indonesian government led to the formation of that joint investigation. It is impossible on an occasion like this to remember and record gratitude to all of those who played a part in responding. I want to say that those who offered immediate comfort—those chaplains and others who offered comfort—to the people who lost their loved ones deserve our special thanks. I know that the Deputy Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition who accompanied me to Bali within a few days of the attack will know how important that assistance and that provision of support and comfort was to those people.
As we reflect on what happened and as we join as a nation, both here and in Bali on Sunday—and again on the 16th of the month in the Great Hall where a commemoration service to mark the event will be held—we have to try and assess as best we can the impact of this event, because it will not quickly recede—indeed, it will never recede—from the memory and the consciousness of the Australian people. It will become one of those sad landmark events that, as the years go by, will be remembered as representative of international evil, international terrorism and international malice. But it will also be remembered, as other days which have represented tragedy in the history of our country and our people, as a day when Australians displayed remarkable courage, remarkable strength, remarkable compassion and remarkable affection to those who have been so badly injured and so badly hurt.
I think it has brought home to us for first time in the experience of many Australians a collective sense of national grief and mourning about a particular event. We have grown used to prolonged periods of peace, in the long years of freedom from world war, and the idea that the death of people other than in accidents or in relatively small numbers in different parts of the world is something that does not affect us. To lose 88 Australian citizens and three residents in one event so close to this country did give us a jolt. It did remind us of our essential vulnerability. I did remind us that nobody anywhere in the world is beyond the reach of terrorism. Terrorism is not anything that is calculated in the sense of whom it singles out. It is random as well as being barbaric. None of us are beyond the reach of it. This country is relatively safer than others but, as I have said repeatedly and I will say again, nobody in my position can responsibly purport to guarantee that this country will not be the subject of a terrorist attack, and indeed there are parts of the world in which travel for Australians remains difficult and dangerous.
Bali brought home to us a reassuring reminder of the great duality of the Australian character. It is strong and soft; it is tough and caring, all at the same time. We are neither just direct, laconic people with no touch of warmth and softness to our character any more than we are a people who are totally preoccupied with sentimentality. We are a remarkable, impressive combination of the two. I think that, more than anything else, that came through in the aftermath of the Bali attack. To me, it is a very warming reassurance of just how fine a people the Australian nation represents.
I think Bali has brought us closer to our neighbours. It has reminded all of us that we are together in this fight against terrorism, that terrorism is the enemy of Indonesia as much as it is the enemy of Australia. Terrorism has as one of its goals the undermining of the democratic Indonesian state. Terrorism has as its goal, through intimidation, the imposition on governments of radical, bigoted and intolerant notions of governance and religious belief.
Bali has also brought home to all of us the need to re-emphasise the virtues of tolerance and harmony within our own community. I had the opportunity last Saturday morning of opening some extensions to the Islamic School of Brisbane. Sadly, just two years ago, students from that school travelling in a bus were stoned by some rather foolish and ignorant people in the aftermath of the attack on the World Trade Centre in New York. This is an occasion for me as Prime Minister to say to Australians of Islamic descent: ‘Your place, your role and your rights as Australians are as important to me as the rights, the role and the place of Australians of other religious beliefs.'; This is a country which respects people';s religious difference. We also respect those who have no religious belief. We are a nation founded on the Judaeo-Christian ethic and instructed in many of our mores and habits, properly, by the Judaeo-Christian ethic, but we are a nation which is not blind to the values and virtues of other religions and other beliefs. When I visited that school, the reading may have been from the Koran but the accents of the children were the same as those you would find at Canterbury Boys High School—if I may borrow some examples—Scotch College or indeed Perth Modern School. It was a very vivid reminder to me of just how important common citizenship of this country really is. So this is a time to emphasise the virtues of tolerance and harmony among the Australian people.
The events in Bali reminded us that the war against terrorism must go on however long that period may be. At the very least, we owe it to those who died in Bali to never desist in our attempts, along with our allies, to destroy terrorism around the world. If we do not do that, we will have failed in one of our most basic duties to those people. We are reminded not only that terrorism is barbaric and random but also that over the last six months it is the case that more Muslims have died at the hands of terrorists than have Christians or Jews. That is a reminder of how abhorrent to the Islamic faith is terrorism—as it is abhorrent to Christianity and Judaism.
To those who died, we remember them. To those who lost so much, we try as best we can, and however inadequately, to feel for them and to continue to support them. As a nation we collectively acknowledge our vulnerability, but we resolutely determine to continue the fight against terrorism and to maintain the values of this country—the values of tolerance, openness and harmony, and of welcome to those who believe in the values and aspirations of this country. We were changed by Bali. We were not weakened; indeed, we were strengthened. But we have gone through an experience that will be forever part of the national consciousness. It is appropriate as we reflect on the terrible deeds of that night that we honour those who died, we renew our friendship with the people of Indonesia, especially the people of Bali, and we continue to express our love and compassion to those who lost their loved ones.
[ends]