Thank you very much Mick. To Your Excellency, Parliamentary Secretary, Heads of Departments, our guests, ladies and gentlemen. I feel very privileged to have this opportunity to pay tribute to those who served Australia so courageously and so bravely just a year ago in our Embassy in Jakarta. And in doing that, record on behalf of the Government, our great debt of gratitude to the men and women of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the men and women of all the other Departments that serve in missions overseas.
It's a different world we now live in. It was, as the Secretary said, the first occasion that there'd been an attack on Australians and Australian missions abroad. And that was a remarkable event and a very sad event in itself. I've never forgotten the resolve and steadiness of David Ritchie, our Ambassador, when I spoke to him only a short while after the attack took place. Despite the obvious personal danger in which he and so many of his fellow officers had been exposed to, in a thoroughly professional and robust manner he was describing what had happened, he was describing the reaction of the staff and he was giving his assessment of the casualties and the injuries that had been done to so many employed by Australia at the Embassy.
This is also an occasion very particularly to record our tremendous sense of gratitude and our great sadness towards those Indonesian Nationals who died protecting our Embassy. There were ten Indonesians killed in this attack and they were employees and helpers of our cause in Jakarta. I had the opportunity shortly after the attack of visiting the mission and meeting some of those who'd been left bereaved and some of those who were still coping with some of the terrible injuries.
And I do, Your Excellency, want to convey through you to the Government and the people of Indonesia, our continuing sense of loss and our continuing debt to those people who lost their lives serving the interests of Australia. It's an occasion to reaffirm the importance, not only of the fight against terrorism, but to reaffirm the importance of links between Australia and Indonesia. Australia and Indonesia are tied forever by circumstances of geography, strategic challenge, the place we occupy in the world, the important, very important role of Indonesia as the largest Islamic country in the world. The bonds that have grown over the last year, particularly since the election of President Yudhoyono are very important to me and all members of the Government, are very important to the future of our two countries and our shared destiny in this part of the world.
But most importantly today's an occasion for me to say thank you to the men and women of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and Defence personnel and all others whose professional lives have taken on in many senses, more threatening and dangerous dimensions in this age of terrorism. And I wouldn't want any of you gathered here today to think for a moment that the Government is not very grateful for your professionalism, very grateful for the way in which your colleagues in Jakarta just a year ago today demonstrated the highest professional standards of the Australian foreign service. You did the right thing by your country, by your profession, and by yourselves. And in honouring those who risked their lives, in recalling with sadness the Indonesians who died helping us, I express to all of you the gratitude of not only myself and my Government, but I know all of the people of Australia.
It is a sad occasion. It's an occasion to reaffirm the importance of your mission. Your commitment to the professional service of Australians abroad is something that grows in significance with each passing year.
I thank you all and again I record my sadness and my condolences to the people of Indonesia on their very sad loss.
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