Kim Wilkie (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome this opportunity to discuss the Maritime Transport and Offshore Facilities Security Amendment (Maritime Security Guards and Other Measures) Bill 2005 and the worthy amendment moved by the member for Brisbane. If I could beg the Speaker’s indulgence in the few minutes before question time, I would like to briefly reflect on the death earlier this week of writer Colin Thiele. The mention of Mr Thiele at the start of my discussion on the bill before us is not as strange as it may seem. I know a generation of my constituents will have grown up reading the works of Mr Thiele, especially his iconic novel Storm Boy as well as other well-known works such as The Fire in the Stone and Magpie Island.

Colin Thiele served in the Royal Australian Air Force during World War II and had a long association with schools and educational institutions. Mr Thiele had a particular talent for evocative portrayal of the Australian coastal landscape. For students growing up in the 1970s in some of the larger, crowded urban centres in our capital cities, many of whom arrived from overseas, Thiele’s stories reflected the Australian affinity with the ocean and our proud maritime history. Our sympathies go to his family.

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