Mark Vaile (Lyne, National Party, Deputy Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I join the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in recording our deep regret at the tragic loss of life that occurred when Garuda flight 200 overshot the runway at Yogyakarta on 7 March. Twenty-one people lost their lives in the accident, including five Australians who were travelling in connection with the visit to Indonesia by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Attorney-General.

As the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have indicated, a number of us welcomed—if you can put it that way—the repatriation of the five Australians at Fairbairn last week. It was one of the most difficult public duties that I have encountered in my public life. Trying to comfort the families who were struggling to rationalise their loss was almost impossible. As the nation tries to give them comfort, we keep them in our prayers and hope that they have the strength to be able to continue their lives without their loved ones who were so tragically taken away from them on 7 March.

The five Australians killed came from very different backgrounds but were all drawn to Indonesia by their commitment to serving the Australian people and the Australian nation. Morgan Mellish, from the Australian Financial Review, had the potential to be one of Australia’s great foreign correspondents. He had already won a Walkley award in 2006 and should have gone on to a long and distinguished journalistic career. Tragically, that has been cut short.

Federal Agent Brice Steele was the manager of the AFP’s Indonesian operations and was one of our foremost experts on Jemaah Islamiah. With him was Federal Agent Mark Scott, who started his career on the beat in Tuggeranong and Woden here in Canberra—you could not imagine a more typical part of suburban Australia in which to start a career as a policeman. His career took him to Cyprus and Burma and then on to Indonesia. It was serving his nation as a member of the AFP that found him on that tragic flight on 7 March.

Allison Sudradjat was the head of Australia’s aid program in Indonesia. She developed her interest in Indonesia when she was at school. She dedicated her life to working on Australia’s behalf for the Indonesian people.

Finally, we honour Elizabeth O’Neill OAM, Counsellor for Public Affairs at our Jakarta embassy. I worked with Liz for a number of years in my immediate past role as Australia’s Minister for Trade, particularly when, with my Indonesian counterpart, we started developing a trade and investment framework between our two countries, focused on improving the business environment between us. Liz was legendary for her professionalism, integrity and willingness to help journalists, even when she was under enormous pressure. She dealt with some harrowing situations, including the 2004 bombing of the embassy, and the tsunami and its aftermath. She was also a member of the emergency response team sent to Bali after the October 2002 terrorist attack and was awarded the Order of Australia for her work at that time.

All we can do now is to honour their memory and to make sure that we learn from the accident that took their lives. That is the job of the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee along with some technical assistance from the Australian Transport Safety Bureau. We sent three investigators to Indonesia, including the Deputy Director of the ATSB, Alan Stray, to help with the investigation. The ATSB will continue working closely with the Indonesian National Transportation Safety Committee. In fact the ATSB recently gained funding from AusAID to enable an Indonesian investigator to train with the ATSB for 12 months from the middle of this year. Ironically, the AusAID officer who championed the project was Allison Sudradjat. Mr Speaker, I think we can speak on behalf of the entire nation in saying that our thoughts and prayers are with the families of all those who lost their lives, particularly the five Australians who lost their lives. We also need to keep in our thoughts and prayers those who were injured and who continue to fight a battle against those injuries, especially Cynthia Banham, Michael Hatton, Kyle Quinlan and Roger Tallboys.

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