Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in support of the condolence motion moved by the Prime Minister and seconded by the Leader of the Opposition. Today this parliament is honouring those five Australians whose lives were tragically lost when, on 7 March, Garuda flight 200 crashed. Today we demonstrate our grief. Now and forever there is a bond between Liz O’Neill, Allison Sudradjat, Brice Steele, Mark Scott and Morgan Mellish. They lost their lives together, far too soon, when they had too much left to live for, leaving grieving families and grieving friends behind.

But even as they stepped onto that Garuda flight they had something in common: they were going to work. And even though it was work in a far-flung destination they were doing what millions of Australians do every day. They said goodbye to their families and they went to work that day not knowing that it would be their last.

Many Australians have been touched deeply by this tragedy, particularly here in Canberra. I was particularly moved by an opinion piece written by Malcolm Farr in the Daily Telegraph on 9 March where he described a speech given by Laura Tingle about Morgan Mellish and this tragedy generally. He described the nature of its effect on Canberra in the following terms:

An unusual factor of the Garuda plane crash on Wednesday was that it struck to the core of three quite small communities, groups which are separate but interrelated in Canberra.

They were the communities of journalists, diplomats and federal police.

Each one of the groups is quite tiny and close-knit. Those in them know just about all the others personally or at a narrow remove. People retire but never really leave their community.

Members of each group spend much of their time tending to the tragedies of others, telling the stories of tragedy’s victims and easing the pain of those tragedy has left behind. In this case they were the ones left behind.

Let me echo those words.

Even Australians who did not know Liz or Allison or Brice or Mark or Morgan have been touched by this tragedy as well. Many Australians know what it is like to visit Indonesia, to jump on an internal flight, to run the gauntlet of the last-minute changes to flights, to nervously joke in a very Australian way about air safety even as you sit on the flight and then, behind the very Australian jokes, to really be just that little bit nervous, to pay just that little bit more attention to the air safety demonstration, to strap that seatbelt on just that little bit tighter. But even as we do those things we never really think that it is going to happen to us. Then it does happen to five Australians and we are left with the shock of unexpected death, the grief and of course the unanswerable question: why? The randomness of this tragedy really does take your breath away. If only that last-minute ticket swap had not occurred; if only that other flight had not been missed—if only. They are all questions we will never know the answers to.

My condolences go out to the relatives and friends of those who have tragically lost their lives. These are the people who have lost so much. My thoughts go to all of those who were injured in this tragedy. But may I pause, Mr Speaker, to specifically offer my best wishes to Cynthia Banham and all those close to her as she fights to survive and come back from her own ordeal. We know she used her extraordinary physical fitness to help her survive when others did not and to escape the inferno which erupted when the plane skidded to a stop in those rice paddies. I know the thoughts of many are with her, and with her partner and my friend, Michael Harvey, and I trust that we will see her back in the press gallery. Though we will never see Morgan Mellish again, I know he will be remembered.

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