Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

First of all I would like to support strongly this motion moved by the Prime Minister and supported by the Leader of the Opposition and others. Obviously the events of 7 March deeply touched all Australians—most especially the people who are in the foremost of our minds today, the families and the loved ones of those who lost their lives, but also those in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, AusAID, the Australian Federal Police and the Fairfax organisation. For them the impact of losing close friends and colleagues will be permanent and profound. As I said to officers of DFAT and AusAID just last week, in the 11 years that I have been the Minister for Foreign Affairs, and certainly in my working life, there has never been a worse day for our portfolio than that day. To lose Liz, Allison, Brice Steele, Mark Scott and Morgan Mellish in one day is a cruel thing. So our hearts and our prayers are with their families and loved ones at this terrible time. All five touched so many of us in this House in different ways.

Others have spoken of Liz O’Neill, and my experiences of her were of course very similar. I had a good deal to do with her over a number of years. I remember her back at the time of the first Bali bombing in 2002. She got an Order of Australia for her performance then, for the excellent job that she did and the other work that she did to consolidate Australia-Indonesia relations, including corralling the extraordinarily difficult Indonesian media. Some members of the House, particularly government members, will be familiar with the modern-day Indonesian media. Liz could communicate with them in Bahasa Indonesian and she could seemingly keep them under a good deal of control. She was a tremendous asset at the embassy in Jakarta. She was also a great public servant. She served on the Bougainville Peace Monitoring Group and at the embassy in Tokyo as well. She won enormous respect and great affection.

Allison Sudradjat, the head of AusAID in Indonesia, was simply an outstanding public servant and I know she will be deeply missed in AusAID. Many people in AusAID thought Allison would one day become the director-general. That is what people thought of her. She not only ran our aid operation in Indonesia—which is our biggest these days, bigger even than our program in Papua New Guinea—but also did work in Port Moresby with great distinction. But as others have said, she had a special passion for Indonesia. She knew Indonesia backwards. She did a wonderful job running that aid program. I knew her well; I respected her enormously. I saw her at a function the day before she died. I pay enormous tribute to her as a great Australian.

Brice Steele was the head of the AFP Liaison Office in Indonesia—the Minister-Counsellor (Police Liaison) at the embassy in Jakarta. One of the things that struck me about Brice Steele was that he was so young and so senior. For somebody to be so young and to be at such a senior level is an enormous tribute to him. Anybody who knew him thought the world of Brice Steele. He only recently arrived in Jakarta; he was just getting into the job. He had been involved with us in the counterterrorism conference on the Monday and the Tuesday before the tragic accident. Everyone you speak to in the Australian Federal Police speaks highly of him.

Federal agent Mark Scott was the team leader of the Regional Engagement Team in Jakarta and he played a very important role in engaging the Indonesian police on a range of particular counterterrorism initiatives. He had also served in Burma and in Cyprus, so he had had a distinguished career serving the Federal Police.

I did not know Morgan Mellish very well, but I knew him a little. I saw him in Jakarta during the days before his death, at the various doorstops that politicians have when they travel. I can only add to what others have said and say that he was a very distinguished journalist. He was also enormously popular and will be very much missed. I extend my profound sympathies to the families of all those who were killed. I also extend my profound sympathies to the many Indonesians who lost their lives or sustained serious injuries on that aircraft.

In responding to the tragedy of 7 March I would also like to pay tribute to the Australian Embassy in Jakarta. Ambassador Bill Farmer and the whole team there did a simply extraordinary job. It is important to remember that this is the embassy that was bombed on 9 September 2004, and some of the people working there today were there at that time. You can imagine the drama that this additional catastrophe was for them. The embassy staff responded just magnificently on 7 March. Fearing the worst for so many of their friends and colleagues, they nevertheless went about their work. It was quite extraordinary. I do not think anybody will ever quite know how extraordinarily professional they were. The Attorney-General and I know because we sat with them in the operations room and worked with them throughout 7 March and, in my case, also into the next day. I can only say that they showed great character and great courage, and they deserve to be honoured by the people of Australia for the professionalism they showed at that time.

Let me also publicly thank the staff of my department in the crisis centre in Canberra, in the consular and media areas and throughout the portfolio. They did a very good job. Also, in the Department of Defence so many people, both civilians and military, did an outstanding job in responding to this crisis.

The opportunity should not pass to acknowledge the generosity of Qantas, which provided an aircraft to fly the bereaved family members to and from Yogyakarta. This is pretty typical of the way Qantas responds when crises occur internationally. I do not want to advertise one airline over another—that is inappropriate—but they are a wonderful airline in that respect.

Let me add to the concerns expressed by others my words of concern for Cynthia Banham. My thoughts and prayers are very much with her. I went to see her in the hospital, as I did the others, on the day of the crash. I suppose I saw her about one o’clock in the afternoon. I am so pleased that she is recovering now. She did not look in very good shape, I have to tell the House, on that occasion. The doctor told me that she had a six per cent chance of survival. You can imagine how we all felt about that. But she has survived and that is wonderful to hear. I look forward to going over to Perth soon to see her myself. Michael Harvey has been a wonderful support to her as well. Good luck to Cynthia; I hope she gets much better very soon. Like others, I look forward to seeing her sitting up there in the press gallery and to reading her comments in the Sydney Morning Herald again before too long. I did say to her in that hospital in Yogyakarta that day—she was conscious; she was able to talk to me—that we in the federal parliament, both the government and the opposition, were all looking forward to seeing her back in Canberra. Imagine the pain she was in. But she managed to smile. It is great that she was able to do that, and it is great that she is getting better.

I also want to convey my best wishes for a full and successful recovery for Roger Tallboys. I saw him in the hospital as well. He was not as badly injured as Cynthia but he was pretty badly injured. He had burns to about 30 per cent of his body. He too is making a good recovery, in Singapore. I saw Flight Sergeant Michael Hatton and Leading Aircraftsman Kyle Quinlan. They were being traditional Australians with such courage and full of jokes while sitting in hospital somewhat injured. I remember Michael Hatton saying to me: ‘Mate, get me a ship to take me home. I don’t want to go back by plane.’ He is in the Royal Australian Air Force! They are both back, they are both fine and they were able to describe the circumstances of the accident.

In conclusion: from the point of view of my portfolio, we would like permanent memories of Liz and Allison. I am arranging for the department and AusAID to come up with ideas for a permanent memorial. I want not just some physical memorial but scholarships or some initiative of that kind—we have not worked out what it will be—because I do not think either of them should ever be forgotten in the context of my portfolio. They were really special people and I would not want them ever to be forgotten.

See this speech in context