Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on indulgence: on behalf of the opposition I join with the Prime Minister in remembering the sixth anniversary of the Bali bombings, a tragic day when 88 Australians lost their lives and all Australians lost their innocence in the face of the war against terror. It was brought home to us as harshly and as really as if it had happened in the middle of an Australian city. These Australians were there enjoying their freedom. They were there living life to the full, as so many Australians had done before that day and have done since then. The terrorists who killed them—those murderers who took away their lives, the lives of the people from Bali and the lives of other nationals—were mounting an assault not just on the individuals but on the freedom for which they and all of us stand. It is right that we never forget that day. We always honour the memory of those who died, because the war that is being waged against us by these terrorists is a war that is waged against our freedom. We do well to remember that they seek to take that from us just as they took the lives from the Australians in Bali on that terrible day.

Of the 88 Australians who lost their lives, 20 of them were from the eastern suburbs of Sydney—from Coogee, from Maroubra, from Malabar and from Matraville. I see the member for Kingsford Smith nodding his head. Both of us have constituents who suffered and died and constituents who continue to mourn the deaths on that day. Let us never forget that day, and let us never forget that the freedom they were exercising is the freedom we must always fight for in Australia’s name.

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