John Murphy (Reid, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Minister, over the period from January this year to March, there was a set of rolling consular emergencies involving Australians overseas. This seemed to begin with the unrest in Egypt in January and was followed by the unrest in Libya, which resulted in the closure of our consulate in Tripoli and the evacuation of Australian nationals, including our diplomatic staff. At the same time as the Libya crisis was unfolding, there was an earthquake in Christchurch followed by a tsunami in Japan on 11 March which led to a nuclear situation at Fukushima power plant. Minister, from the inquiries that I received at my electorate office, which were overwhelmingly laudatory in terms of the conduct of your department in those posts, and supported by reports in the electronic and print media, I would be interested to know how the department responded to this unprecedented set of consular emergencies.

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