Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I welcome the government's response to the parliamentary report on the Christmas Island boat tragedy. The events of that December day last year when SIEV221 crashed into the rocks at Christmas Island are of course well-documented and well-known to all Australians. The parliamentary committee, which had representation from both chambers and from all sides of the House—and I appreciate the minister's comments—did work diligently together. I congratulate the chair, Gavin Marshall, who did a good job in his responsibilities in chairing that committee.

The committee found what were reasonably uncontroversial recommendations—namely, that a permanent memorial be established at Christmas Island to commemorate that tragedy, and also that DIAC and relevant contractors employed by DIAC, such as Serco, continue to monitor the wellbeing of the survivors and make sure that they have access to appropriate counselling services.

Finally, the third recommendation was that the Commonwealth agencies continue to monitor the wellbeing of their personnel who were involved in the rescue on the day. They did that rescue in terrible conditions in the most heroic way possible. The third recommendation that the minister has said that the government would agree to is to make sure that those personnel are monitored and given appropriate support to cope with what were obviously very difficult circumstances in the aftermath of those tragic events.

We heard evidence from people who were involved on that day about the terrible effects that it had on them and others on Christmas Island in the wake of that tragedy—not least, in terms of the aftermath, of course, concerned the survivors who were on the boat. Those survivors really do owe their lives to the courage of Australian Navy and Customs personnel and the Australian Federal Police on that day.

There were dreadful conditions on Christmas Island on that day in December, the worst conditions that long-resident locals had seen. It really was what could be considered a 'perfect storm', and the timing of the arrival on the island of that particular vessel could not have been worse. There was certainly no way that any vessels could have been put to sea safely to try to assist those survivors. The people on land, sadly, were rendered very helpless by those conditions even though the boat came very close to landfall. It was really left to both the crew of the Triton and the other naval vessel there to put the RIBs, the small inflatable craft they have, to sea and to do everything they could in what were really incredibly bad conditions to rescue as many people as possible. If they had not taken those actions, if they had not risked their lives—and it is a miracle that nobody was killed or more seriously injured from those vessels—there is no question that every single person, with one exception, would have perished.

So we do congratulate them, and I certainly believe that it is appropriate that they be honoured. I know that those involved in that rescue have been honoured for their service. I would certainly deem it appropriate—and I think the government shares in this view—that every avenue for recognising what they did on that day is looked at. I think that all in the parliament would support that, as is appropriate.

These events are a reminder to everyone in the House that we need to do everything we can to stop people taking that voyage. There is no question that if those weather conditions were repeated there is nothing that any government could do to take remedial action to make sure that those events and this tragedy did not occur again. The committee looked at what was done and of course what could be done in the future, and the truth is that if people continue to make that voyage then the possibility exists that a tragedy like this will re-occur. There is nothing that Christmas Islanders or any government authority can do to make sure that that does not happen. When the weather is that bad, if people are coming down, there is no lifesaving equipment that could be deployed to ensure that this tragedy does not re-occur. It is very important for all members of the House to reflect upon that and, whilst we will do everything we can to make sure that there is not a repeat of these events, there is nothing that the government can do to ensure that that is the case whilst people continue to take this very dangerous voyage.

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