Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition would no doubt recall Howard government decisions about how it would assist victims of terrorism—including 9/11 in 2001 and both of the Bali bombings. I do recall that the Leader of the Opposition was on the spot in Bali for the second round of Bali bombings and was personally there trying to assist some of the victims, so I do understand that this is a matter in which the Leader of the Opposition had direct and personal contact during the days that he was a minister in the Howard government. I presume he is familiar with the way in which the Howard government made its decisions about assistance. That approach was an approach of various categories of assistance. People have been provided with assistance under the Howard government approach. There is now a bipartisan will, I believe, to put that on a systematic basis for the future.

Given people have received ad hoc, if you like, assistance in the past that was not a denominated amount of money but was made up of various kinds of assistance, if the Leader of the Opposition believes that process of assistance, started understandably by the Howard government because the instances happened when Prime Minister Howard was in office, has led to unmet needs then I invite him to advise me and certainly I will consider them.

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