Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications) Share this | Hansard source

The siege at the Lindt cafe was terrifying for several reasons. It was carried out in full view of the media and in turn, the Australian and, indeed, the world community—reflecting it would seem a quite deliberate decision on the part of the gunman—and meant that all of us watched in horror as we began to understand the gravity of the situation that those inside the cafe faced.

It occurred in an iconic location, familiar to nearly anybody who lives in Sydney and to people from all around Australia. Martin Place, after all, is the very heart of the central business district of our largest city, the place where the Anzac Day service occurs and where so many other events are held. It is, I think, human nature that such an event has an even more dramatic and immediate impact on us when it occurs in familiar territory. And of course it occurred in the course of an ordinary and unremarkable event in the life of any modern Australian: going to get a coffee. Could there be a more potent reminder of how capricious life can be, that such a mundane act should expose the victims to this horror?

So many of us would have watched this awful drama play out feeling a grim suspicion that there was very likely someone inside the Lindt cafe whom we knew, or to whom we were connected by only one or two degrees of separation. Several speakers on this motion have revealed that this was the case for them, and in my own case I learned that one of the victims: Sydney barrister, wife and mother, Katrina Dawson, was the sister of Angus Dawson, a partner at management consulting firm, McKinsey, with whom I had worked on several projects over the years. I was pleased to have the opportunity to speak to Angus briefly the other day, when he and other family members and victims of the siege were in Parliament House, and to express, using the same inadequate words that we all find ourselves using in these circumstances, my sorrow for the loss suffered by him and his family.

I want to express on behalf of the people of Bradfield my very great sorrow at the loss of Katrina Dawson and the loss of Tori Johnson, the manager of the Lindt cafe. To all who were held hostage throughout that dreadful period, I express my sympathy and my admiration for your courage.

To those who took the bold gamble to escape during the siege, I want to acknowledge your will to live and your determination to seize the chance when it came. To the police and emergency services, I want to say how comforting it was, in this dreadful period, to see highly skilled and trained men and women working calmly in the face of great pressure, aiming to save lives and end the siege. You carefully worked to see if the situation could be resolved without violence. And when the shocking moment came in which the gunman killed Tori Johnson—and it became clear that a peaceful resolution was no longer possible—you acted immediately and with great courage to storm the building, undoubtedly saving lives in the process.

This has been a testing event for our country. It has shocked many of us with the realisation that the threat of terror, in this case purportedly in the name of Islam, is not something theoretical and remote. It is all too real. It is a threat that we will face for many years, it seems, and there is much work underway in responding to the threat and seeking to best protect the Australian community.

There is some comfort to be found in the magnificent and quite spontaneous reaction of Australians to this tragedy. Let us hold to that comfort as we express our sadness at the death of two fine young Australians, at the great loss suffered by their families and at the physical and mental injury suffered by other victims.

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