Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Every Anzac Day I do a publication, and this year's publication is a little bit different than most. This is the12th publication I have produced for Anzac Day, but this publication has always been, as the word suggests on the cover, commemorative. It is a booklet written to generally mark past service and sacrifice while acknowledging the men and women across our country and in missions around the world who are presently wearing an Australian Defence Force uniform and doing us all proud. But this year's booklet also acknowledges what's going on in Ukraine as we speak.

The price of peace is eternal vigilance. It is also—as I acknowledged at the 3 March Ukraine war Wagga Wagga prayer vigil in the Victory Memorial Gardens—eternal compassion. The price of peace is also eternal compassion. Australia is not a warmongering nation. We have played our part in the past to protect and save other peace-abiding nations. To protect ourselves, we will always do what is required and what is asked with our allies to uphold international law and freedom.

Sadly, President Vladimir Putin has directed his Russian army against Ukraine. The 24 February invasion and what has followed has led to so many deaths of soldiers on both sides as well as innocent Ukrainian citizens. Wagga Wagga will play an integral part in any military response taken by our nation, given its unique status as a tri-service training centre. We have all three arms of Defence in Wagga Wagga, and they always stand ready to do what is required. We are assisting Ukraine very much, with $91 million in military assistance, more than 500 sanctions to impose costs on Russia, $65 million in humanitarian aid, more than 5,000 visas issued to Ukrainians and more underway—more than 1,100 Ukrainians have already arrived in Australia—and donating 70,000 tonnes of thermal coal to help keep the lights on, homes heated and factories running in Ukraine. But there's more that we can, more that we must and more that we will do.

As I say, the 3 March community prayer vigil attracted, with very little notice, 200 Wagga Wagga citizens. As I spoke and looked out across the crowd holding the Ukrainian flag, I noticed there were people with tears in their eyes. The night was highlighted by Ukrainians citizen Larissa Burak, who's made Wagga Wagga her home, performing her country's national anthem on an instrument called the bandura. It was stirring, perhaps even haunting, to hear that instrument played so well and to hear her beautiful voice singing her national anthem so proudly and with such conviction. People of all faiths attended the vigil, including Dr Ata u-Rehman of the Muslim Association of Riverina Wagga Wagga. Previous vigils have been held in our city, for the Christchurch terror attacks of 2019 and for the bombings of Sri Lanka in the same year. Wagga Wagga always comes together. We're a very multicultural city. More than 100 nations are represented on Australia Day in our fair city. I want to acknowledge one person in particular, Joan Saboisky of the San Isidore Refugee Committee. She helped arrange this prayer vigil and of course she is urging the government to do what it can for refugees. She's also doing everything she can, as a private citizen and as a member of this organisation, to embrace and put out the welcoming mat for these refugees.

I read only the other day that 4½ million people have been displaced—4½ million people. That is an extraordinary number. I was so moved by the situation in Ukraine, but I was also very moved by the response from Wagga Wagga people. Since 2014 more than 2,000 Yazidis have resettled in New South Wales, of whom more than 800 have made their home in Wagga Wagga. They're now very much part and parcel of our city. Indeed, I even have a Yazidi refugee, who couldn't speak English four years ago, working in my electoral office in Wagga Wagga. Dawlat is an amazing person who always greets constituents with a warm smile and answers the phone beautifully. This is what can be done and this is what should be done when we have refugees fleeing persecution, fleeing violence and fleeing war-torn situations. I'm sure that Wagga Wagga—indeed, communities in the Riverina electorate, from Parkes to West Wyalong and from Yerong Creek to Cowra—would welcome with compassion, as they have done in the past, any refugees from Ukraine who come to our country.

This is the fastest-growing refugee crisis since the Second World War. This is a humanitarian crisis, and Australia will stand ready to do what we can, as we always do. But Moscow needs to act and act now to pull out its troops to stop this bloody invasion that has caused such heartache and terror among Ukraine's citizens. What an amazing response from the leader of Ukraine. He's a former comedian whose solidarity with his people is truly remarkable, I have to say. If he's not Time's Person of the Year then I'll be very, very surprised. We've heard about a number of atrocities that have been reported involving innocent civilians—and, of course, they're all innocent—including the bombing of a school in Mariupol, where a reported 400 civilians were sheltering, and an air strike on a theatre in the same centre. But the bombing of maternity hospitals is just despicable. It breaks the hearts of all fair-minded people to see these sorts of actions being taken.

But I say to the people of Ukraine: Australia stands with you, as does every fair-minded nation on this planet. We are with you, we support you, we feel your pain and we will not abandon you. After the war is over—and I've no doubt that Ukraine will prevail over its invaders—there'll be a massive rebuilding task which will require the help of all the nations on earth. It will require generosity from nations such as Australia, and we will provide that generosity. I'm sure, whatever government takes the treasury bench after the May election, that support will be there, because I know how horrified all members of this parliament are about what is happening in Ukraine at the moment. We wish our friends in Kyiv and elsewhere in that war-torn nation all the very best as they combat evil, as they combat tyranny, as they combat this invasion that should never, ever have occurred. We stand with them, we pray with them and we love them.

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