Mark Baker (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This evening I rise to reflect on another tragedy that befell my electorate of Braddon in north-west Tasmania at the weekend. In recent years the Circular Head community has had to deal with too much tragedy. In 2004 a house fire claimed the lives of four children, and a plane crash in March 2003 claimed the lives of three young builders and their pilot. Last Saturday morning, 25 February, the small community of Circular Head lost five young women in a road accident near Burnie, only a few kilometres from my electorate office. Three members of the Smithton Saints under-16 girls basketball team were lost: Claire Tapson, 14 years old; Larissa Heron, 14 years old; Bianca Thorp, 15 years old; their coach, Bianca Gourley, who was 25 years old and three months pregnant; and Sherilea Keating, who was 36 years old and the mother of Larissa Heron. A passenger from another vehicle involved in the accident was critically injured and has been undergoing spinal surgery in Melbourne.

What do we say when a tragedy such as this rocks our community? A little over a week ago we learned of the horrific loss of life at Mildura and felt sadness for the victims’ families and their community. Never did we think that less than a week later we would have to confront tragedy once again. The communities of Circular Head and Mildura are united in their grief and in trying to come to terms with the sudden loss of so many of their young people. At Smithton on Sunday evening I attended a service for those who died and I was overcome by the expression of grief in the community. There I saw many relatives whom I had played football with, and, as I discovered recently, the principal of the school was a teacher I had taught with some 18 years ago.

This is a community that stands together in times of adversity and it is a community that is truly united in its grief. The words of local pastor Trevor Marshall show what we must do when there are no words. Mr Marshall told us:

We don’t know what to say. So just put your arms around them and tell them you love them.

As a local representative of the community, all I can offer are my condolences and support to the families of those who have lost loved ones. And I offer my support and best wishes to the woman who was injured and to her family. There is no sense to be made of such tragedies; no answers for why so many lives have been lost in a split second. As the days go by we must not succumb to looking for blame but must remain united as a community. This tragedy should highlight to us all both the frailty of life and the strength of our communities. We must not take any moment for granted; we must treasure our families and our friends. This is what we must do to truly honour the memory of those who have gone.

I want to end by paying tribute to those who were taken from us—to the three budding young basketballers, to their coach, a mother to be, and to a mother. I want to do so in the words of a friend and team-mate of the girls. She said:

We just want our friends remembered for how they were. They were all very, very nice people. They cared about people and we miss them very much.