Peter Slipper (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to highlight a special event that was held on the Sunshine Coast this morning. The Walk for Daniel attracted some 140-plus people who participated in a community walk from the Suncoast Christian College car park at Woombye to Kolora Park at Palmwoods. The walk had several aims. It launched the Day for Daniel, which draws attention to child safety matters as well as the unsolved disappearance of Daniel Morcombe, who vanished on 7 December 2003 while waiting for a bus. The bus stop is not far from where this morning’s walk started. Daniel was about two weeks shy of his 14th birthday. He is believed to have been abducted and murdered. Despite extensive police investigations that are still ongoing and widespread media coverage that has extended across Australia and around the world, key information that will solve this mystery is still needed. It is hoped that events such as the Walk for Daniel, which received nationwide media coverage on the Sunrise television program this morning and will feature prominently in the Sunshine Coast media, will ensure that the search for information on Daniel’s disappearance will not stop until the answer is found.

The walk also highlights the aims of the Daniel Morcombe Foundation, which promotes child protection initiatives, in particular the education of children to make them aware of the dangers in our community. As the website of the foundation says: ‘All too often children are the innocent victims in our sometimes cruel society.’ The events surrounding Daniel’s disappearance have strengthened the community in their resolve to ensure that this type of tragedy never occurs again. That community resolve was certainly on display at the walk this morning. A member of my staff who lives at Palmwoods tells me that it was a sight to see. Walkers wore red and carried red balloons, forming an impressive mass of bright red as they made their way down the footpath on the Woombye-Palmwoods Road.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

As I was saying before I was interrupted by the division in the main chamber, red is the colour of the T-shirt that Daniel Morcombe was wearing the day he disappeared. It is now also the colour of the foundation. The Daniel Morcombe Foundation aims to assist victims of these sorts of crimes, to promote and attract fundraising and to ensure that the search for Daniel continues.

As a father of two, I wish to honour Daniel’s parents, Bruce and Denise, for the strength they have displayed in what can only be a heart-wrenching situation. The loss of a child in such circumstances is something the rest of us find almost incomprehensible. It is testament to Bruce’s and Denise’s love and commitment that they continue to drive the Daniel Morcombe Foundation and have used their own unbearable situation to promote the ideals of child safety to other children and parents in the hope that they will help prevent similar crimes and therefore protect families from the pain that they themselves have suffered with their loss of Daniel. I want to commend the Sunshine Coast community for their support of the family, and I hope that it is possible to find the necessary information so that the family is able to achieve the closure they so desperately desire and deserve.