Graham Edwards (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary (Defence and Veterans' Affairs)) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to convey my deepest condolences to all who lost their lives and for those who suffered in the dreadful crash of the Garuda 737 plane. I particularly want to make some comments about Cynthia Banham, a crash survivor. The week before the crash, Cynthia was in my office discussing veterans and defence issues. As we were reminded yesterday by the member for Barton, Cynthia had sat through the Sea King crash inquiry and had clearly supported those involved in that tragic crash, and their families. Cynthia, a Sydney Morning Herald journalist, had also written a piece on a speech given by the Minister for Veterans’ Affairs, Bruce Billson. In response to the veterans’ anger sparked by that speech, the minister suggested she had misquoted him, but Cynthia Banham strongly denied getting it wrong. Yesterday, all speakers, both government and opposition, remarked on what a wonderful and professional journalist she is. Mr Robert McClelland, the member for Barton, stated:

I will return in my comments to Cynthia Banham. Interestingly, and perhaps profoundly, I became quite close to Cynthia during her reporting of the Sea King accident. I know that during that investigation she became quite an advocate for the families who had suffered loss in that accident. Cynthia covered a broad range of views, but I think that in her writings we can see—more than with any other journalist in Australia, I think it is fair to say—a real passion for those who have suffered injustice. I note the Minister for Defence nodding in appreciation. Cynthia really was an advocate for those who perhaps had been afforded less justice than we as a community and a parliament would expect. She will forever have our respect in that regard.

Cynthia is receiving strong support from her partner, Mike Harvey. Mike is the journalist who was involved in the leaked document which exposed the government’s response to the Clark review. He is still enduring the ramifications of that issue. I had the opportunity to speak to Mike the other day; he is without doubt a man’s man. I know he is closely and strongly supporting Cynthia in the struggle she is going through.

Cynthia is currently being treated in Royal Perth Hospital. I make a plea to the veterans community in Australia. Here we have two champions of the veterans and defence community. Cynthia is lucky to be alive but has suffered incredible injuries, including lower limb amputation. She fights a daily challenge with an immense courage and spirit. She has the love and support of her partner, Michael Harvey.

My plea to the veteran community is to get behind Cynthia. Offer her all of your support, encouragement, prayers and positive thoughts. Indeed, the veteran community in Australia should adopt Cynthia. I think the love and support of the veteran community will go a long way to helping her on the difficult road to recovery that she confronts. It is a road of marathon proportions and challenges. I call on the veteran community to make sure Cynthia does not walk that road alone.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In rising to speak on the motion of condolence in relation to the Yogyakarta air crash of March 2007, I do so from a particular perspective—that is, as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs with specific responsibility for the activities of AusAID and also for the work of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

Two of the members of those agencies perished in this crash. I refer here to Allison Sudradjat, who was the head of AusAID’s Indonesia office, which has a staff of approximately 100 people, and to Liz O’Neill, who was the head of public affairs at the Australian Embassy in Indonesia. In addition to those two fine Australians, three other fine Australians lost their lives: two Federal Police officers—Mark Scott and Brice Steele—both of whom had distinguished careers; and Morgan Mellish, a Walkley award winning journalist from the Australian Financial Review. In addition to them, of course, another five Australians were involved in the crash, four of whom suffered injuries. In fact, Cynthia Banham and Roger Tallboys suffered significant injuries. I will return to them later.

I wish to offer my sympathy to the families of all 21 people—five Australians and 16 other souls—who perished on board the Garuda flight. However, I wish to speak in particular about Allison and Liz. Allison was, first and foremost, a wife and a mother. She leaves behind a husband, Ris, and four children, Jamila, Imran, Zaini and Yasmin. Our understanding of their loss and their grief can never be complete, but it is sufficient for everyone in this chamber simply to say that she was a wife and a mother. To Ris and the four beautiful children, whom I met on the day of the return of the bodies to Australia, we simply give you our support and our thanks.

To those at AusAID who worked with Allison, you have lost a real and valued friend, and a profoundly important colleague. Your work, Allison, was of great merit and meaning. It was the work of a humanitarian who served Australia but who also more importantly served the developing world at a time when she was in a position to make real change. She was at AusAID for 18 years after joining the agency in 1989. She worked in Indonesia from 1992 to 1995, in Papua New Guinea from 1996 to 2001 and again in Indonesia, as I mentioned, as head of Australia’s aid work there from February 2005.

Allison was in Papua New Guinea at a time of major development and humanitarian challenges. She managed Australian assistance during the crippling 1997-98 drought and contributed to the Bougainville peace process. That was an action of profound importance. She made a major contribution to long-term assistance to health programs, assisted survivors of the tsunami that hit Artape in 1998 and helped lead Australia’s response in Indonesia to the Asian tsunami similarly. Within Indonesia she was responsible for the implementation of the Australia Indonesia Partnership for Reconstruction and Development, managing a program of $1 billion over a five-year period. She also played an important role in the lead-up to the visit of the Minister for Foreign Affairs to the work on the ground in Indonesia of helping to build 2,000 schools for Indonesian students. There could rarely be a more important developmental project than the building of 2,000 schools in a country that has had a desperate need to provide opportunities for its young people. That legacy of helping to oversee the creation of these schools for young people will perhaps be the most important thing she leaves as an aid worker.

Allison worked on many fronts. She was an inspirational leader, she was a humanitarian and she was a warm friend to so many people. But first and foremost, more than any of these things—and I say this on behalf of AusAID, on behalf of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and on behalf of her friends and colleagues in the Australian government—Allison was a wife and a mother, and nothing can replace her loss.

Similarly I want to speak about Liz O’Neill. Liz O’Neill was an amazing character, as is said by everybody who knew her. She was a person who had a belief in Australia and a belief in Australia’s role. She believed in our capacity for good and our capacity to have an impact on our region and the world and on the lives and futures of so many people. She was involved in Indonesia as Australia’s Counsellor for Public Affairs in the Jakarta embassy. She helped with some incredibly difficult challenges, including the embassy bombing in September 2004 and the effects of the Asian tsunami, which commenced on Boxing Day 2004. She was a member of the emergency response team sent to Bali following the first Bali bombing in October 2002, and she was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia for her service to Australians in that period. During her career with Foreign Affairs, she served with the Peace Monitoring Group in Bougainville and at the embassy in Tokyo. But, as with Allison, whilst she will be missed by her colleagues and whilst her professional work will be missed, she was a wife and a mother first and foremost.

I met Liz’s husband, Wayne, last Wednesday at RAAF Fairbairn and I met her beautiful little daughter, Lucinda, who is nine months old and has no comprehension of what has happened. Liz will be missed, and her loss will be felt much more greatly by her young daughter over time. To Wayne and to Lucinda: you have our deepest sympathy.

Much has been said about the others who were lost. To the families of Morgan Mellish, Mark Scott, Brice Steele and all of those Indonesians who were lost: we cannot understand fully the extent of your loss but you have our complete sympathy.

What this showed ultimately was the strength of cooperation between Australia and Indonesia, and the response of the Australian and Indonesian governments and the people who helped. This is indicative of the desire to do real things. Lives were saved. Cynthia Banham, I suspect, would not have been alive today but for the cooperation between people on both sides, and I think that their work deserves recognition. Cynthia and Michael Harvey: you have our support. You are good people, you will get through this and you will come back.

To all of the people involved, I say thank you for your work. To the wonderful officers in the Australian Consular Response Group and consular crisis centre, led by Rod Smith, Simeon Gilding and Bassim Blasey, and to everybody who has helped: we thank you. But to those who have passed away—Liz, Allison, Morgan, Mark and Brice—you will be missed.

Annette Ellis (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on a motion that I do not think any of us would really want the opportunity to speak on—that is, when such a tremendous disaster hits so many people and affects so many people close to and far from this place. As we know, the Yogyakarta air crash on 7 March claimed 21 lives, five of them Australian. Much has been said both here and in the other place in the last 24 hours with regard to those five Australians. The reason for my participating in this condolence motion is that, as the member for Canberra—and I am sure my colleague the member for Fraser would agree with me—whilst I personally did not know all these people and may have regarded some of them only in passing, there is a connection for each one of them and their families to my community. It is on behalf of my community that I am here speaking today. I want to represent the many people from my community who would have known many of these sadly deceased Australians.

Federal Agent Mark Scott and Federal Agent Brice Steele, both of the AFP, will have had very close connections. I know that Mark, in particular, began his policing career down in my patch of the world, in Tuggeranong, where he undertook community policing in the early part of his career. His career brought him back to Canberra on several occasions in the years to follow. I was able to attend the very moving service for him yesterday at St Andrews church here in Canberra. It is fair to say that his colleagues within the AFP are devastated by the loss of Mark and equally by the loss of Federal Agent Brice Steele.

Mark is survived by his wife, Sally, and by their children, James, Stephanie and Emily. On behalf of my community, I wish to most sincerely convey condolences and sympathies to that family and to thank them for the fact that Mark Scott was able to perform the duties in his policing career that he did so well on behalf of our community. A similar comment could be made about Brice Steele, although I do not know quite as much about him—but again, a tragic loss. Both of these gentlemen were very experienced, Brice in particular. We heard many things said in relation to his capabilities and the work that he undertook in the AFP. To his wife Kellie, again, I convey our very sincere condolences and sympathies.

Liz O’Neill, the DFAT officer who sadly perished in this crash, is survived by Wayne Adams, her husband, and their baby daughter, Lucinda. Allison Sudradjat, the AusAID officer, is survived by her husband Ris and their children Jamila, Imran, Zaini and Yasmin. In both cases, these people will have had many friends, colleagues and acquaintances within this community here in the ACT. We all bring different things to these particular motions, and when I hear of the work undertaken by Liz and Allison I have a particularly close understanding. Even though it is some decades ago now, I did have the honour of serving in the Department of Foreign Affairs, and in the role that I now have I have seen from both sides the effort undertaken in our foreign missions by people who are posted to them. It is definitely not the cocktail circuit, I can assure everybody, and I think the evidence of the past few years has brought a finality to that particular argument. But having worked overseas in our foreign missions in the past and having now visited overseas as a parliamentarian with the assistance of the people within our foreign missions, I know and understand very clearly the sort of work undertaken by these people. It is dedication at the public level that many Australians really need to understand and appreciate. I think we are now beginning to do that.

I wish to pay due regard to the accolades that have been laid upon both Liz and Allison. I know that in both cases, with families, friends and colleagues, there is going to be a long period of mourning and a long period of remembering. I hope that during that period—for colleagues, in particular—there will be a period of celebration of two particularly impressive lives.

I did not know Morgan Mellish, the journalist from the Australian Financial Review, but many people in my community will have known him. It was moving for me to hear the speeches made about Morgan. He is said to have had two really strong ambitions in life: one was to become a foreign correspondent and the other was to win a Walkley award. He has done both in a very short life. I am impressed with that: while some young boys might wish to become fighter pilots or foreign correspondents—there is a certain romance attached to that from youth—wishing for a Walkley award is a different thing. Not very many people even think about winning one of those, and they are a cherished award in the world of journalism. Morgan’s family, friends and colleagues would be most impressed, as am I, with his ability to do that and to be held in the regard that he was held in.

I also want to send once again, on behalf of my community, our best wishes to Cynthia Banham and her partner, Michael Harvey. Again, they are two people who will be known very broadly within my community here in Canberra. The previous speakers have remarked upon Cynthia’s survival, and I have to agree that it is a bit of a miracle. But from what I have heard of her it should not be a surprise, given her strength, her fitness and her determination to achieve. To Cynthia and Michael, I send my very warmest wishes, and I join with my colleagues who yesterday in the main chamber made a very strong point of looking forward very much to the return of both of them—in particular of Cynthia—to their journalism roles here in the building. I am sure that all of the friends, colleagues and family of Cynthia and Michael have that in their hearts as well. I join them in looking forward to hearing of the continued progress that she is making and to knowing that she is going to re-enter this building as an active journalist with a good career ahead of her.

I conclude by saying that we must also recall the other people who perished or who were injured, including Indonesians and people of other nationalities. We hope and pray that they can reach the end of this tragedy successfully and get on with their lives as best they can. In remembering our five Australians, I would like to also pay regard to the other people who perished and to the large number of people who suffered injuries in this terrible tragedy.

Bruce Billson (Dunkley, Liberal Party, Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to express my sincerest condolences to the families and friends of the five Australians who have gone all too soon, tragically killed in the Garuda plane crash on 7 March in Indonesia: Morgan Mellish, Elizabeth O’Neill, Mark Scott, Brice Steele and Allison Sudradjat. I also offer my thoughts, prayers and encouragement to those who have suffered severe injuries in the crash, including Defence Force personnel, the many civilians from different parts of the world—particularly the Indonesian people on board—and especially the Fairfax journalist, Cynthia Banham.

Prior to my current roles as Minister for Veterans’ Affairs and the Minister Assisting the Minister for Defence, I had the honour and good fortune to be the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs for a year and a half. I speak today, as his former parliamentary secretary, about the dealings that I had during that time with some of the Australians who have lost their lives or were injured. I travelled to Indonesia twice and had the privilege of working directly and closely with Allison Sudradjat. In June 2005 I led an eight-member parliamentary delegation to Jakarta and to Aceh, in northern Sumatra, to inspect the devastation caused by the Boxing Day tsunami and to discuss with officials, led by and greatly supported by Allison, Australia’s aid effort to help Indonesia recover from the tragedy.

I remember marvelling at Allison’s fluency in the Indonesian language. She translated for me in our meetings with senior officials in Aceh and accompanied us to our meetings with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono and also Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda. Despite the enormity of the recovery process, the very deep sense of personal connectedness with hardship and grief that so many were feeling, the direct-hand experience of the immense devastation in the region and the strain that it placed on Australian officials, particularly AusAID officials, Allison was simply outstanding in the way she responded to the disaster not only as an AusAID official and an aid worker but as a remarkably compassionate human being who was valued and respected, and who moved very freely and easily and in a welcoming way amongst the Indonesian communities she was working with.

In a vastly different working environment from Aceh, I again had the honour of working closely with Allison during another trip to Indonesia. Together, in August 2005, we put forward the Australian view at the ministerial meeting in Jakarta to discuss the Asia-Pacific region’s approach to the millennium development goals. Again, Allison, with great ease and professionalism, provided exceptional advice and support not only as a diplomat but as a very experienced and highly regarded aid policy adviser, with grounded practical experience that meant so much to that process. Although she was there with me representing our country, she was clearly incredibly committed to the outcomes that we were all aiming to achieve for communities in the region, to build better futures for their children and to share and develop some of the prosperity that everyone was reaching for.

Perhaps Allison’s work is best described in her AusAID testimony. She was a distinguished diplomat, one of Australia’s most capable and dedicated aid workers. She was able to meet the demands of responding to some of the region’s worst disasters, as well as understanding the complexities of trying to support improvements in governance, health and education services for the desperately poor people of the Asia-Pacific region. It was a privilege to meet Allison. She was a remarkable human being and it was an honour to experience firsthand the way she had devoted her life and her skills and, above all, her seemingly boundless and genuine compassion to those in need.

My heartfelt condolences are with Allison’s family and the friends of Allison for the great sadness and sense of loss they must now be feeling. Indeed, her tragic passing as a committed aid worker and a person of great compassion is a loss for the entire region. However, with all the different cultures, religions and backgrounds that she helped both here at home and abroad we can truly say that the world is a better place because of her life.

I also convey my admiration to the team at AusAID. Bruce Davis’s terrific obituary captured Allison and her work, Annemarie O’Keefe’s dignified account of the great loss that Allison represented was a fitting tribute to her. AusAID brings so much support to others in their darkest times. It is now our turn to bring some sunshine to AusAID and their people, because they are hurting and they have lost a wonderful member of their team.

I would also like to pay my respects to Liz O’Neill and express my condolences to her family and her friends. The loss of Liz O’Neill as a wife, a mother, a friend and an outstanding government official is very tragic. Again, in my previous role as Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, I had the privilege of receiving public affairs support from Liz on my trips to Indonesia and benefiting from her insights. Although the working relationship between my office and Liz was brief, her assistance was exceptional. I am aware of the great number of tributes she, as the spokesperson in Jakarta, has deservingly received as her work is remembered by the Australian embassy there, and also for the Order of Australia that she earned so commendably for her tireless efforts after the Bali bombs and for what a wonderful person she was.

My thoughts are also with Cynthia Banham. We have heard much about Cynthia. I had the good fortune of working with Cynthia, and I have been interviewed by her on a number of occasions in my current and previous roles. It is a true testament to her courage and tenacity that she survived this tragedy, and my thoughts are very much with her and her partner Michael Harvey, whom I also know well. To their family and friends: a new kind of marathon faces this delightful couple and those dear to them, and we wish them all the very best. May the support of her loved ones and her strength and determination continue to help nourish Cynthia’s recovery.

As a result of this tragedy, these committed Australian embassy officials who were carrying out their role of supporting the democratic process are very much in our thoughts. They may not have been well known but they were enormous in the lives of those who were dear to them. They will be dearly remembered for their commitment to developing the understanding between our two countries and for doing what they believed in. They were proud and dedicated Australians. They were everyday individuals of Indonesia. They were very important to many people. Our thoughts are with them after this terrible tragedy.

Bob McMullan (Fraser, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Federal/State Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise, like everyone else who has participated in this debate, to of course support the motion moved by the Prime Minister. I have two capacities in which I wish to do that. To some extent that amalgamates the speeches made by the two previous speakers, because I do it as a member representing the ACT and as the shadow minister for international development assistance. When I come to those remarks, I will refer specifically to Allison Sudradjat, about whom the minister and former parliamentary secretary made such compelling remarks.

This incident struck Canberra very hard. Of course, everybody in Australia was struck by it. It was dramatic; it was sad; it was tragic; and all Australians were affected. But this struck Canberra very hard for two reasons. One is that all the five people either came from Canberra or had very strong connections with Canberra—and I will speak of that in a moment—and the other aspect is that everybody in Canberra knows somebody who does what they were doing. Everybody in Canberra could put themselves in the place of that person or their family. Everybody knows somebody in the media, in the police, in the Public Service or in the Defence Force—in the case of the people who were injured but fortunately not killed—who go to work on behalf of the nation, who travel overseas. I have members of my family who have travelled to Indonesia in the service of the public, not in any dramatic way, in the high-profile way that we as members of parliament might, but as part of Australia’s relationship with Indonesia. I have very dear friends, one of whose family has been living in Indonesia for several months, who have just returned on behalf of the Australian government in different agencies. But I do not know anybody in this community who does not know somebody who does what Mark, Brice, Liz, Morgan and Allison did, even if they do not know those individuals. So that made it particularly telling and compelling. People come here to serve their country in the Public Service, in the media, in the AFP, in the military and in a hundred other ways, and their families do not expect them to pay such a high price in the process. But we all know that it is possible, and, when it happens, it strikes home very hard.

It was a very powerful ceremony held last week at Fairbairn for the return of the caskets containing the bodies of the five Australians. You cannot hope to convey in a speech the mood that was there. It was quite a long ceremony, necessarily. There were five areas set aside for the families and one for those of us who had come in an official capacity on behalf of the Australian government, the opposition, the ACT government and the agencies that were represented by the people who had died. One thing struck me: for the whole duration of that ceremony, no-one spoke. Not one person in that area exchanged a word with the person next to them, because you did not know whether you could control your emotions if you spoke. It was too powerful. Of course, our hearts went out. We could not pretend that the suffering we were feeling was in any way comparable with that being endured by all the families whom we could see in front of us trying to cope with their grief. But we all had to nevertheless gear up and have our own strength as we coped, knowing that there but for fortune were people close to us. I join with all my colleagues in extending condolences to the families, friends and colleagues of those who died. Our thoughts are with those who are struggling to overcome the consequences of their injuries—physical and psychological.

In the time available for this debate, I want to turn my particular attention to some remarks in my capacity as shadow minister for international development assistance and speak particularly about Allison Sudradjat and those who go overseas in the service of AusAID. I think the minister has done an excellent job in his communication and support to the colleagues and families of those who died so tragically in this terrible incident. It was not my place to duplicate that; that would have been totally superfluous. I wanted to find a way of communicating, however inadequately, to the staff, many of whom are constituents of mine—probably at least half—and many of whom are friends of mine from my years and years of interest in this issue. I wrote a letter to the Director-General, which I am grateful he communicated to the staff, which makes clear that we support what the government and the minister have said about Allison and the people at AusAID—that it is the bipartisan, unanimous view of this parliament. I welcome this opportunity to expand on that, particularly with regard to Allison.

It is notable that 600 people came to pay tribute to Allison Sudradjat in the Great Hall of the parliament last Friday, while many others watched from Jakarta as the memorial service was streamed live to AusAID offices in Indonesia, in a sad irony, via the IT infrastructure that Allison herself had championed and enabled. Allison was not afraid to try new technologies and new solutions and was supportive of change and innovation. She was described as one of Australia’s most respected and talented development experts and was also an inspirational leader to whom people looked with great respect, admiration and fondness. But, in the words of Allison’s sister, Simone Kerr, could we ever know just how many millions of people Allison touched in her lifetime?

As head of AusAID in Indonesia, Allison’s work impacted on the lives of many, not only in her leadership and her management of Australia’s aid program with Indonesia but also in her compassion, her integrity and her manner. In Indonesian, one colleague told how local staff in Jakarta spoke with pride about the fact that it was Allison who hired them, because being handpicked by her was considered to be an honour. Under Allison’s leadership, much effort has gone into improving national roads and there has been a particular focus on junior and secondary education. In Indonesia, as in Australia, this is the investment that opens two doors—the door to economic success and the door to opportunity—for those who might otherwise be denied it without that education. Progress has been made in improving access to education for children, but over 100 million boys and girls around the world are still not in school today. I conclude by saying that I want to pay my respects to Allison’s family and acknowledge with gratitude and admiration the large contribution that Allison made to the Australian aid program and to all those who work in AusAID with her.

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I understand that it is the wish of honourable members to signify at this stage their respect and sympathy by rising in their places.

Honourable members having stood in their places—

I thank honourable members.

Luke Hartsuyker (Cowper, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That further proceedings be conducted in the House.

Question agreed to.