Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure and Transport) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Rarely in my lifetime has the world seen a greater mystery than that surrounding the fate of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370, which was last heard from on 8 March, nearly three weeks ago. Those three weeks have been harrowing and bewildering, not least for the families of the 227 passengers. I can scarcely imagine the trauma these family members have suffered as they waited for news about the fate of the aircraft. It is indeed with a heavy heart that I make my contribution today and offer my sincere condolences to the families of all those passengers and crew. They will live with the dreadful finality of this incident for the rest of their days. It is fitting that this parliament acknowledge this loss.

I have heard directly from my constituents who, like just about everyone on the globe, have been shaken by this tragedy. On their behalf, I offer condolences to the families of all the victims, particularly the families of the Australians on board—Rodney and Mary Burrows, Bob and Cathy Lawton, Yuan Li, Naijun Gu and Perth based New Zealander Paul Weeks. The people of the inner west of Sydney are thinking of you, just as I am sure every citizen of this nation shares your sense of sadness and loss.

In this era of affordable air travel, increasing disposable incomes and generally high aviation safety standards, it is easy to forget that flying in an aeroplane involves risks, just as there are also risks in driving a car or taking a train ride. But people still eagerly fly, because aviation opens the world to us. It allows us to do things once unimaginable. Not long ago, air travel was out of the financial reach of many Australians. Air travel is in fact five times more affordable today than it was 20 years ago. I was in my 20s before I went on my first plane trip, which was from Sydney to Canberra as a ministerial adviser. My family did not have a car; our preferred mode of transport was the bus. It is a very different world today whereby people cross this nation to go to football games and to meet with each other.

The increasing affordability of air travel with the arrival of low-cost carriers has also driven increased success in this sector. Over all of my time watching federal parliament, both sides of politics have displayed maturity and goodwill in working together to maintain the highest standard of aviation safety. As the minister responsible for six years, I knew that this would not be a subject of partisan debate and I have undertaken a reciprocal obligation in how I handle my work as shadow transport minister at the moment.

Our airlines also constantly strive to lift our already excellent safety standards, and that is something that we can be proud of. But, no matter how much we dedicate ourselves to aviation safety, no matter how much airlines invest in safer aircraft and no matter how many satellites we can use to track aircraft, we will never completely eliminate the possibility of accidents. Today, as we think about the victims of MH370 and their families, we should rededicate ourselves to doing all we can to reduce that risk.

Today, I also want to pay tribute to our defence forces and the great people, who I know well, at the Australian Maritime Safety Authority who are leading this search. These are people we call on in difficult times and they never ever let us down. Similarly, as we have watched the difficult challenges facing the governments of Malaysia, China and more than 20 other nations, both inside and outside our region, we should remember our shared humanity. There are many aspects of global affairs that cause division among the nations of the world. During this extraordinary incident a positive aspect has been the way that countries have worked together. Seeing airlines from not just our own country but also China assisting the search from Pearce air base in Western Australia is very positive.

But nothing can bring back the victims of this dreadful incident, and investigators will no doubt spend months trying to piece together the events surrounding the loss of MH370. I hope that over time they will ascertain the facts of what occurred. I am confident that, if they learn anything from this tragedy, their lessons will be applied to the never-ending battle to improve safety in our skies. Once again, I express my condolences to the families who have lost loved ones in this terrible tragedy.

Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is 2½ thousand kilometres off the coast of the Pearce electorate, in fact, in a search area the size of South Africa, that the hunt continues to recover physical evidence of what we now know must be the wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370. Almost everyone in Western Australia would be familiar with that sensation of looking out to sea from the coast off Perth and realising that the next closest thing to their home is South Africa. That immensity of distance and the absoluteness of the isolation of the city of Perth is framed by that incredible expansive ocean that you look out on. The southern Indian Ocean, off the Perth coast, is one of the purest parts of the natural world and, like all truly wild things, it is incomparably beautiful as well as incomprehensibly dangerous. That expanse of ocean was the perilous pathway for the first European contact with the Australian mainland, and for hundreds of years it has been the scene of great drama and great tragedy.

In rising in condolence for all of the terrible loss of life aboard flight MH370, I wish to pay particular tribute to a single man who, for the past several years, had made his home in the electorate of Pearce. Aboard that flight was Paul Weeks. Paul had moved into the electorate of Pearce approximately 2½ years ago, following the devastating earthquakes that had affected Christchurch in 2011 and ruined his family home. I had not met Paul and I wish to pay him in this place sincere condolence based on what we know about a father of two sons, three years and 11 months old, and a loving and loved husband of Danica Weeks.

Paul was born in New Zealand. He went to school and studied at the University of Canterbury as a mechanical engineer before serving as a soldier in the New Zealand armed forces. Whilst backpacking in Europe, he met his wife, Danica, and they both lived together in London before moving back to New Zealand. In September 2011, following the New Zealand earthquakes, he turned his attentions to Australia, where he set out to take advantage of employment generated by Western Australia's great mineral wealth. Within a week of arriving in Australia, he had three job offers and was settling in to a bright future. As things transpired, Paul ultimately accepted a job in Mongolia with Transwest Mongolia as a fly-in fly-out worker from WA. On 8 March 2014, he was actually on his way to commencing his first four-week stint. His family reported that he was excited about this new opportunity, but, as one would expect, this excitement was balanced with the sadness of leaving his family behind.

His is a story which so many Western Australians would be familiar with: the sacrifice to provide for a much loved family leading to the very hard reality of long stretches away from home. It has been reported that, before heading to his new job, he devoted himself to squeezing in as much time with his family as he could. His final words were contained in an email to his wife, sent on his journey to Mongolia. They were the words of a loving husband missing his family, words that people who travel too often away from their families would be familiar with. It does not feel quite right to read those words here, but they were very sad words. He was 39 years old.

I sincerely extend my condolences to Danica Weeks and her two sons, who have been left without their father as a consequence of this tragic mystery. Paul was one of 227 other people—mothers, fathers, sons and daughters—and 12 crew who all disappeared without apparent explanation from the lives of their families on 8 March 2014. I extend my sorrow to the families of all of them, particularly the families of the six Australians. The thought that a plane carrying 227 passengers can disappear is a terrifying one, but for the families I have mentioned it is a life-changing tragedy. In deep sympathy for those families, I support this condolence motion.

Finally, in doing so, I would like to take the opportunity to note the dedication of the men of service at the Pearce air base in my electorate, who have played an instrumental part in Australia's ongoing role in this investigation. I would like to take this opportunity to thank them for their contributions and the efforts that they have made and are making. Many of the inroads into this mystery have come from the hard work of these service personnel, who have had to visually search across the ocean and try to pick up signs of debris or parts that perhaps may be related to this aircraft's disappearance. To give some idea of the work involved, just the Australian operation alone has covered some 500,000 square kilometres. Ultimately, this operation has been essential to making some small headway towards giving the families that we have referred to some closure, and I thank the personnel at RAAF Base Pearce for the small amount of comfort this has no doubt provided to them.

Bernie Ripoll (Oxley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister Assisting the Leader for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wish to associate myself with the words of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and all of the previous speakers on this motion. I express my heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of all those who have, tragically, lost their lives as a result of the disappearance of flight MH370. In particular, my thoughts are with the families of Rodney and Mary Burrows, from Middle Park in my electorate, as well as Bob and Cathy Lawton from Springfield Lakes, also in my electorate.

I can only imagine the emotional journey that these families have been through since the plane was first reported missing, the anxiety and growing sense of dread that they must have felt until they received confirmation of their worst fears. You are in our thoughts and prayers. As you grieve for your loved ones, we also think of you and grieve with you for those you have suddenly and tragically lost. I also want to pay tribute to and pay my respects to the Australian military and service personnel who are doing an incredible and difficult job as part of the search teams with the rest of the world, trying to uncover and find what is necessary to lay to rest the tragedy of this flight. I also want to express my thanks to those who are offering spiritual comfort and guidance to the bereaved and the families not only in my electorate but in Australia and across the world in other countries.

I know this tragedy has stirred many emotions for a lot of people, but I have seen one of the finest displays of humanity with countries assisting each other that would normally not directly assist each other, particularly not in an open manner. I think sometimes through tragedy we see good things as well. This tragedy is a reminder to us all that we are on this planet for only a short period of time and we should all remember that. It is only the way that we leave that may be different. My thoughts are with the families.

Steve Irons (Swan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Prime Minister's motion that the House records its deep regret at the tragic loss of life that resulted from the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 and expresses its sincere condolences, together with those of all Australians, to the families and loved ones of the six Australians and other passengers and crew who are presumed to have died. There is a significant search and recovery operation being run from Pearce air base in Perth. It has been taking place since the beginning of last week. There have also been flights leaving from Perth Airport within my electorate. The search is being coordinated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 11:02 to 11:14

On 17 March the Malaysian Prime Minister, Najib Razak, requested that Australia take responsibility for the search for the missing aircraft in what has become known as the southern vector, one of the two possible flight path arcs which satellite data suggests the plane might have flown. The Prime Minister agreed to this request and offered the Malaysian Prime Minister additional maritime surveillance resources, which he gratefully accepted.

Since then, multiple unidentified objects have been spotted by sources in the Indian Ocean somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000 kilometres from Perth, and satellite data analysis has suggested a high likelihood that this passenger jet went down in the southern Indian Ocean. This has led to an announcement by the Malaysian government that flight MH370 was lost in the southern Indian Ocean and that all on board have perished. It is, however, important that there is, if possible, identification of the objects spotted by the satellites, to ensure closure for the families. There is also the task of locating the black box and working out what led to this plane ending up so far off course.

There are no comparable incidents of this nature in aviation history. Given the remoteness of the site and the time elapsed since the calculated time of impact, we can only assume that this is going to be a long investigation and recovery effort. Perth, as the nearest city, will host the investigation. As mentioned in The West Australian yesterday, the only other similar situation to this was the search for Air France flight 447, and that took two years to locate, in calmer mid-Atlantic waters. I am sure that lessons learnt from that search will assist in the search for MH370.

I note the Prime Minister's comments yesterday that many of the grieving relatives are expected to come to Perth to be closer to the search and recovery effort. While Perth is a long way from this remote search area, it is indeed the closest place, and it is understandable that relatives will seek to come to Western Australia. I welcome the Prime Minister's comments that visa fees for grieving relatives will be waived and note Premier Colin Barnett's comments yesterday that the people of Perth and WA will be very welcoming and understanding.

I commend the Australian Air Force and their search-and-rescue pilots for the important work they are doing in tough conditions. I note that conditions were classified 'sea state 7' this week, which, on a scale of one to nine, is extremely tough searching conditions. I also recognise the international help at Pearce air base, including two Japanese P3s, one New Zealand P3, a P8 from the United States, two Ilyushin 76s from China and a P3 coming from Korea, with a C130H. When I left Perth earlier this week to come to Canberra, I saw the crew of the US P8 taking a rest stop before heading back out to conduct the search.

I also make special note in this condolence motion of Paul Weeks, who was a resident of Perth. His young family will obviously be grieving at this time. My sympathies, along with those of my fellow Western Australians, are with you and we are sorry for your loss. To the 239 people on that plane—some who were going home, some who were going to work, some who were just going on holidays or visiting loved ones—our thoughts are with you and with those who are left behind to grieve. Any time we see a loss of life through misfortune or accident in this world, we as a nation unite to assist where we can, but in this instance we have seen the uniting of nations to assist and aid wherever or in any way possible.

We hold on with hope that some of these people, who many of us have never known, could be rescued or saved. That is the humanity of our lives coming through, the goodness that rises in us when we see tragedies that have occurred and the dramatic effects of those tragedies on loved ones left behind.

We will hear many stories in the coming years of why, how, what and when—similar to the stories we have heard about tragedies like the Titanic. I will leave the technical side of what may have happened to those who are better placed to tell those stories.

In closing, I offer my condolences once again to the people who were on MH370 and their families. God bless you all.

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want first of all to endorse the words of the member for Swan about the work of the Australian aircrew. Reluctantly, I even have to endorse his words about the Australian government acting in a timely and humane way over this issue. I think the government in this instance is doing a good job, as you would expect an Australian government to behave in circumstances like this. Like him and the government, the opposition mourns for the six Australians who apparently have lost their lives and shares the grief of their families.

I want to take a different angle in looking at this issue, and that is to look at how this has been handled in Malaysia. Frankly, I have a very harsh view, but I believe it is shared by the majority of Malaysians. The events of the last three weeks, if they have highlighted anything, have shown democrats all around the world the consequences of the lack of transparency and democracy in Malaysia. Not only have we seen the Malaysian government demonstrating a lack of leadership following the disappearance of this flight but it seems, as The Australian editorial noted, that it has been 'chaotic and confused'. The New York Times has described the effects of this. When I mention all these newspapers I am not doing it to drop names. There seems to have been international consensus developed across the Asian, Chinese and Western press to describe what has happened over the last three weeks as 'the dysfunctional leadership in Malaysia', 'poor investigation of the missing flight' and 'the suppression of information, obfuscation and contradiction'.

My friend Anwar Ibrahim has been the source of a lot of criticism by the Malaysian government because at one point it appeared that the pilot was a supporter of his. Mr Anwar sent me Tuesday's The Washington Post, which says:

The most serious thing for all of us, particularly those who are in a defence relationship with Malaysia, is that apparently only after a week did the Malaysian government advise us that the plane crossed back over the Malaysian Peninsula and that their defence radars seemed to have missed that entirely.

The Malaysian government has shown signs of a deeper malaise that comes from half a century of rule without challenge or transparency. When the Prime Minister was about to make a statement recently, his spokesperson told reporters that there would be no questions. When reporters pressed for more access, the reply came back from his minders, 'Go and watch a movie.'

Malaysia has been ruled by the same governing coalition since independence and has enjoyed strong economic growth. Democrats all around the world had hopes that the last elections would be free and fair and that the country would go down the path toward a more competitive democracy. Mr Najib has taken steps towards modernisation and reform, and he is owed great credit for that. But the election fell should ort. The Najib coalition, UMNO, won a majority of seats in parliament, largely through gerrymandered districts, while the opposition coalition, led by Anwar Ibrahim, won a popular majority and disputed the outcome. Clearly there is a rising popular discontent with corruption, authoritarianism and ethnic favouritism in the ruling powers. It is very encouraging, actually, for Malaysia's future that the opposition coalition consists of younger Malays and ethnic Chinese and Indians, and that it is not simply based on one ethnic group.

The six Australians who were on that plane naturally led me to make comments about this and the Malaysian government's handling of this on my Twitter page. In response, a minority—and I would make it very clear that it was a minority—made comments that were highly inappropriate, of a highly-sexualised content and of a homophobic nature. They were not just abusing me, which I do not mind in that I have not lost any relatives and I am not seeking to make myself the centre of this, but abusing the Malaysian leader of the opposition. To an Australian talking about the disappearance of a plane on a political website, it is frankly weird to have people commenting and tweeting to you homophobic comments about the leader of the opposition in Malaysia, as if that had anything to do with the situation. On behalf of people who want an investigation into what happened I regret that, and I regret it very strongly.

I would ask the Malaysian government, in its investigation of what happened to this plane, to cease seeking to link the disappearance of the plane to its obsession with the leader of the democratic opposition in Malaysia, who, as I said, enjoyed the support of 52 per cent of the people at the recent elections. The political allegiances of the captain of the plane seem to have little to do with the disappearance of the plane. It is absurd to say that because he had such a view this is somehow a motive for the disappearance of this aircraft in the tragedy that has happened. If that were the case, then the majority of Malaysians would be equally responsible.

I commend the Australian government for its humane treatment in this matter regarding our citizens who have been lost and the international citizens who will be coming to visit Perth. I commend the aircrew who, as the member for Swan pointed out, are on very difficult missions very far from Australia. The search area is about as far away from anywhere as it could possibly be. I hope we can all cooperate in a completely non-political way, including within the Malaysian domestic circumstances. This is a great mystery and a great tragedy. How this event will play out, as the former chairman of Qantas security said today, will probably change forever the way all international aircraft movements are undertaken. None of us would have believed that a modern aircraft like a Boeing 777, with all its built-in communications systems, could simply disappear in these circumstances. We are very lucky that international satellites, particularly British satellites, seem to have been able to track where this aircraft apparently has come down in the Indian Ocean. I grieve for the families and I hope that this investigation gets to the bottom of what happened to that aircraft in a non-political way, certainly not exploiting it for domestic advantage in Malaysia.

Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to join the Prime Minister and other speakers in extending my sincere condolences to families and friends of passengers on Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, now presumed lost in the Indian Ocean, approximately 2½-thousand kilometres south-west of Perth. This is a mystery and a tragedy that has touched the lives of people around the world, particularly in China and Malaysia. I welcome the Prime Minister's offer of support to families who may wish to travel to Western Australia to seek closure around this distressing event.

Sadly, six Australians and two New Zealanders were among the 239 passengers and crew when the plane went missing on 8 March and lost all communications with the ground. This is a sorrowful and difficult time, and our thoughts are certainly with the passengers' loved ones. Queensland holidaymakers Rod and Mary Burrows were taking a holiday to China while Mary was on long service leave from the Queensland Police Academy's constable development program. They were travelling with friends, fellow Queenslanders Catherine and Robert Lawton. Yesterday I had the privilege of meeting members of the Burrows and Lawton families while they were in the House of Representatives for the condolence motion. Later it was arranged for them to visit AMSA, which is essentially the nerve centre for the current search operations, so that they could have an understanding that Australia was devoting every possible effort to locating this aircraft and to doing what we can to help these people understand what happened and, as a result, have some closure from this event. Amanda Lawton, a daughter of Robert and Catherine Lawton, and Deborah Hanger, the sister of Robert, and Jayden and Melia Burrows, the son and daughter of the Burrows family, are facing a particular burden and shock loss at this time. We feel especially for them and the other members of their families as we go about the task of trying to understand what happened and recover what may be left of this aircraft. Young Sydney couple Yuan Li and Naijun Gu were heading to Beijing to spend some time with their children. Also on board was Perth based New Zealander Paul Weeks, a father of two, who had moved his young family to Perth in the wake of the earthquakes which devastated their home in Christchurch.

A search and recovery operation coordinated by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority has been active ever since it was suggested, maybe counterintuitively, that this aircraft might well have been lost off the Australian coast, completely in the wrong direction from where it was intended to be travelling and almost without any kind of logical explanation. But as a result of modern satellite telecommunications and advice from the engine manufacturer, which monitors movement of aircraft around the world, it was determined that there were two possible paths for this aircraft, and one of them was in the Southern Ocean near Australia. As time has moved on, the northern option has been largely discounted and all of the global effort now is focused on an area some 2,500 kilometres off the Australian coast.

Because Australia is the nearest landfall area, but particularly because this area is within Australia's search and rescue zone, under the Chicago convention we have been taking the leadership role in this search operation. This operation is building up momentum. The Australian Maritime Safety Authority was yesterday able to resume the search following a day lost because of heavy rain, rough seas and gale-force winds. Today there are 10 aircraft and five ships operating in the area. The five military aircraft come from three countries—Orions, a Japanese Gulfstream and a US Navy P8 Poseidon. There are also five civilian aircraft involved in the search. A number of countries are now involved, and it seems that others will join in this search operation over the days ahead.

As others have mentioned, it is a particularly difficult search. It is at the extent of the range of the aircraft that are involved in the search. They only have an hour or two over the site and then they must return to base. Often during the search period items which were thought to be of interest have been found by visual observation, only to have a subsequent aircraft come in to continue the observation and not be able to pick them up. We have even had cases where debris potentially from the aircraft—but, of course, no-one knows—has been plotted and the site has been clearly identified but, when the Australian naval vessel in the area came to pick it up, it could not find it. That has been the exercise all the way through.

This morning the Malaysians spoke about satellite pictures which identified 122 objects which may be of interest in the search. This was the precise area where the search aircraft were operating the day before, and none of these objects were sighted. So it is becoming a real demonstration that no matter how advanced the technology is—and let me say that the US, Chinese, Japanese and Australian search aircraft working in that area have at their disposal the best search equipment available anywhere in the world—the most valuable piece of assistance in spotting debris and then recovery is actually people's eyes. That is why the commercial aircraft are of real value in this search, because they have seats to be able to carry a number of observers who hopefully can pick up sightings of some of what may be left from this aircraft.

It has already been a week of enormous effort, with the eyes of the world on the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and our leadership in the search and rescue effort. The exhaustive search effort has drawn on the full depth of the expertise available to AMSA, and I can assure families that we will continue our vigilance in seeking signs of the aircraft. Based on the initial advice developed by the US National Transportation Safety Board, AMSA has undertaken drift modelling and other analysis to develop and continually refine the search area in the southern Indian Ocean. Obviously recovery of any kind of debris that may be related to the aircraft will be important for the investigative stage, so it is very important for us to try to find as much of the aircraft as we possibly can. The ideal, obviously, would be to locate as much of the wreckage as possible. That will require sophisticated equipment, some of which we do not have in Australia and much of which will have to be brought from the United States, in particular. It is a priority to recover the flight data and cockpit voice recorders from the aircraft. Machinery to detect the signals sent out by the black box flight recorder is now in Australia and ready to be deployed for that task.

We will need assistance with technology, from countries such as the US, to be able to work at those depths in the search area to recover the equipment. It is thought that the aircraft will be lying in waters between 1,000 and 6,000 metres deep. That is exceptionally deep water to be trying to recover anything of importance to the investigation. There are 12 aircraft and at least five ships involved from six countries—Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Japan, China and the Republic of Korea—searching in the area. India has also offered to join the mission. When the investigative stage is undertaken, Malaysia as the flag carrier of the aircraft will have primary responsibility under the Chicago convention, but the US as the manufacturer of the aircraft and something like 14 other countries who have passengers on board will also have a right to be involved in the investigation. Australia has offered its services to support that investigation. I remind members that Australia invented the black box, which may well be a key part of this investigation—probably the most important item in the search. We therefore have good skills in interpreting the data, and hopefully can obtain as much information as we can.

This is without question an unprecedented disaster. Once again, I offer my sincere condolences to the families and friends of passengers on flight MH370. There will be no closure for them or the world until we locate the aircraft and exhaust all avenues in unravelling the mystery of this flight. There are a thousand theories about what may have happened. All of them are easy to discount. This is clearly one of the great mysteries of global aviation. We need to find out what happened. Australia remains determined to do its duty to the aviation world and to fulfil its responsibilities to the families of the passengers and crew who were on board. While there is any hope of finding answers we will be strong and determined. We are anxious to work with the international community to find solutions which will help to give closure to the families of all of those who grieve this day.

David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to convey my deepest condolences to the families of all of those who are presumed to have been lost on flight MH370. Every one of the 239 passengers and crew have families and loved ones who are going through unspeakable grief at this time. We cannot begin to understand what they are going through or in any way lessen their pain, but we can tell them that they are in our thoughts and prayers. For the six Australians on the flight we feel a particular loss. To the families of Mary and Rodney Burrows, Catherine and Robert Lawton and Yuan Li and Naijun Gu we in this parliament offer the condolences of our fellow Australians. Yuan Li and Naijun Gu were residents of southern Sydney and, I understand, had recently been living in Hurstville, in my electorate of Banks. To their families and loved ones, who are mourning for them at this time: I know that nothing can take the pain away, but I want you to know that I and all the people of Banks are thinking of you. We cannot pretend that we truly know how you feel but we can tell you that we mourn with you and are deeply sorry for your loss. I would like also to offer my condolences to the family of New Zealander Paul Weeks, who was a resident of Perth. We feel a special connection with our New Zealand neighbours and we feel deeply for Mr Weeks's wife and family.

At times like this we understand the limitations of mere words. To the families of those lost on MH370 I offer my deepest condolences.

Darren Chester (Gippsland, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support this condolence motion and associate myself with the comments made by many members in this place, particularly those by the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. This is an extraordinary disaster. As the Deputy Prime Minister correctly identified just a few moments ago, it will remain one of the great aviation mysteries of modern history. We last heard from flight MH370 on 8 March, which is almost three weeks ago. It is now presumed lost with all on board perishing. On behalf of the people of Gippsland, I extend my condolences to those who have suffered losses in this extraordinary event. We can empathise and we can sympathise, but we cannot possibly comprehend the grief they must feel and the uncertainty that surrounds their lost loved ones.

This event has generated an extraordinary level of interest across Australia and throughout the world. The media coverage has been almost unprecedented in its depth and extent, primarily because of the mystery that the Deputy Prime Minister referred to earlier. The global reaction has been one of disbelief that a modern plane with so many inbuilt security features and technological advances could simply disappear in the manner in which it did. And we have been subjected to all manner of theories and opinions about that. I will leave it to the experts to hopefully uncover what did transpire. The bottom line is that we may never know what actually happened with flight MH370. Our thoughts and our prayers are obviously with the 239 passengers and crew members, including the six Australians whom many members here have spoken about today, who perished.

Part of the reason for the global reaction to this event is that air travel in the 21st century has become common to us all. We are so used to getting on board aircraft and just presuming we will get to our destination safely. Air travel in Australia in particular has a great safety record. It is a common experience for us to get on board and expect to land at our destination whether it be for work or for pleasure. I suppose this event has reminded us all of the frailty of human life and that there are risks associated with flight, whether it be risks due to engineering or technical faults or due to human action. I am sure we will be subjected to many more theories in the weeks and months ahead, but for today in this place I think it is most appropriate that we rise to extend our condolences in the manner in which we do in the parliament of Australia.

I want to reflect for a moment on the multinational search effort surrounding MH370 and the huge logistical exercise which has transpired over the past three weeks. In particular, I want to give credit to the Australian authorities who have been involved almost every step of the way. As the Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Defence, I have had the opportunity to meet many of our crews over the last six months and without exception they have impressed me with their dedication and enthusiasm, and their youthfulness. It is quite staggering when you see the age of these young pilots, navigators and crew members who are involved in this search effort. Many of them are in their early 20s and they do an extraordinary job on behalf of our nation. I note the member for Riverina's encouragement just now. Given his close relationship with Defence Force personnel in his own electorate, he knows very well what a contribution those young men and women make to our community. The Australian Defence Force contribution in this case has been quite staggering. We have four P3 aircraft in the air and we have the supply ship HMAS Success as well as base support and personnel support. The Royal Australian Navy vessel Ocean Shield is due to arrive on 29 March and we are hopeful that it will play a critical and successful role in the search for sunken wreckage, including the flight recorder, which we all hope will provide some of the answers to the questions we have been asking over the past three weeks.

I take this opportunity to publicly thank all of the crews who have been involved, both Australian and international, who have persevered in this search despite some extraordinarily long hours and the difficult search area off the Western Australian coast. If there is a positive to come out of this disaster, it has to be the extraordinary international effort that has been brought to bear on this task.

People often question their contribution—the demand placed on the public purse by organisations like the Australian Defence Force or the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. It is in events like this that we see why it is so important we have that capability. Our crews are among the best in the world, if not the best. If there is something to be found there, I am confident that our crews are well placed to do that for us—on behalf not just of the Australian community but also of the international community, which is so captivated by this issue. We do have a great capability for search and rescue and I am confident that if there is something to be found, and it is possible to find it, our crews will be up to the task.

The Acting Prime Minister at the time, Warren Truss, and the Defence minister, Senator Johnston, have both visited the Pearce air base. I had the opportunity to visit Pearce last weekend as the search effort was gearing up, and there was an extraordinary level of activity at Pearce as they awaited the arrival of several international aircraft. I reflect for a moment that the international media contingent—the camera crews—numbered into the thirties out the front of the Pearce air base. It was the real focal point of activity in terms of media interest in this issue.

I commend the local base staff for the way they managed this issue on the day, and the way they continue to manage the issue, in terms of pride and support for that international media contingent. I also congratulate them on the way they have pulled together this extraordinary logistical effort. As the Minister for Defence himself indicated, the task involved in flying up to four hours to the search zone means they only have about two hours on station to do their work in terms of the search effort—then another four hours back. It is putting a huge demand on our crews. As I indicated earlier, they are young crews; they are enthusiastic and dedicated but they are also extremely well trained and they are doing credit to our nation in the work that they do. I commend them for that effort.

It is a difficult area to access. It is also a perilous area for these types of activities, and we wish them every safety as they go about their task. We are talking about some of the worst oceanic conditions in the world. I understand the sea state was No. 7 in the last couple of days. For those who do not travel much out of lakes and rivers, like myself, trying to carry out your work in sea state 7 is quite extraordinary. I wish them sincerely every safety as the crews go about their dangerous task.

The importance of this effort in terms of recovery of wreckage cannot be underestimated. It will provide clues for the investigators as they go about their work of trying to uncover what exactly happened to MH370. As we grieve with the families and friends of the passengers and crew, we should also spare a thought for the other staff of Malaysia Airlines. The Malaysia Airlines staff, who would have known the people onboard—the crew—and who now continue to fly those aircraft would have uncertainties and concerns of their own. We should think about them in the days and weeks ahead. The tragedy is that some of their colleagues have perished, people they worked with on a daily basis, and they continue to fly the particular aircraft. That would actually be something quite difficult for them to come to terms with. I wish them well as they go about their task, also, in the weeks and months ahead.

Finally, we need to prepare ourselves for the possibility that this mystery may not be solved. To the grieving relatives and friends: I fear we may not ever get a full explanation of what transpired on that flight. In supporting the condolence motion, I simply wish them well in the very difficult time they have ahead of them and again congratulate the Australian Maritime Safety Authority, our Defence personnel, and the civilians who have been involved in this task. They have done us proud and I wish them every safety as they go about that task.

Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I also wish to add my voice to this condolence motion debate. When we are in this place, just about all of us use aircraft to travel here regularly; and we travel frequently for other aspects of our positions. We certainly have an affinity with the families and with those who lost their lives on MH370.

It is a reality that air travel is extremely safe but there are occasions when things go wrong, and clearly this is one of those occasions. The only hope I really hold is that resolution will come quickly, after this, for the families—an idea of what actually happened to make some sense of the tragedy and the loss they have had to endure. The trouble with what has happened here—the way the whole bizarre circumstances have transpired with a plane leaving from Kuala Lumpur heading for Beijing, disappearing—is the expectation that it has crashed somewhere on that route.

There was some information at the start of this tragedy that it might have crashed south of Vietnam or around the south of Vietnam in the sea, but more and more as we went on the circumstances changed and now it seems absolutely certain that the plane has ended up south-west of Perth, 2,500 kilometres out to sea, under bizarre circumstances. What makes it truly personal for so many of us is the nightly TV news reports where you see the faces of family members in Beijing or in Kuala Lumpur devastated by the tragedy that has occurred.

Of course information is going to be very hard to come by, something like the fog of war. When you do not have witnesses and you do not have a whole lot of electronic information, it is very hard to know exactly what happened. Some of the speculation has not been helpful, but it is human nature that there will be speculation along the way. I am confident that in the fullness of time, similar to the Air France flight that crashed in the South Atlantic Ocean, the black boxes will be found, and resolution, closure, will be available to the families of those on board.

As we know, six Australians have lost their lives. Six families in this country have been closely and personally affected. I heard the former member for Pearce speak and he reflected on the fact that New Zealander, but Australian resident, Paul Weeks was a resident of Pearce. We have also heard from the member for Banks that there was a couple from the south of Sydney also on the plane. That brings it home even more to all of us and to those people who live in those areas and to a wider group of people that actually knew someone on MH 370.

I really did not expect that I would have any real relationship or any personal contact with someone affected by this tragedy, but last weekend I was in my backyard playing with my dog and I heard some movement across the fence. My neighbour Dion said to me, 'Luke, I have to inform you that Jessica's brother'—his wife's brother—'was on the plane.' I have known these guys for some period of time and, whilst he was not an Australian citizen, his sister Jessica, Dion and their son are Australian citizens and they are personally affected. So, whilst we look at this list of Australians and at Paul Weeks from New Zealand and we think, 'This is as close as it gets,' sometimes it is just across your back fence, in the suburbs of Cowan. Maybe that is something similar to what has happened where, at the start, we think of this plane crashing off Vietnam, being lost somewhere in the Northern Hemisphere, and then suddenly it is across your back fence, across the park or across the water; it is close to home.

I thank the members of the Australian Defence Force, particularly the Air Force crews, who, in very difficult circumstances, are doing their best to bring resolution to the families of those who have lost their lives on this flight. I pay tribute as well to all those countries that have sent assets and will be sending assets to Perth, to Pearce air force base, and helping with the search to close one aspect of this story. I suspect many of those relatives who will be heading to Perth hoping to receive the remains of their relatives will be greatly disappointed, but my thoughts and prayers go to all those people as well.

This is a time of great sadness for many families—not just in Australia but in Malaysia and China and all the way around the world. This tragedy has affected them seriously, and I am pleased that so many Australians are now stepping up to help and to bring closure to this sad and tragic event. Again, our condolences, thoughts and prayers go to all the families.

Craig Laundy (Reid, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is with a heavy heart that I rise to add my voice to the chorus of many, kicking off with the Prime Minister, in this condolence motion for all those on board MH370. Further to the comments of the Prime Minister and my colleagues, I pass on my thoughts and prayers to the families of all involved. I note that the passengers came from a range of nations—China, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, France, USA, Canada, New Zealand, Ukraine, the Netherlands, Russia, Taiwan and Iran—but I focus my comments on those directly affected in our homeland. The Australian passengers were Bob and Catherine Lawton; Rodney and Mary Burrows; Li Yuan and Gu Naijun, who the member for Banks told us earlier were residents of his electorate; and a New Zealand resident, Paul Weeks—we just heard a touching story from the member for Cowan about his wife and children, and we also heard from the member for Pearce that they were residents of his electorate.

My family has a sad history in this space. I lost my grandfather in an aircraft tragedy in 1969. I was not born at that stage; I was born in 1971. As my thoughts and prayers go to the families of all 227 passengers and 12 crew, I know that today, some 44 years after my father lost his father in an aircraft accident, he cannot have a conversation about these things without choking. When I stand here and say that I wish them well and they are in my thoughts and prayers, I understand the harsh reality that this will be something they carry with them for the rest of their lives. I hope that through the work of our Air Force and our Navy crews that are steaming to this location as we speak we can recover not only the wreckage but, most importantly, the black box flight recorder so that at least we can in some way do two things—learn what it was that caused this tragedy and learn for the future so that other aircraft may not suffer the same fate. If we can do that, these people's lives will not have been lost in vain.

As I say, my thoughts and prayers go out to all of those affected. Like the member for Banks, I have a large Chinese community in my electorate. We have been in Canberra for the last couple of weeks, but it would not surprise me if I headed back to my electorate tonight and heard over the next week that I have people in my community who have been adversely impacted. To all involved, my thoughts and prayers are with you now and always, and may the souls of those that are departed rest in eternal peace.

Nickolas Varvaris (Barton, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to add my condolences to those of my colleagues and join with the world in registering my sorrow and sadness for those on board Malaysian Airlines flight 370, following these tragic circumstances. My condolences go out to the families and loved ones of all 239 souls aboard MH370. I am thinking of them and praying for them through what must be nothing short of a personal nightmare.

Those aboard the flight hailed from 15 different nations. Indeed, this has been a global tragedy with significant relevance to our nation as it sits on Asia's doorstep. The majority of those aboard were from the People's Republic of China, a country that Australia has a strong relationship with. Considering the number of Chinese residents in my electorate, this element of the tragedy has touched those in Barton all the more.

Most particularly, my heart goes out to the families of those six Australians who left Kuala Lumpur on that ill-fated day. The cruelty of this tragedy has surely been the helplessness it has engendered in these loved ones left without answers. Among them were Queensland couple Rod and Mary Burrows. Rod and Mary were loving parents and were due to become grandparents next month. Mary was a hardworking civilian worker in the police force, embarking on a much-deserved long service leave with her husband and two Australian friends, Rob and Cathy Lawton. The families of these four much-loved Australians have inspired us all by rallying together in this difficult time. Sydney couple, Yuan Li and Naijun Gu, in the prime of their lives—in their early thirties—were heading to Beijing to spend time with their children. This surely inspired grief in us all when they were found to be among the passengers lost.

These Australians were remarkable for the extent to which we can identify with them. They had working lives, much loved children and loved to travel when they could. The gap that the loss of these Australians leaves in the lives of those close to them will never be filled. Exceptional circumstances have claimed the lives of everyday Australians, just like us, and that is what has touched our community so deeply.

This tragedy has touched our community, but it has also impressed upon the international community the essential nature of cooperation and multilateral operations in the face of global tragedy. Examples of this spirit of cooperation include our own Prime Minister's contribution of four P3C Orion aircraft as the world was waiting for all those in the region with the resources, the time and the compassion to step up in aid of the gruelling search.

Also encouraging was the Prime Minister's assurance to those international visitors who had dropped everything to fly to Perth after debris was found off the coast, in the Southern Indian Ocean, that they were in the arms of a decent country. That statement was most profound in expressing the sorrow and compassion of Australians following this tragedy. This accompanied an announcement that visa fees would be waived for all the relatives of the MH370 passengers who had rushed to Australia.

If there is one thing that we can garner from the extraordinary outpouring of attention and media reporting dedicated to the loss of MH370 right across the world, it is that there is an unlimited amount of heartfelt interest in the case. This was not because people are looking for intrigue or mystery but because we all understand the painful reality when grief is denied answers. As human beings, we have to know; and we especially cannot bear to be left in the dark concerning that which lies most heavily on the hearts of all people: the wellbeing of our loved ones. Hope after hope has been dashed but countless fine nations have put themselves and their resources on the line to demonstrate their care and commitment. We are committed to ensure that those who are lost are found, and that those who are grieving and questioning receive the answers they need.

I commend those fine Australian men and women who have led the international search effort in the waters off our western coast. We may be assured that Australians answered the call and led the way both in the desperate search to find MH370 and in the compassion extended to those who have suffered an unimaginable loss. On behalf of the electorate of Barton, I extend to the relatives of those on board countless thoughts, prayers and offers of goodwill.

Fiona Scott (Lindsay, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to convey my deepest sympathy to family and friends with loved ones aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared on 8 March 2014. As a nation we mourn the 239 lives—passengers and crew—including six Australians and two New Zealanders, aboard the flight that day. We think of the human tragedy—239 lives. There are 239 people not coming home. I would like to associate myself with the heartfelt remarks of both the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition and all other speakers in regards to this tragic loss. To the families of Rodney and Mary Burrows, Bob and Cathy Lawton, Yuan Li, Naijun Gu and Paul Weeks: we send you our deepest sympathy. Sitting in the chamber here today it was very hard to listen to the personal remarks of the members for Cowan and Pearce about the intense personal anguish felt by families here in Australia but also right around the world. It is to these families, friends and loved ones that our hearts go out in this time of grief.

I would like to pass on our thanks and gratitude to the Australian Defence Force personnel now responsible for the search. We thank them for their extraordinary efforts. In the words of our Prime Minister, Tony Abbott:

The effort is made even more extraordinary by weather conditions in some of the most challenging oceanic environments. I would also like to acknowledge the efforts of many nations involved in the search and recovery activities—China, the United States, Japan, Korea, New Zealand and, of course, Malaysia. We wish all Defence Force personnel safe passage in their work and their efforts in this extraordinary task.

Over the coming days, months and years the mystery of the events that led to this terrible tragedy will generate many stories, theories and speculation. I hope we are able to recover the black box so we can ascertain what has caused this tragic loss and ensure it never happens again and also to provide closure for the families and loved ones. At all times we should be respectful of and reflective on the loss of life of mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters, on the loss of 239 people who will never return home. Loved ones will ache for their return and will always feel a hole in their hearts from a life cut off too soon. We grieve for you as you try to make sense of this terrible tragedy, and we stand beside you as you try to find closure for your loss. May God bless you all.

Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to express my sincere condolences to the family and friends of all 239 people whom we now believe perished on flight MH370. This has been a highly unusual and tragic situation in which the world waited anxiously for 17 days for some evidence as to what occurred on this flight. There are still many, many questions as to why and how the plane crashed so far away from its flight path—indeed, so far away from anywhere. The crash site in the southern Indian Ocean, 2,500 kilometres from Perth, has been identified by debris found in an international search effort led by Australia. I will return to our role in that search effort soon.

I want to endorse what our Prime Minister has said. We extend our nation's deepest sympathies to the families of those on board. They are in our hearts and our minds at this time. The unusual nature of this tragedy has, I think, made it particularly difficult for the loved ones of those on board. It is right that we do whatever we can to show thoughtfulness and compassion at this time. We have extended an invitation—and I know, as is the Australian way, we will be welcoming and understanding—to anyone wishing to make a vigil here to pay respects and mourn their loved ones.

Of course our hearts go out to the families of the Australians on board. Two Queensland couples who were friends travelling together—Rodney and Mary Burrows, and Catherine and Robert Lawton—were much-loved parents, grandparents, siblings and friends and, by all accounts, fantastic neighbours and members of their community. Also there was a young Sydney couple, Yuan Li and Naijun Gu, who it is reported had two young children living in China. There was also a Perth resident and New Zealand national, Paul Weeks. I know that some family members were present in the gallery yesterday when the Prime Minister moved this motion. I hope they know that Australians are thinking of them at this very sad time.

I think the nature of this tragedy makes us all think deeply and reassess. That a commercial flight could go missing for so long and under such unusual circumstances has certainly made the global community question some of the things we take for granted every day. While we still do not know the exact nature of what occurred on that flight—and I am not about to speculate on that at all today—it does remind us that we must remain vigilant to the threats and potential threats that exist in our world today.

I want to take a little time in this debate to recognise and thank the Australian Maritime Safety Authority and our Air Force and Navy personnel, who have been and continue to be part of the effort to locate the plane and retrieve the debris. This has not been an easy task, covering a vast area that is so far from the west coast of Australia and under weather conditions that were so bad that the efforts had to be called off for a time on Tuesday. Australia has taken on a leadership and coordination role, with other nations joining the effort, and I want to acknowledge the fine work of our service men and women and the Maritime Safety Authority. I note that the recovery efforts continue today, with military aircraft, civil aircraft and ships searching.

We must all recognise that the search and recovery effort is not without risk itself and that the personnel involved are working at the request of our government to help find debris that could provide answers so that the world can gain some understanding of what actually happened. We seek answers so that the families of those on board can have some closure and, most importantly, so that we can prevent something like this from happening in the future. That is what our brave defence and maritime safety personnel are focused on, and I take time during this debate to thank them for their efforts.

Once again, to the families of those on board MH370, both here and around the world, I express sympathy on behalf of the community I represent. Our thoughts are with you at this time.

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to join with others in this parliament in offering my deep and sincere condolences to the families of all those souls who have been lost with the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines flight MH370—239 souls, and of course in each case a circle of friends and family of a far and dramatically greater proportion. We acknowledge, grieve for and recognise those who have been lost, and then we realise that for each life lost there are hundreds of people who are potentially affected through the extended network of friends and family; it is a profound ripple effect through numerous countries.

Australia, of course, has lost six nationals and one resident. The loss of each of them is mourned. And the survivors—the friends and family—will number in the hundreds in almost every case. These impacts flow throughout communities—in Australia, Malaysia, New Zealand and particularly China, which has suffered such a terrible loss.

I think it is important to recognise that in the midst of these tragedies we often find the missing best part of ourselves as communities and societies. At the same time that this has occurred we have had a tragic mudslide in the town of Oso in the north-western United States. It may well be that the loss there is similar to the numbers lost in the Bali bombings and the Victoria Black Saturday bushfires. The hallmark of each of these events has been that the best of the human spirit has responded.

We see that in the search and rescue that is currently underway, under Australia's guidance—because the likely debris zone off the coast of Western Australia, somewhere in the vicinity of 2½ thousand kilometres or so, is within our search-and-rescue zone. So, the Australian government—in particular, AMSA and the military—and civilian volunteers who are assisting as additional pairs of eyes on the search-and-rescue planes are providing extraordinary support. They are being backed up by international satellite cooperation which is arguably unprecedented. The international satellite cooperation, to the best of my knowledge, has no parallel example, but it is an outstanding exemplar for the future of cooperation. Of course, it is not just Australia but other countries are involved. The United States, China, Malaysia, New Zealand, Japan, Korea and other countries are also involved, and so all of these states coming together represents a critical task. I want to acknowledge the work of everybody who has been involved, particularly the leadership of AMSA. It is something in which the Prime Minister himself has taken a deep weight of personal responsibility.

The last thing I want to do is to talk about why we seek answers to this great mystery. Time will tell what the cause was, I hope, but we seek answers for two reasons: to provide closure for the families but also to provide reassurance and greater safety for future travellers. All of us in this place travel on aircraft. All of us have friends and family who travel on aircraft. If there is a new form of threat then we need to know, we need to prepare and we need to be vigilant. We cannot stop all the tragedies but there may be lessons to be learned. That is why we seek the answers, and we will not rest until we give the families closure.

Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The circumstances and tragedy of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 is almost incomprehensible. For the families, the friends, the co-workers and communities who have lost loved ones, MH370 is an event which cannot be properly explained. On 8 March 2014, Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 departed the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur, bound for Beijing in China with 239 people on board. There were parents, grandparents, artists, school students, holiday-makers, people on business trips and, of course, staff of the airline.

About an hour into the flight the aircraft disappeared from civilian radar screens and so began the heartache and the horror for the families and loved ones at home. Even as we stand here today, nearly three weeks later, there are still no definite answers. Nations around the world have worked together to try to find some answers and to bring some sort of closure to the families and the communities touched by this awful tragedy. While the search efforts have found pieces of debris which could well be part of the missing jet, the closure which those families and communities so desperately need and the answers they so desperately seek are yet forthcoming.

While we are doing our very best to find those answers and to bring closure, Australia is certainly playing its part in the search process. I have to say: search and rescue is something that we do very, very well. Our Navy and Air Force personnel are exceptional at it. As the Prime Minister has said, if there is something out there, we will find it. We are certainly hoping to bring closure to those families. We have seen again how Australia's defence and service personnel will do their very best and give of themselves in times of need. A potential 122 pieces of wreckage have been found off the coast of Western Australia and our defence personnel have been working around the clock to try to solve this mystery. But, as we have heard many others say, we are searching an area of 400 square kilometres. That is bigger than all metropolitan electorates. It is a huge search area and it is so inaccessible. There is nothing out there in the southern Indian Ocean but waves—big waves and the storms that often brew over those waves has made rescue and search efforts almost impossible. P3 Orions go into the area and they have a window of opportunity of only about an hour or two to see if there is anything down there before they have to go back to base. Even if they see something at some particular time, when they go back there or when Navy vessels go out there not long after the pieces may have been taken by waves and floated many miles elsewhere.

We are looking for the black box flight data recorder. We are talking about an implement which is not very big. We know that HMAS Sydney sunk in battle in 1941 and the wreck was discovered in 2008. That wreck was 160 metres long. The RMS Titanic was lost when it struck an iceberg in 1912 and it was not found until 1985. It was 269 metres long. We are looking for a black box flight data recorder that is not that big, eventually, at the bottom of a very deep sea and it is going to be very difficult to find.

Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss, who was Acting Prime Minister at the time of the event, visited the RAAF Base Pearce in Western Australia last weekend. He had the opportunity to meet with many of the service men and women who are doing their best in this tragedy.

Sitting suspended from 12 : 20 to 12 : 21

As I was saying, Deputy Prime Minister Truss had the opportunity to speak to the RAAF and the Royal Australian Navy service men and women, our best and brightest, who are part of the search crew. I pay tribute to those service men and women who have helped the Australian efforts in finding the missing plane. We know that there were six Australian souls on board that missing plane. We also know that we are doing our very best to locate anything that can identify the plane and to draw the correlation that the wreckage that has been spotted by satellite is in fact part of MH370. Then of course the search will be on to find that black box flight data recorder.

The box flight recorder was an invention of David Warren, who lived from 1925 to 2010. His father died when the Miss Hobart crashed in Bass Strait whilst he was on board as an Anglican missionary, flying from Victoria to Tasmania in 1934. One of the last presents that his dad gave him was a crystal radio set which inspired him, and obviously the awful family tragedy, to invent the black box flight data recorder. I am proud to say that he was one of the inductees in the Australian Aviation Hall of Fame in Wagga Wagga late last year. Of course we do need that black box flight recorder to be found to find out what went wrong with this flight.

In coming together today as a parliament to express the nation's condolences to the families of those on MH370, few words can explain the tragedy. Few words can console the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters and sons of those on board, but we can offer them our thoughts and prayers as Australian and international service people continue the search for the missing Malaysian Airlines MH370 plane.

Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When Malaysian Airlines MH370 went down in the southern Indian Ocean some 2,500 kilometres from Perth it took many lives, including six Australians and one New Zealander, who was actually living in Australia. In the face of tragedy, the families who are left behind must cope with the fact that little is known of how and why the plane ditched into the Indian Ocean. If the authorities can recover the black box then they may solve some of the mysteries surrounding this tragic flight.

Two of the Australian victims, Rod and Mary Burrows, had strong family connections in my seat of Flynn and I now give a brief summary of their lives and pay condolence to their families. Rod was the eldest child of George and Irene Burrows from Thangool, near Biloela, who have just moved to Biloela, and the brother of Greg, Paul and Kaylene. Rod was schooled in Thangool and went away to boarding school at St Brendan's College in Yeppoon for his secondary schooling. Rod worked at the power station at Biloela and at the Moura mine before moving to Melbourne, then moved back to Brisbane where he married Mary in the early eighties. They had three children: Jayden, Karla and Melia. Rod was an electrician by trade but worked at the Energex head office until his retirement. Mary worked at the police academy for about 20 years in an administration role and was going to make her decision regarding retirement when she returned from these holidays.

Both Rod and Mary had been looking forward to meeting the first child of their eldest daughter, Karla, and her husband, Brendan; this was also their first 'grandbaby'. 'Grandbaby' was a word that Sandra used, so I wonder if that is what they did and what they were going to call the baby. They intended to spend about a month at home and had then planned for another five-week European trip.

A little bit more family history: George Burrows, 86, moved with his family from Wondai in the South Burnett area to Thangool in the early 1940s. George continued to live on the property with his wife until they retired to Biloela. Their second son, Greg, and his wife, Sandra, still continue to live on that original property.

A special service for Rod and Mary Burrows will be held at 11 am on Friday, 4 April at St Joseph's Catholic Church at Biloela. When their son spoke to the media he said: 'They always put family first. They worked hard to reap the rewards of their retirement so they could travel and spend time with their families in their retirement.' Rest in peace.

Karen Andrews (McPherson, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I understand 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 the chamber.

Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

Question agreed to.