Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) recognise the tragic events around the siege of the Lindt Cafe in Martin Place, Sydney on 15 and 16 December, 2014;

(2) extend its deepest and heartfelt sympathies to the family and friends of Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson for their loss;

(3) honour the courage and fortitude shown by those held in the Lindt Cafe;

(4) acknowledge the response of the law enforcement and security agencies and emergency services personnel to a difficult and dangerous situation;

(5) recognise the calm and steadfast response of the people of Sydney, as well as the wholehearted support of the Australian people for the people held inside the Lindt Cafe and their families both during and after the siege;

(6) thank the leaders and people of other nations who stood with Australia during this testing time;

(7) note with sadness that other countries have recently suffered at the hands of terrorists, including France, Canada, Iraq, Egypt, Nigeria, Japan and Jordan;

(8) declare our deep repugnance of terrorism in all forms; and

(9) affirm the unity and resolve of this Parliament to protect our citizens and our democratic freedoms.

The 15th of December last year was a testing day for our country. It was a testing day for the police and for the security and emergency services. It was a testing day for the people of Sydney, witnessing an atrocity unfold in a cafe known to many Sydneysiders, in the utterly familiar surrounds of Martin Place. Above all, it was a testing day for the men and women held in the Lindt Cafe and for their families. So today we welcome to the chamber the men and women held in the Lindt Cafe as well as the families of Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson. The thoughts and prayers of 24 million Australians and many millions more around the world were with you on that terrible day, and I want to assure you we are still with you. We are still with you as you come to terms with that horrific experience. Every day must be a struggle for the Johnson and the Dawson families. We grieve with you and we hope that you draw strength and comfort from the support of the people of our country. We are so glad that you are here in the home of our democracy, in the very cradle of that noble idea that men and women can make their own choices for their own lives, provided that does not hurt anyone else.

Australia is a peaceful country. We are a beacon of hope and liberty throughout the world, and Sydney, our largest city, is so cosmopolitan and diverse that anyone can be at home there. In this country, our differences demonstrate our freedom, and our willingness to lend a hand and to get along makes this the best place on earth to live. And this is what was threatened on 15 and 16 December last year. And this is what we are determined to uphold and defend, at home and abroad, every single day. The best response to evil is good. The best response to terrorism is to live normal lives, because that shows that we might be threatened but we will not be changed.

The Martin Place siege, I regret to say, was inspired by that death cult now rampant in much of Syria and Iraq, which is a travesty of religion and governance and which should never be dignified with the term 'Islamic State'. The Martin Place siege was the act of terror that we hoped would never occur in this country. I want to assure the men and women in the gallery, I want to assure all Australians, that this government, as well as our state counterparts, are determined to learn from what happened at the Lindt Cafe on that dreadful day. We are considering the Commonwealth-state review, which will be released, with our response, before the end of the month, and there is also a New South Wales coronial inquiry that is underway.

But the first duty of government is to keep our citizens safe and, while no-one can promise that a brutal act of terror will never occur again, these inquiries will identify what we can do to further protect our people and our country. I pledge that I will do whatever I humanly can to keep our people safe. That is why this government has boosted spending on our security and intelligence services. That is why members of the Australian Defence Force even now are currently working with the forces of other nations to disrupt and degrade the ISIL or Daesh death cult. Air strikes, including our own, have hit it hard, stopping its momentum and degrading its forces. This death cult has declared war on the world, and the world is both hitting back and reaching out.

In the days after the atrocity against Charlie Hebdo, the people of France responded to the brutality of Islamist extremists by walking arm in arm through the streets of Paris. Likewise, in the days after the Sydney siege, Australians responded by carpeting Martin Place with flowers. Tens of thousands brought tributes, including a bride who had interrupted her wedding day to do so. Manal Kassem's floral tribute was a reminder that Muslim Australians were as affronted by the events of 15 and 16 December as every Australian. She reminded us, as did all who responded during those difficult days, that for every person who seeks to impose extremism and violence there are countless more who will stand against them. Australia did not stand alone.

I want to place on record my thanks to the many national leaders who called in response to the terrorism in Martin Place. I want to assure the House that we will defend ourselves against those who seek to do us harm, but we will always do so in keeping with our Australian values. Those values are embodied in this institution and in our shared adherence to liberal thought and to democratic pluralism. We stand for the right of individuals to choose their own paths and to live their lives free of fear. We stand against organisations or individuals that promote hatred here or recruit vulnerable Australians for terrorism abroad. We have already made it an offence to advocate terrorism and made it easier to ban terrorist organisations. If we have to seek further legislation, we will.

This is the first sitting day of the parliament for 2015. This year, like every other year, there will be moments of contention, partisanship, bitterness and drama, but there will also be moments of profound unity where our shared love of country prevails over everything else. This is such a moment.

In April, some in this chamber will travel to Gallipoli to pay tribute to the courage, resourcefulness, determination and sacrifice of our forebears a century ago. But today we need not look so far or travel so far to see resilience, courage and decency. We look to the gallery and we see modern Australia. We see young and old, men and women of diverse backgrounds. In them, we see the courage and the resourcefulness and the decency that we saw in other generations and in other contexts.

Greater love hath no man or woman than to lay down their life for their friend. We salute Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson. We salute everyone touched by the siege, touched by this atrocity. I commend the motion to the House.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

At a quarter to 10 on Monday morning, 15 December, 17 people, some old friends and some total strangers, were thrust into an unimaginable nightmare of one man's making. For 16½ hours, the world watched. It waited and it prayed, hoping for a safe and peaceful end to this act of madness. Tragically, this was not to be.

Two fine Australians—Katrina Dawson, a brilliant barrister, loving wife and mother of three; and Tori Johnson, the cafe's manager, a beloved son and soul mate—lost their lives in the final minutes of the siege. To you, the people who loved Katrina and Tori and the people they loved, I offer the heartfelt condolences of our party and our nation. Australia is indeed with you in your grief. The story of Katrina and Tori's brave and terrible times, I believe, makes millions of us wish that we had known them. Now, we never can, except in memory.

Tennyson once wrote of the pain of loss:

… O for the touch of a vanished hand,

And the sound of a voice that is still!

We understand that no words in this place or elsewhere can restore that vanished touch or bring back a voice too soon silenced. All we can offer is Australia's embrace—a promise to honour forever the memory of those lost to you and to all of us.

The same is true for all of you who escaped from this dreadful ordeal with your lives. To you, the survivors, the wounded and the frightened: Australia is here for you. I know all the family members and survivors here today do our parliament great courtesy with your presence. Australia will always be with you, just as we must always be grateful for the bravery, the professionalism and the skill of the New South Wales and federal police, the security forces and emergency services. Like the Prime Minister, I offer them our sincere thanks for their courage and their service.

We still need to learn more about what happened in Martin Place and how we can do our level best to ensure that it does not happen again. We will give the report that the government has received the careful consideration it deserves. We will work with you, the government, because the security of our nation and the safety of our people are above politics. When it comes to fighting terrorism, we are indeed in this together.

What we do know, without question, is that this was a crime deliberately aimed at the innocent. Everyday Australians were the target of terror. It could have been the families of any Australians in there that morning—mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters, husbands and wives—savouring the ritual of a Monday morning coffee or just catching up with a friend or a colleague. These people were the victims of a deranged act of violence aimed at dividing our country, and it failed. It failed because Australians will never lose their faith in a peaceful, multicultural democracy. Australians will never surrender to hatred, to fear and to intolerance. We will never reward the perpetrators of evil by abandoning our common humanity.

On that Monday evening, as night descended upon Martin Place, hundreds of thousands of Australians took to social media to do something quite extraordinary. Instead of venting messages of hate or succumbing to fear, under the #I'll ride with you, more than 150,000 people made a stand against prejudice. They rallied around the diversity which is at the core of our remarkable, modern Australia; and the next morning, when the siege had ended, Sydneysiders emerged in Martin Place bearing flowers, not hatred. In the very heart of their city, under the eyes of the world, a wonderful field of flowers grew.

In time, that temporary tribute will be replaced with a permanent memorial—a garden nourished by those initial blooms of love—a lasting reminder that even the very worst act of violence is no match for the bravery of our people and the best of our nation. And in that same spirit, let us resolve to honour the memory of those lost to us on that December morning and those who survived by vowing not to change. Let us promise each other always to be a happy and confident people; a nation rejecting fear and embracing diversity; a nation whose first instinct will always be optimism and compassion, never suspicion nor prejudice; and an Australia that is stronger because it stands together, united not defeated—today, tomorrow and always.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I call the member for Sydney, as the member for the place where this wicked tragedy occurred.

Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Speaker, and I thank the government for the opportunity to speak very briefly on indulgence to this motion.

All of us remember the Sydney Olympics and the way Martin Place played a central role in the welcome we gave to the world. Martin Place was the place where anyone could go to watch the live sites, and we had visitors from every part of our globe. We presented the best of Australia then—a welcome to every nation and a welcome to every race. During the Martin Place siege we saw one of the most difficult times that our nation has faced, and for Katrina Dawson's family and Tori Johnson's family, of course, it was the most difficult time that they would ever face.

It is so easy to picture, isn't it? Tori and Katrina and saying goodbye to their families that morning—a quick kiss as they ran out of the door, like any of us would do—going to work, stopping for a coffee and then this terrible tragedy intervening and they were not able to keep that promise, 'See you tonight, kids.' To Katrina's family and to Tori's family: thank you for honouring us today with your presence. We stand with you in your unimaginable loss. To the three hostages and the police officer who were injured during this time: we think of you also—the suffering that you have gone through and the suffering that no doubt stays with you. To all of the hostages who were part of this tragedy: our thoughts are with you, they continue to be with you and we stand united as a parliament in saying that we will do whatever it takes to support you in this difficult time.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, in associating myself with the remarks of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition I move that the debate be adjourned.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would also like to associate my feelings with those remarks that have been made.

Debate adjourned.