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

I rise to express, as have my colleagues on both sides of this House, the horror and sadness that we felt, and still feel, over the attack in the Lindt Cafe in Martin Place in December. It is appropriate that this House pass this condolence motion, and am honoured to speak to it.

We remember that this event took place at almost the same moment that 145 children, in a school in Pakistan, were murdered by the same mentality—the same 'cult', as the Prime Minister calls them—by a different faction of the jihadism which is evident throughout the world. It is a tragedy not just for Australia. There are much worse things happening to other people in other nations, and to Australians overseas, and we have a special insight into it now because we have seen it here on our own mainland. Our hearts must go out particularly to the mothers and fathers of those poor young women in Nigeria who have been kidnapped by those brutes and whom the Nigerian army, even with international assistance, have been unable to retrieve.

I want to say something about the bravery of all of the hostages, as has been recalled in various media appearances and in various speeches in this House. I share my colleagues' admiration for the bravery of our fellow citizens and acknowledge the 16 hours of terror that they suffered. Katrina Dawson, the barrister, is someone who impressed me very much. My wife is also a highly capable barrister and I see in Ms Dawson a reflection of my own personal circumstances. She was a mother of three and we mourn for her children and her husband for the years they have to go without her, so unnecessarily. Tori Johnson, aged 34, the manager of the restaurant, was one who was particularly focused on by the person who engineered the siege. I have recommended to opposition leader Bill Shorten that he should be nominated for the Cross of Valour, Australia's highest civilian bravery decoration.

The actions of Man Haron Monis have rightly been described by commentators as a 'lone wolf' attack. Monis claimed to be acting on behalf of Daesh, and the attack was subsequently claimed by that group, but there does not appear to be any evidence that his attack, unlike the attack in Paris, was conducted in any manner of cooperation with one of these monster organisations in the Middle East. Monis took it upon himself to conduct this attack and he did so. In a sense it does not matter whether he was in direct contact with them, because Daesh—IS, as people call it—appealed to its ideological adherents to conduct just this kind of random attack. That is the danger that is a continuum in the international circumstances all around the world that we must feel here in Australia. It is impossible for our police and security agencies to know what is in the mind of every person who reads the evil scripts written for them by Daesh, or al-Qaeda of the Arabian Peninsula, or Boko Haram or some other of these deranged jihadist groups.

This was not the only lone wolf attack in recent months and years. Indeed, there has been a spate of such attacks where an individual, or sometimes a group of two, has attacked random passers-by as Daesh has argued for. We saw it in the Boston bombing of 2013; the brutal slaying of Fusilier Lee Rigby in the UK the following month; the attack on the Jewish museum in Belgium in May last year, where four innocent people visiting the museum were murdered by a returnee—just as we have got this phenomenon here in Australia—from an experience of fighting with Daesh in Syria and Iraq. The Canadian parliament was attacked. The clerk of the Canadian parliament had to shoot dead a jihadist attacker to prevent further casualties amongst MPs or staff. We have seen numerous lone wolf attacks in Israel, including the stabbing to death of four rabbis at prayer in a part of West Jerusalem. It was nothing to do with a conflict, nothing to do with settlements. It was completely away from that area. There was a group of people who oppose praying on the Temple Mount because, to them, that is a violation of the spirituality of that place, but they were singled out by two people who lived in the area who went in, stabbed them to death and tried to run away.

Most recently, of course, there were the execution-style slayings of the Charlie Hebdo staff and the siege at a Jewish supermarket in Paris—not a random attack, as someone in Washington claimed recently, although they are trying to walk that back. It was not a random attack but a deliberate attack on a kosher supermarket. Because the people in there were Jewish they are particularly fearful of these jihadists all around the world. These operations, which terrified France, were coordinated by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in some kind of macabre competition with Daesh, who do the random attacks, the lone wolf attacks, and al-Qaeda thought, 'These people are getting all the international publicity; we'd better get in and kill some people in Paris too.' What a terrible international phenomena they are. We all have to act together to prevent these kinds of things spreading and coming more to this country.

These attacks have in common two things: perpetrators motivated by violent jihadism and a heeding of the call by the organised jihadi groups for individuals to take it upon themselves to randomly kill infidels. When looked at collectively, these attacks signify a trend, a continuum. These events in Sydney were part of a continuum of tragedies that are happening all around the world. Since the September 11 attacks, Western countries have enacted numerous laws to prevent terrorist acts occurring on their soil. In the face of new tactics and new technologies, parliaments have adapted. In this context, I am proud of the bipartisan nature of counterterrorism legislation passed by this parliament.

As democracies have adapted, so have the espousing terrorists ideologies. Now, as I have said, we have a competition between Da'esh and al-Qaeda to see how many people they can kill and terrorise in the Middle East, and how many people their supporters can kill and terrorise in the West and perhaps Asia. So, individuals and small groups have to be disrupted and arrested, as we have seen today, if we want to prevent these attacks being perpetrated by cleanskins happening again.

The individual at the centre of this event might have been stopped. Monis was out on bail for alleged involvement in his ex-wife's murder, among many other charges, which has led many Australians to question why he was at large. I would encourage people who have that sceptical view to listen to a report by the ABC's religion program five years ago, in which the presenter asks why Monis was allowed to proliferate his brand of extremism for so long. The report is available on the ABC website. As I said, that program was made five years ago—long before this tragic event. Taking Monis off their watch list was a mistake by the security services, but we should not blame them. How many extremists can ASIO and the AFP monitor? However, people who are vexatious or mentally ill, and who proclaim an affinity to jihadism or speak positively of any of the groups listed as terrorists by the Australian government, must be taken seriously. Perhaps they should remain in custody. Even these mentally challenged people must be included in the lone wolf threat. Unattached, ideologically agitated jihadists who are appealed to by Da'esh to mount spontaneous attacks in places like Australia are people we should be considering.

As the member for Fraser said, when we enter this place representing 100,000 constituents and their families we feel a deep sense of responsibility. It is the gravity of this place that decisions we make directly affect the security and safety of those Australians who entrust us with this responsibility. Parliament has a responsibility to do all it can to maintain Australia's record of preventing these attacks in Australia. That is why we must take the report that the government is presenting very seriously, and I am pleased that the Prime Minister has undertaken to do that.

There are many Australians involved with this organisation over there. There are people coming back here; there are people already back here. We have a responsibility to see that we suppress these people. I am sure all members of parliament wish the ADF forces over there assisting the international forces success in suppressing Da'esh, but we also have a responsibility here at home. Many Australians are killed overseas and we want to ensure that deaths are prevented here. We have to learn from this report and we have to see that there are no more Lindts in Australia. That should be our tribute to the victims. (Time expired)

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

I share the sentiments expressed by my colleagues who have spoken on this sad tragedy so far. Words can only express so much of what we all felt on that day and what we still feel as we recount the shocking details. It was a typical Monday in Sydney, a day where some people were wrapping up work in the lead-up to the Christmas holidays whilst others were hurrying about completing their Christmas shopping duties in the heart of the Sydney CBD, Martin Place. Coffee shops were still open and catering to the business and leisure set, with noisy city vehicles in the background echoing off the laneways and tall buildings in the financial and legal centre of the town. The day could not be more ordinary, yet only a few hours later things would change horrifically.

December 15 2014 is a day that shattered our sense of humanity. It was a day that Sydneysiders and all Australians were assaulted by the actions of a lone gunman, who was unstable, fanatical and had a depraved sense of identity. The lone gunman stepped into the Lindt chocolate cafe, ordered coffee and a slice of cake and sat down like everyone else. Except that he was not like everyone else. What he did next was terrifying, unjustifiable, and an act of pure evil. He held hostage the 10 customers inside the cafe as well as the eight employees, and demanded that they obey his orders or else. He threated innocent civilians with threats of violence, unwarranted and unjustified.

From this point onwards, a lengthy 16-hour negotiation process would commence with police. Without doubt the Martin Place siege of 15 December was an act which caused unrest in our peaceful country. The act instilled fear in all Australians for the duration of the horrific siege, leaving many questioning and many who may still find fear within them. Till this day, it has been difficult to comprehend what was going through the terrorist's mind and, furthermore, the absolute sense of fear and shock that the hostages would have felt. For many of us, whether we live in Sydney or not, the assault and threat of violence on an innocent life is unthinkable. The siege embodies an attack on the very fabric of humanity and of the Australian way of life.

Each and every person inside that cafe had their hopes and dreams virtually snuffed out the minute they were kept captive. Their lives will never be the same again. But what is truly most heartbreaking and inconceivable is the loss of lives, hours later, of the Lindt cafe manager, Tori Johnson, and barrister Katrina Dawson. The context and manner in which these two innocent individuals died is the most gut-wrenching news we all had to learn. Our sense of freedom and justice was dismantled that day, and, whilst strangers united in condemning the attack rallied around our law enforcement officers who helped end the siege, I know none of these details would console the families of Tori and Katrina. These were hardworking individuals who were loved by their families and friends, going about their day, working as they normally do or stepping out for a coffee; their lives snuffed out instantaneously.

To the family of Tori Johnson and to his partner, I am so very sorry for your loss and I extend to you my deepest and heartfelt sympathies. No parents would envisage having to bury their own child and certainly not in such circumstances. My condolences go to the family of Katrina Dawson. For starters, I could not imagine what pain and suffering you are currently going through. I, like many of my parliamentary colleagues with young children, cannot imagine the agony of losing a child, or a child losing a parent. No family, no partner or husband, no sister, brother, son or daughter, should ever have to go through what the Johnson and Dawson families have had to endure.

Tori and Katrina were simply at the wrong place at the wrong time and, as such, became unsuspecting victims in a fanatical plan conspired by a madman. Yet the pain they have suffered has been inflicted on us all as Australians. We are a peaceful, strong, civil and democratic society which values each and every person's life. To other nations, we are a beacon of hope and liberty. We are united and strong because of the values we share and the respect we have for each other and for life itself, and nothing will ever take this away.

No religion condones violence and death. No nation tolerates such sheer disregard for human life. Australians will never back down from defending our values and our way of life. This was an immeasurable tragedy that should never have occurred, and it is a testing time for all of us as we attempt to grasp what occurred that day. Many constituents in my electorate of Barton have contacted me to express their disgust, horror and anguish after learning the gruesome details of the siege. But the undertone in all their messages has been that we, as Australians, will never cower or falter when faced with acts of violence. We do not recoil when faced with a death cult, and we stand our ground when we are faced with diabolical acts motivated by a perverted sense of justice.

Our unity in these testing times gives more reason than ever for us to preserve our democratic freedoms, something that I trust both sides of politics to steadfastly adhere to. My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and the families of everyone involved in the siege as we grieve with them. I hope that they can move on from the terrible events of that day as they draw comfort from the millions of Australians who continue to support them. There is no place for hateful ideology and violence in any civilised democracy. Each and every one of us has a right to live in peace, to practise freedom and liberty. We defend one another when harm comes our way, as we have always done, since the days of the Anzacs. I pay my deepest respects to Tori and Katrina and to everyone affected by this atrocity. We are greater than the sum of our parts and we will rise above this. I commend this motion to the House.

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

When the first reports of the Martin Place siege hit the airwaves, after the initial shock I think the thought of many people in this country was, 'That could have been me.' It could have been any one of us in that cafe at that time, doing nothing more than having a morning cup of coffee. Then, as the events unfolded and came to their tragic end, people around the country, who were gearing up for the end of the year, were heartbroken to know that Tori Johnson's partner was not going to see him again and that Katrina Dawson's kids were heading towards a Christmas without their mum and that a husband had lost his wife.

As we find out more of the stories now from the people who were held hostage in the siege, we understand more fully what we saw and recognised immediately on their faces, when we saw them inside the cafe in those first moments, before the footage was cut. We saw people who had perhaps resigned themselves to the worst and were struggling to comes to grips with it, knowing that they might not be able to have that last goodbye with the people who were close to them.

The emergency services personnel and security forces, who train their whole career for an event like this, would also, no doubt, hope that an event like this never happens, and yet they were called on to go into a situation that many of us would hope to never experience in our lives. We know now—it became apparent at the time—that all of these people and all who were close to them were the victims of criminal acts from a violent man with a criminal record. Those acts are going to define the lives of the people who have been left behind, and those acts took the lives of two people who did no more than be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

For myself, and, I am sure, on behalf of the people of Melbourne and on behalf of my party, I pay tribute to the courage of all of the people who have been directly or indirectly touched by this tragedy. For those close to the people who were killed, and those who were in the cafe at some point or another during those fateful hours, this must be unimaginably tough. I really do not think that any of us can truly put ourselves in your shoes. We try and imagine it. I recoil in horror, and I think many others do as well. The toughness is, of course, not over and will linger for some time for those people. It may in fact be a continuing tough process for them as the inquiries and the discussions continue, but it is our obligation as parliamentarians to look at what happened and to discuss it and to work out how we can try and prevent anything like this from ever happening again.

One of the things we know is that here was someone with known mental health issues who was on bail for a violent crime who was able to get a gun. One of the questions that will be traversed during the inquiry is: how did that happen? We also know, as previous speakers have raised, that we are now in an environment where groups like IS or Daesh, or others around the world who wish to do us harm, are not now recruiting or organising in mosques; they are inflaming people who are perhaps on the edge of society anyway while those people are sitting in their homes using their computers, watching videos on their computers. That is now how a lot of these so-called lone-wolf attacks are predicted to arise.

We have to ask ourselves then how we stop people getting into a situation where they feel it is the right thing to come and do us harm and they draw no distinction between doing harm and not, where terror groups like IS are then able to prey them and use them to come and attack us. As I think the member for Melbourne Ports said, it almost in a sense does not matter whether or not this person was part of a hierarchical chain of command or was just someone acting on their own at the behest of the likes of Daesh; what matters is that we have to work out how to make sure that this is not a template for the future and work how to make sure that extreme propaganda when it hits the airwaves does not result in people in this country, whether they were born here or born overseas, wanting to come and do us harm.

As we have those discussions and many others, that may be quite raw for those who are close and affected by this tragedy. But I do hope it is of some comfort to those who have been affected by the siege and whose lives have been irrevocably changed to know that everyone in this parliament, no matter where you come from, is thinking of them. We are at one in supporting the victims of the siege. We are at one in wanting to make sure that it never happens again and that what people like about Australia—its peace, its democracy, its commitment to resolving disputes without resorting to violence—is something that is never shaken.

In that respect, I am filled with optimism seeing the response to the tragedy. The fact that Martin Place became a sea of flowers and not of violence speaks volumes of the spirit of the Australian people and is a sign that, if the intention of that man who was behind the siege was to disrupt and make us fight each other, it failed. If the intention was to make people change their values of democracy and friendship, that failed. We saw that not only physically with the flowers but we saw that virtually as well. Within a matter of hours the #illridewithyou hashtag took off on Twitter and other forms of social media as people stood side by side with another and said immediately, 'We understand that this is not something that is representative of the faith, because no-one who truly is a person of faith would think it is in any way justifiable to take people hostage and then see two of them killed.' The fact that that happened so quickly and that people were willing to stand next to their neighbour and say, 'I understand you are not responsible and if anyone says that I will stand next to you,' is remarkable—and an outpouring the likes of which I have not seen for a very long time.

So I do take some comfort, and I hope the families and friends of those who are affected by the siege take some comfort, in knowing that, in the wake of the siege, Australia has comprehensively rejected violence and Australia has chosen peace and friendship. Our thoughts will continue to be with you and I am sure that everyone in this parliament will do whatever they can to support anyone who in any way has been affected by this terrible tragedy. I commend the motion to the House.

Sharman Stone (Murray, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On behalf of the electorate of Murray, I want to participate in this debate on the motion moved by our Prime Minister, Mr Abbott, which expresses condolences for all of those who were affected directly by the siege in Martin Place, Sydney. The 16th of December 2014 will be deeply etched in the memories of particularly the families who lost Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson but also the other families who are no doubt still suffering extreme anxiety and distress having been one of the 17 who were taken hostage and also of course the families of the police who were wounded in that siege.

I am particularly pleased to speak on behalf of Murray, because we are an extraordinary place. We have one of the most multicultural communities outside any capital city. In particular, we have a lot of Islamic communities and refugees. In this appalling situation in Martin Place, a man claiming to be a Muslim cleric—a madman, in fact; an evil person—who had a long criminal record and who had been granted political asylum in Australia literally committed the most heinous of violent offences, hoping no doubt to cause a real tension and reaction in the Australian public so there was hatred and vilification between different faith groups. I want to stress that, as a consequence of that terrible event, some of our young multicultural youth communities in the Goulburn Valley got themselves together and they said, 'We've got to make sure that we can demonstrate from our small rural and regional community in northern Victoria that, while we are Islamic, Christian, Sikhs, Buddhists and a whole range of people of faith and we are people who have no faith, we live in harmony and tolerance with one another.' In particular, our Al Kasem Youth Organisation organised what we called the Shepparton Twilight Vigil. It occurred just a few nights after this siege.

It was prompted of course by the terrible siege itself but it was also a response to the Facebook posting by Rachael Jacobs, who had noticed a Muslim woman taking off her headscarf when she was riding on public transport. Clearly worried and nervous about a reaction from the public, she had taken her headscarf off just hours after the siege. Ms Jacobs said to her, 'I'll be with you; I'll accompany you so that you are safe.' So our young Shepparton people said, 'Let's celebrate that tolerance and that loving friendship and at the same time let's pay our respects to the victims of that terrible siege in Sydney.'

And so, our twilight vigil took place, as I said, in partnership with the Al Kasem Youth Organisation, a group of Muslim youth; the Greater Shepparton City Council; and the Ethnic Council of Shepparton and District, which includes of course members and representatives from our African nations, the Middle East, our Islander communities and some of our older migrant communities from Europe. They were also joined by the youth group Word and Mouth and the Victoria Police.

The night was kind to us; we had an extraordinarily beautiful and peaceful evening. We joined around the big lake in the centre of Shepparton and each person took a candle. They walked around the lake shore in family groups, arm-in-arm perhaps with people who they had not met for a long time or some who they had not met before. Having walked right around the lake and having put our flowers in front of the special podiums that had been arranged, there were a number of speeches. Those speeches were from the Al Kasem Youth Organisation itself, from the Mayor of the Greater Shepparton City Council, from another councillor—himself from a Muslim background and originally from Albania. There were the most impassioned and significant speeches made. All of them talked about the incredible tolerance that we extend in our community, the loving care we have for one another and the fact that the most important thing is who we are in our community, not what we are, where we are from or when we happen to practice our faith—whether that is on a Saturday, a Sunday, a Friday night or no time at all.

I have to say that I was so proud, looking around the big crowd—there were hundreds of people there. Many of them were in traditional cultural dress. It is a fact in Shepparton that even though you are, perhaps, in the Turkish community and you came to Australia three generations ago, you will still wear your traditional dress, because no-one insists on or expects you to wear anything different. So we had people in Sikh traditional cultural dress, we had people in the dress of the Hazara from Pakistan and Afghanistan and people from Iraq, Jordan and Iran, and we had our Islanders. And, of course, the whole evening began with a wonderful local Indigenous man playing the didgeridoo.

It was an extraordinary evening—a very moving evening. One of the very special things about that evening was that what we were trying to say was than an act by an evil madman like this person in Sydney, who took it upon himself to kill and who no doubt wanted to make a big name for himself as a martyr, had no impact on a community like ours and, in fact, on the broader Australian society. In fact, what he did was to bring us closer together. It gave us an opportunity to demonstrate that we may have come from all over the globe—so many people like him have been granted political asylum in small communities like Shepparton and Mooroopna and the Goulburn Valley—but we do not take that peace and security for granted. We are going to work at it. It was so special.

The Al Kasem Youth Organisation were the key organisers—the first to begin this idea—and they led the ceremony we had around the foreshore of our lake. Ali Al Bayati—one of the key Al Kasem Youth Organisation members—stressed that the event was for all people, of all different beliefs and cultures, and that he hoped that the community would come together:

We can demonstrate to people in Australia and all over the world that we can stand together and be there for each other.

That was done very symbolically and very beautifully through this twilight vigil.

Just a couple of nights ago, before parliament started sitting, at about nine o'clock on a Friday in Shepparton—just on dusk—I saw something remarkable. I saw a middle-aged woman in her traditional Middle Eastern dress. I would say she was probably from Iraq. She had very conservative, dark, full-length clothing on. She was walking up the street, which was pretty much deserted on this Friday evening. The thing that was so remarkable to me was that she was in her full traditional dress, walking along proudly, but she was also alone. She was totally alone and obviously she felt totally secure and in no way threatened. She was simply going about her business just on dusk, walking up the main street of Shepparton. And I thought, 'Well, this is our country.' She did not have to worry about taking off her scarf or her long, full-length clothing; she did not have to worry about having a different colour. She was perfectly secure and safe in our community, and may it always be like that.

Again, on behalf of my electorate of Murray and on behalf of all my communities—the three mosques in Shepparton, the mosque in Cobram, the Sikh temple in Shepparton, the various Christian churches that we have and our Islander community special churches—I say, 'We are all one'. And we also acknowledge those who do not go to a church at all—we are all one. The key thing is that we care for one another, we are tolerant and we look to what individuals can contribute to our great nation. We look to how they care for their families, how they obey the rule of law in our country and how they set about to make sure that no-one is persecuted simply because they have come from a different place or because they espouse a different religion to our own.

I think this is a very important motion and I am very proud and pleased to commend it, and also to commend my great community in northern Victoria.

Clare O'Neil (Hotham, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I really appreciate the opportunity to add some words to the condolence motion today on the Martin Place siege.

I was very struck, listening to the comments by the member for Murray. Like the member, I represent a very multicultural community. I think that being a part of that community is the only way to understand how terribly wrong this person who committed this act of terrorism was. They tried to do something that would divide Australians and which would create deep divisions between people, based on their culture, their race and their religion. But what he has actually done through these acts of absolute horror is to bring Australians together, the exact opposite of what he was trying to do. I have absolutely seen that in my community in Hotham, and I do want to take the opportunity this evening to talk on behalf of the 150,000-odd people that I have the very great privilege of representing in this chamber.

We come from a very diverse community—about 170 nationalities, many races, religions, lots of different family structures and different choices that people have made about how to live their lives. But I know that on 15 December last year everyone who lives in my community stopped in their tracks, and what we saw was this crazed, lone gunman take 18 Australians hostage—just people who were going about their everyday business.

This is the most shocking act that I can think of in my lifetime as an adult in Australia. I have never seen anything like this happen before. It was a day when all of us who were outside that cafe stood shoulder to shoulder with the people that were inside and so terrified.

I do not want to use the time this evening to debate what intention the person may have had and whether this was in fact an act of terrorism or otherwise; I do not want to talk about whether officials did the right thing. I just want to use this chance to say, on behalf of the 150,000 people that I represent, how sorry I am to all of the people who were affected by this tragedy. I want the people who were affected to know that we are with them in their grief and that we continue to stand with them and think with them as they try to process this virtually unimaginable tragedy that they have been affected by.

I also want to say on behalf of the people of Hotham how proud I am of how Australians reacted to the incidents on 15 and 16 December. How did we respond to the Martin Place siege? Was it with aggression, with violence? No, none of those things. Australians instead responded with love. Instead of anger, they built a huge monument of flowers that, over the weeks that followed, just about covered Martin Place. I cannot think of a better metaphor for the way that people reacted to this awful tragedy. I went past our Lindt Cafe in Melbourne a couple of weeks after the tragedy unfolded, and even all the way down in Melbourne, hundreds of kilometres away, Melburnians had covered our Lindt Cafe with flowers, too, standing shoulder to shoulder with Sydneysiders.

I do not think that I can imagine a country in the world, other than Australia, reacting in this way. I think we all know that in the face of incidents like this humans can go to very dark places. But, instead, we saw Australians show our country to be open and tolerant and, really, a great country—I truly do believe that.

I know how easy it would have been for me to imagine—having travelled and been to so many different societies and cultures—that people might take the chance to try to attack races or religions. But, again, that is not what we saw. What we saw instead was thousands upon thousands of Australians reach out to other Australians of Muslim background and say 'I will ride with you'. Hundreds of thousands of Australians, instead of acting with anger or going to a place that lacks generosity, said, 'I will protect others in my community who might be feeling vulnerable at this time'. That is the kind of mature place—the most mature and multicultural place—that Australia is. Instead of hate, we responded with love. That is something that I am incredibly proud of.

With the indulgence of the House I will just say a few words about the people who died in this tragedy. Katrina Dawson was the sister of a friend of mine, a person who I truly and greatly respect and admire. I want to say, particularly to her family—because of that personal connection—how truly sorry I am that this has happened. I know that I cannot do anything about that, and that nothing I say today is going to bring Katrina back. But I want you to know that you are in my thoughts—that you have been in my thoughts since this occurred. I know it has been a shattering experience, but I also know that Katrina's good works will live on through the establishment of the Katrina Dawson foundation, and through this I know that she will continue to have an impact on life in Australia.

The same goes, of course, for Tori Johnson, who, with Katrina, showed so much bravery on that day.

To the families of Tori and Katrina, to Sydneysiders who were exposed to this horrific act, to everyone who was personally affected by this, on behalf of the people of Hotham, I want you to know how sorry we are, how much you remain in our thoughts, and of course in the thoughts of everyone in this chamber.

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

  I rise to speak on the condolence motion related to the tragic events at Martin Place in December. We like to think of Sydney as a global city, but we also like to think of it as a little removed from some of the darker problems of the globe. The Martin Place siege has challenged that idea of distance—something that is very important to the psychology of Sydney and to our nation more generally. We knew that the world had changed, but we wanted to believe that our city had not. On that day we knew that we were no longer immune.

So many Sydneysiders had a personal connection to the siege, myself included, and this horrible event hit our city very hard. The night after the siege I found myself wanting to do something to convey my feelings for the victims and the other hostages. So I drove into the city to pay my respects. It was about 10 o'clock by the time I arrived. There were hundreds of people lining up to leave a tribute: silent, pensive, utterly respectful. In its own way, it was beautiful. I have never seen anything like it, and I hope I will never see anything like it again.

Terrorism is called what it is because of the chilling effect it aims to have on good people. We cannot pretend that the Martin Place siege did not have such an effect in Sydney on that awful day. But we also know that the quiet, determined, united response of Sydneysiders is a far more powerful force than anything that evil can muster.

In defending against terrorism, government policy sometimes comes into conflict with the more stringent requirements of civil liberties. Sometimes the steps needed to clamp down on terror are difficult, and involve some constraints on our freedoms. This is the key tension point in government's response to this awful phenomenon. While there is always room for debate on these matters, erring on the side of community protection is, in my view, always the right response.

Two innocent people died at Martin Place. Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson died because of the unspeakable, evil act of one man. We must never forget them. It is impossible to understand what their families have gone through. Nothing can convey the depth of their pain or our inadequacy in relieving it.

We are merely politicians. Our response is inevitably confined to the practical tasks of government. This is inadequate, but it is all that we can do. Sydneysiders responded to the Martin Place siege with a silent dignity that will never be forgotten. Here, we should respond by rededicating ourselves to the task of protecting our community from those who would seek to commit acts of evil against us.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was just a short two months ago that Sydney and our entire nation stood still, closely following the events that were unfolding in the Lindt Chocolate Cafe in Martin Place. It was a day of disbelief, almost a day that was surreal. We followed events as they occurred, minute by minute, on our TV sets. It started off as an ordinary day for most of us. However, for 17 people who walked into that cafe, probably following a daily ritual of having a cup of coffee and catching up with friends, on this day a horrific chain of events unfolded, while the rest of us looked on. While we hoped and prayed that the situation would end peacefully, sadly that was not to be. In those horrific circumstances, Katrina Dawson, a lawyer and young mother of three, together with Tori Johnson, the manager of the Lindt cafe, paid the ultimate price for one man's deranged belief and actions.

My thoughts are also with the surviving hostages and those helping them, particularly to get through this very difficult and challenging time in their lives. I cannot begin to imagine the effect that enduring such a traumatic ordeal would have on a person, but certainly I know it will be lasting for some time. They deserve to know that our community supports them and will always support them. Having said that, I hope there is some measure of solace that they can take in the outpouring of solidarity and unity across our nation in the support for them.

As a representative of the most multicultural electorate in this country, I am proud to say that we have not let this tragedy divide our communities. On the day of the siege in Martin Place, on 15 December last year, I was actually attending the school presentation of the Green Valley Islamic College, in my electorate. I got to see firsthand the impact that the siege was having on the school community. Together with the students, the teachers and the religious leaders from the mosque, we were all horrified that something like this could occur in our city, in our community. But—to an extent, more pertinent for them under these circumstances—they showed outrage that their religion could be hijacked by a person claiming to be acting on behalf of Islam. Understandably, we all had a deep concern for those trapped inside the cafe and that dreadful fear of what this could mean for the future peace and harmony of our community.

In the days and weeks that followed, we saw the compassion of our community very much on display. The floral tributes sprang up around Martin Place and across the country. Indeed, in my electorate, in Freedom Plaza—which I know you have visited, Mr Deputy Speaker Kelly—floral tributes spread there. These outpourings of solidarity and emotional tributes that followed the events on 15 and 16 December show a determination by our community to be above ignorance and above hatred. I am proud that our society has used this tragedy to reaffirm its commitment to peace and harmony.

In the aftermath of the Martin Place siege, as a community we are still coming to terms with the frightening reality that terror has the potential of striking with little or no warning. We are not isolated. In that, we clearly have lost some of our innocence. Through this terrifying event, I think we have learnt much about community solidarity.

Also, what was evident and has been evident since is the pride that we justifiably have in the professionalism of the men and women of our police and emergency services. The New South Wales police officers who attended the scene in Martin Place on that day certainly deserve nothing but praise for how they handled this very difficult and complex situation. I have often said that it takes a special type of person with a special kind of courage to wear the police uniform, and the events of December last year have demonstrated just how unpredictable and dangerous their job can be.

We will never forget those two innocent lives that were lost. We will never bring them back. We will never again see ourselves detached or immune from tragedies or humanitarian crises. We are not immune any longer. It is not a matter of tuning in and seeing things occur in other nations around the globe; we now know that we are very much able to find these in our own backyard. We must be prepared. We must be equipped.

But if there is a positive that can be drawn, it is that we have men and women in our community that are brave enough and certainly competent enough to respond to and deal with these tragedies. We can also take away from this incident our own ability to support each other and to come through the other side very much stronger, united and committed to peace and harmony.

I offer my sincere condolences to the families of Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson. May they rest in peace and never be forgotten.

Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I would like to associate myself with the remarks of the member for Hotham, the member for Banks and the member for Fowler for the speeches they have given while I have been sitting here in the chamber.

When the Sydney siege happened, I think we were all caught by surprise. I know that it occurred a couple of weeks after the parliament had finalised proceedings for the year. I think we all went back to our electorates to spend some time with our constituents and reflect on the year that had been.

For some of us, we still had some work to do—and I know the member for Bass is here in the chamber with me today. The Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security was beginning its inquiry into metadata, and we had a hearing the day after the siege ended, on 17 December. It will live with me for an extremely long time, that morning when we gathered back here in Parliament House and we had the police, the intelligence agencies and the Australian Crime Commission all appear before us. Obviously, they had been involved in trying to ensure that the best possible outcome could occur as a result of what had happened, as a result of this terrorist act by this single actor—one of the most difficult challenges our law enforcement and intelligence agencies can face.

On that morning, on behalf of the committee, I read a statement which I would like to read again for the House:

The attack on the Lindt cafe in Sydney marks a despicable attack on Australians at home. Tragically, two innocent people have lost their lives: Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson. The impact on their families and their friends will be deep and everlasting. Our thoughts are with them. To the hostages who escaped this harrowing ordeal, we extend our sympathy and support. We would also like to acknowledge the professionalism of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies—in particular, the New South Wales police. Under pressure, they displayed their dedication and commitment when it mattered most.

Threats of terrorism or terrorist acts will not change this nation. They will only strengthen our resolve. The values that we hold dear as Australians are the best way to defeat this evil. As the Prime Minister has already stated, we will continue to be a free, open and generous society. Australians will continue to open their hearts to every community that makes up our wonderful multicultural nation.

In the aftermath of the siege, as the previous members have spoken about, the floral tribute that appeared at Martin Place was quite extraordinary. I do not think that my words can quite describe everything that that floral tribute meant. Sometimes we have to look to others who are better with words to try and get a sense of what occurred. I think this poem really sums up the sentiment of what everyone was saying by placing their flowers at Martin Place:

For winter's rains and ruins are over,

And all the season of snow and sins;

The days dividing lover and lover,

The light that loses, the nights that wins;

And time remember'd is grief forgotten,

And frosts are slain and flowers begotten,

And in green underwood and cover

Blossom by blossom the spring begins.

Laurie Ferguson (Werriwa, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I obviously express condolences to the families of Tori and Katrina, and also for the other people that were under grave threat to their lives during that period. I want to especially associate myself with the comments of the member for Murray in this debate, which went to the need for tolerance and understanding in this country in the aftermath of this horrific event.

You, Mr Deputy Speaker Kelly, would well and truly know that once in a blue moon I would agree with Liberal Councillors Hadid, Mannoun and Hadchiti on Liverpool Council. However, I absolutely associate myself with the comments they have made demanding an apology from Councillor Marcus Cornish of Penrith council in the last few days.

If I could briefly return to our friend Mr Man Haron Monis before I get to this point: this is a person who, allegedly, fled Iran after a fraud; a travel agent who fabricated his religious credentials; a man who had faced charges in regard to murder, intimidation and aggravated sexual assault; and who had sent hate mail to people whose families had been victims overseas.

He was, of course, repudiated totally by a significant number of Islamic centres in Sydney, who did not take up is offer to preach at their respective mosques, an example of that being the Nabi Akram Islamic Centre, a Shia site in Cowper Street Granville, where my friend Hamid Nassib was amongst people who rejected him as not being the kind of person that they want to have giving lectures on religious beliefs. He was quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald amongst many others who said this person, back before he committed these horrendous actions, had nothing to do with Islam.

I want to turn to the question of Penrith council and the debate about a mosque in the council area. Because if we are to learn from this, essentially it is crucial to undermine real terrorism—and Mr Monis was not a terrorist; he was just an absolute criminal of the worst order as his track record showed—we must seek to incorporate Islamic Australians. What we are seeing on Penrith council is a small group within the Liberal Party—and I stress that—described as the 'Taliban faction', who, fortunately, were outvoted nine to two on the council about having a mosque there.

I particularly want to commend the Liberal mayor of the Penrith area, a moderate person who joined with the absolute majority of Liberals, Greens, Independents and Labor to reject Mr Cornish's concepts. But Mr Cornish showed exactly how we are not going to dissuade people from joining extremist groups. Obviously there are social or economic factors such as unemployment and marginalisation but we must seek to incorporate Australian Muslims into broader society. What we had out there was an outburst of extreme Islamaphobia. He has gone on the record saying this mosque must be built in Liverpool because Liverpool is identified with criminality and there are more Muslims out there. Yes, the proportion of Muslims in the Liverpool council area, which I share with yourself, Mr Deputy Speaker Kelly, is 10.1 per cent and the percentage in Penrith is only 1.9 per cent. However, the actual religious centre is Shia, a distinct minority among Sydney's Muslims. I do not have separate figures as to their concentration beyond Arncliffe.

What are we saying? Are we saying that we will decry Muslims and other ethnic groups concentrating in particular suburbs of Sydney and basically forming so-called ghettos but we will not allow religious centres in other areas, which would essentially attract them to those centres? It would disperse the population more. The more mosques and religious centres we have, the more schools we have actually is a force for basically widening the diversity of settlement. But the same people who say, 'Oh well, it is all about Sharia law; it is about the question of terrorism et cetera', go and basically create problems for us in this marginalisation, this stigmatisation, these attacks.

Marcus Cornish is an expert in this. I do not know where we got these statistics from but Councillor Marcus Cornish has alleged someone told him that most of the people moving into the Kemps Creek area come from Auburn and Liverpool. We have a bureau of statistics in this country. We have got a Census but this person must have expertise beyond all of these institutions and all of these methods of collecting statistics because he apparently knows that.

Monis sought to associate himself with ISIL. As we know, he had to get the flag from somewhere else. He had no contacts whatsoever. ISIL and groups like them utilised him afterwards to in some ways praise his actions. But it is very important that we do not see this as the work of extremist terrorist organisations. It is very much a personalised criminality that he has undertaken.

I remember Australia's Islamic community in Western Sydney before September 11. It was a community which had basically integrated into the wider society in a very real sense. I think most members of this House would know, with the possible exception of the member for Berowra, there is nobody else who has associated with this community as much as I. After many years of contact with the Islamic community, I did not know that it was a problem to shake hands. Because in a lot of the houses I went into, women never raised the issue with me. That was the way it was.

What we had after September 11 was a drift towards fervency. In some sense, there will be a lot of people in this House who believe in religious fervency. We had the community under assault, under investigation, under the spotlight and people had to make a choice. They could either stick out and be loyal with people or they had to retreat and get out of the community. It is crucial that we do not have conduct such as we are witnessing at Penrith council, admittedly by only two of the councillors, that basically says to people again, 'You are on the fringe, you are outside, you should not have a religious centre, you are associated with criminality and you are associated with what is bad in our society.'

As I said, I want to praise the entire Liverpool council, which basically said to Mr Cornish an apology is overdue. This kind of stigmatisation is not to be tolerated. Once again, I join with members in the basic tenor of this debate in saying that this was a reprehensible action that we witnessed. I am feeling very deeply for all of those involved. We saw its manifestation in the flowers and other aspects in Sydney. It really was representative of the society that we want.

Sarah Henderson (Corangamite, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this condolence motion on behalf of many people across the Corangamite electorate who were outraged by the act of terror which we witnessed unfold on the morning of 15 December 2014 through that today until the early hours of the next morning. This is the sort of incident that we like to think we are immune from in Australia. My thoughts and prayers are with all of the people who were affected by this unspeakable act of violence. In particular we mourn them loss of Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson. Katrina Dawson was a 38-year-old barrister, a devoted mother of three beautiful children—Sasha, Oliver and Chloe—the beloved wife of Paul Smith. She was someone, he said, when he met his future wife, 'It did not take long to realise I had met my perfect partner.' I also want to acknowledge particularly Tori's family, his close friends, and his partner of some 14 years, Thomas Zinn. Three hostages were wounded during the raid: Marcia Mikhael, Robin Hope and Louisa Hope. And we heard the gruesome stories of the hostages who survived.

So many Australians were touched and horrified at what they were witnessing that morning. I spent part of my law studies studying law in Sydney and I spent a fair bit of time around that precinct. One of my closest friends, Angela Pearman is a barrister who has chambers across from the Lindt cafe. And the first thing I did was ring her, and hope and pray that she was not in that cafe. Her son was working nearby and they were both safe. I think I went through what many others went through in Sydney; hoping that loved ones and family and friends who worked in that precinct were okay. I think it has touched many of us directly and all of Australia indirectly in some way.

The two victims and the hostages were decent, innocent people just going about their ordinary lives. We can be very proud of the way police and security agencies have responded to this incident. I want to particularly congratulate the New South Wales Police for the commitment and professionalism they showed during these very difficult times.

I think it is also worth commending the people of Sydney for the calm way they reacted to this horrific incident. Australians will never forget the response of those who live locally who came into the city in the days after the Sydney siege and who filled Martin Place with a sea of flowers. It was incredibly emotional to watch the friends and families of the victims walk through that sea of flowers and try to come to grips with what had happened.

I also think it was representative of the fact that Australians will not succumb to fear. Australians are a free, open and generous people and they flocked to Martin Place. It was very symbolic of a stand that so many of us took; we were saying we will not let this defeat us.

Rest assured, as we have spoken about many times in this House, I particularly want to note the bipartisan support of members opposite in these endeavours. The Australian government is doing everything it possibly can to keep Australia safe and secure.

Last year the government provided an additional $630 million to our police and security services to strengthen our national security laws and address the most pressing gaps in their ability to combat the growing threat of homegrown terrorism but also in relation to terrorist threats overseas.

In closing, we are and we will continue to do everything in our power to keep Australians safe. Rest in peace, Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson.

Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

First of all can I congratulate the member for Corangamite for her contribution, and all the members. It has been very touching. It is one of those few times in parliament where we all rise together with the same voice to speak on behalf of all Australians.

Like many Australians the way I became aware of the events of 15 December 2014 was from an SMS. My cousin Nathan texted me and, from memory, he said something like, 'we are all okay'. And I thought to myself, 'something has happened'. Then I looked on the internet and saw the events that were unfolding. I then rang him up. He had been working close by just the day before. That was the crucial or scary aspect of this event; it could have happened to anyone, anywhere.

The ordeal lasted 17 hours and tragically took the lives of Katrina Dawson, 38, and Tori Johnson, 34. I pass on my condolences. We truly lament their loss for their family and friends, and obviously this will impact them for the rest of their lives. But also all Australians will never forget what has happened.

The 14 other survivors of the siege will have memories of these hours and I am sure they have nightmares. This week when I looked up into the gallery and saw the faces of the hostages, you could see in their faces the fear and the emotion. You could see it was obviously still with them and it will be with them for a very long time.

The events I saw on TV, as all Australians did, the awful situation of hostages—mums and dads—up against the window of the cafe were absolutely terrifying. You cannot imagine what they have been through. These are the sorts of images we do not expect to see in Australia. We expect to see them in places like the Middle East. It could have been any of us, in any cafe in Australia. It could have been anyone just going about their day-to-day lives.

It was simply shocking. This is what terrorism is about. It is about putting fear into the public to stop them going about their daily lives. I can say to those wannabe terrorists and those sad people who are converted to terrorism, that you will never stop the Australian public from doing what they want to do—that is, living in freedom. The terror suspect—and he is not even worth naming so I will not—in this case was a lone wolf. For whatever reason he thought this was his mission in life and trying to put terror into other people.

As a former police officer I need to commend the New South Wales Police officers. I have gone through many doors, executed many search warrants with firearms out. But normally when you do this it is at the crack of dawn, first thing in the morning. When these police officers went through the door, they went in knowing that there was an armed offender—someone had just been shot; a number of shots had been fired. They put their lives on the line. Not only the first guy through the door but every single police officer who went through that door—one after another—was putting themselves in harm's way for one thing and one thing only and that was to carry out their duty and protect the public. I am so impressed with their actions.

I have also had an incident occur next to my electorate in Endeavour Hills. Sadly again a young Muslim man had been converted to become an extremist. For whatever reason he decided to take his war out against the police. We are hearing around the world that the police in blue and the military in green who put their hand up to protect and serve the public are targets. We have seen awful barbaric attacks where police have been stabbed and killed in the UK and France. This occasion was just up the road from my electorate office. The young man in this case was converted at a much younger age—Numan Haider. I have passed my condolences on to his family. We have a very strong Afghan community in my local area. I have had a function since and the Afghan community were absolutely horrified with this incident. The parents are good parents.

The sad aspect of this is that you have people targeting young Muslims trying to convince them that there is this awful path to follow to go against the so-called infidels. We have seen what has happened overseas. The acts of terrorism are getting worse. There was the pilot in Jordan who was burnt alive in a cage. Who would come up with something like that? Then there is what happened in Pakistan with all the children being murdered by the Taliban and the recent events of the two Japanese hostages who were killed. These are the most barbaric acts, but the world is actually uniting against what is happening because this is not the way good people who support a good religion would ever act. That is not what this is about. This is not about religion. It is not about Islam. It is simply about changing Islam to become terrorism. That is the really sad aspect of this.

In Australia I have acknowledged that the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition have made statements of condolence today and previous statements on other events when it comes to national security. Both sides of the House are in every way trying to work together to make Australia a safer place to live. My thoughts again are with all the victims: sadly, those I mentioned right at the start—Katrina Dawson and Tori Johnson—and their families and the hostage survivors. Again our thoughts are with them. We will never forget what has happened to them and their loved ones.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The siege in the Lindt cafe was an extraordinary moment in time for the city of Sydney. It affected everybody in that city—my city—and all Australians. We see tragedies and sieges in the news all the time of course, but this was occurring in such a familiar place, right in the heart of our city, right in Martin Place and in a cafe—the most normal, innocuous, natural place. Anyone could imagine themselves having been there themselves. This was not in a far off location; this was right in the heart of our city. So it shocked the city.

Yet on the night of the 15th, the first day of the siege, I think most of us went to bed praying but also hoping that the siege would be resolved peacefully, as most sieges are. There was a sense of anxious optimism. Then of course we woke up to the news that the gunman had shot one of the hostages, Tori Johnson, the manager—a really wonderful young man, a very brave young man—and in the firefight that followed the terrorist was killed and tragically Katrina Dawson was killed. Katrina Dawson was also a young person, one of the most brilliant young barristers at the Sydney bar and a mother of three. The loss and tragedy for her family is indescribable.

That morning was a real shock for the city. It was stunning. I remember so vividly catching the train from Edgecliff to North Sydney. On the two trains I was on—I changed trains at town hall—there was an extraordinary mood that was so palpable you could almost reach out and touch it. People were not talking to each other; they were deep inside their own hearts. They were thinking. You could read their minds. They were filled with a determined love. There was no hatred there. There was no anger there, remarkably. You could just feel the compassion. It was as though the city had decided that it had been confronted with the most crazy, vicious, death-loving hatred and had decided to respond with love—not a wishy-washy love but a love that was determined, that was strong and saying: 'We will not bow to your hatred. We are better than you. Our values are better than you. Our love is stronger than your hate.' That is what I felt in that train.

A little later in the day there was a mass at St Mary's Cathedral that I attended. Again you could feel that there. You could feel the love of Christ in that cathedral in a way that, regrettably, you do not always feel in church. It was full of love. So much hatred had caused so much harm and death in Martin Place, but there in the rest of the city it was filled with love. Then you saw in Martin Place people coming, laying their flowers, showing their strength, showing their solidarity and showing that love is always stronger than hate. I have never been so proud to be an Australian and I have never been so proud to be a Sydneysider. It would have been so easy for people just to dissolve in a sea of hatred and antagonism.

We run ourselves down a bit—we are always knocking ourselves, Australians. We are a great country and we are a really good people, and we showed our goodness in the wake of that siege. We showed that love is stronger than hatred. We showed that we are not going to play to the tune of the terrorist because—what does the terrorist want to do? What is the terrorist's objective? The terrorist's objective is to create a frightening sensation and, as the member for La Trobe said, 'To scare people out of their ordinary lives.' The whole city and the whole nation said: 'No, life goes on. Yes, we will be vigilant. Yes, we will take care, of course.' And we will do everything we can, as our government does, as the Prime Minister has said, to ensure that our security and police services have the resources to prevent incidents like this wherever they can be prevented. But above all our strongest armour is not with the police. Our strongest armour is in our heart. It is that strength of that determined love that is the greatest challenge to the hatred of the death loving terrorism that has caused the appalling siege in Martin Place.

So this is a terrible tragedy and the House extend its condolences on behalf of the whole nation to the families of Tori Johnson and Katrina Dawson, and we extend our love to all of the people that have been affected by this—all those hostages. Who could imagine a more terrifying time than being bailed up in that cafe with the gunman, not knowing whether you are about to be blown up or shot, not knowing how a resolution could come.

In passing on our condolences, we also affirm our solidarity. It is wonderful that there is such bipartisan solidarity on this. We disagree so often in this place—and we are, after all, paid to disagree, and it would be a pretty poor democracy if we all had the same view. But on this I know that every member of this House, every member of the Senate and every Australian is absolutely united in that determined love—love that triumphs over hate—and a determination not to be cowed, not to be bullied and not to be led into an orgy of retaliation and hatred. That is only playing into the hands of the terrorists, because that is what they want us to do. They want to frighten us and they want to drive us into a reactive hatred. They want us to be like them. They want us to be as hate filled as them. We defy them with love. We defy them with a determined love.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The siege at the Lindt cafe was terrifying for several reasons. It was carried out in full view of the media and in turn, the Australian and, indeed, the world community—reflecting it would seem a quite deliberate decision on the part of the gunman—and meant that all of us watched in horror as we began to understand the gravity of the situation that those inside the cafe faced.

It occurred in an iconic location, familiar to nearly anybody who lives in Sydney and to people from all around Australia. Martin Place, after all, is the very heart of the central business district of our largest city, the place where the Anzac Day service occurs and where so many other events are held. It is, I think, human nature that such an event has an even more dramatic and immediate impact on us when it occurs in familiar territory. And of course it occurred in the course of an ordinary and unremarkable event in the life of any modern Australian: going to get a coffee. Could there be a more potent reminder of how capricious life can be, that such a mundane act should expose the victims to this horror?

So many of us would have watched this awful drama play out feeling a grim suspicion that there was very likely someone inside the Lindt cafe whom we knew, or to whom we were connected by only one or two degrees of separation. Several speakers on this motion have revealed that this was the case for them, and in my own case I learned that one of the victims: Sydney barrister, wife and mother, Katrina Dawson, was the sister of Angus Dawson, a partner at management consulting firm, McKinsey, with whom I had worked on several projects over the years. I was pleased to have the opportunity to speak to Angus briefly the other day, when he and other family members and victims of the siege were in Parliament House, and to express, using the same inadequate words that we all find ourselves using in these circumstances, my sorrow for the loss suffered by him and his family.

I want to express on behalf of the people of Bradfield my very great sorrow at the loss of Katrina Dawson and the loss of Tori Johnson, the manager of the Lindt cafe. To all who were held hostage throughout that dreadful period, I express my sympathy and my admiration for your courage.

To those who took the bold gamble to escape during the siege, I want to acknowledge your will to live and your determination to seize the chance when it came. To the police and emergency services, I want to say how comforting it was, in this dreadful period, to see highly skilled and trained men and women working calmly in the face of great pressure, aiming to save lives and end the siege. You carefully worked to see if the situation could be resolved without violence. And when the shocking moment came in which the gunman killed Tori Johnson—and it became clear that a peaceful resolution was no longer possible—you acted immediately and with great courage to storm the building, undoubtedly saving lives in the process.

This has been a testing event for our country. It has shocked many of us with the realisation that the threat of terror, in this case purportedly in the name of Islam, is not something theoretical and remote. It is all too real. It is a threat that we will face for many years, it seems, and there is much work underway in responding to the threat and seeking to best protect the Australian community.

There is some comfort to be found in the magnificent and quite spontaneous reaction of Australians to this tragedy. Let us hold to that comfort as we express our sadness at the death of two fine young Australians, at the great loss suffered by their families and at the physical and mental injury suffered by other victims.