Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I, on behalf of the Australian Greens, join the other parties and the Leader of the Government in the Senate in this motion following the air crash in Indonesia. I particularly send condolences and sympathy, with my colleagues, to the relatives and loved ones of the 21 people who died in the crash, five of whom were Australians. My fellow senators have mentioned them but I will do that again.

Liz O’Neill: what a remarkable, loving and caring woman she was. What a lovely Australian, who so much had her heart in helping people who were distressed themselves. Because of her vocation in helping people, ultimately her life has been shortened. But what a great contribution she has made to making this planet just a bit happier for people who have been touched by the love that came out of her life.

Allison Sudradjat worked with AusAID and saw awful events but again had a loving and caring heart. She has left people behind who will be grieved forever by the fact that she is not around to continue that love. But what a remarkable life. If only all of us on the planet shared her view on life it would be a much more wonderful world to live in.

Morgan Mellish had a love of life itself. He was a tenacious journalist who enjoyed the surf as well as the pen. He won a Walkley award and he had much more to contribute to this nation. We can only be grateful for the journalistic contribution he has made to this country in the wonderful life he led, which was cut down by this air crash.

The Federal Police officers and agents, Brice Steele and Mark Scott, both of whom leave families, went beyond the borders of this country with their expertise and skill to reduce suffering overseas as well as in this country and because of that have left people who will be anguished and suffering for a long time to come. We salute their skills, we salute their courage and we salute the great contribution they have made to this nation.

I join others in extending the enormous power of thought to Cynthia Banham and Roger Tallboys. And we will not forget those who aided Cynthia in her extraordinarily courageous escape from the plane. But she has been grievously injured. We wish her well and look forward to seeing her again. The road will be long and hard but she has got that phenomenal spirit that Michael Harvey talks about. Our spirit joins that strength of hers in wishing her a full recovery back into the community and a long and rewarding life ahead. We wish Roger Tallboys, who was also suddenly caught up in this crash, a quick recovery and return to the country, and wish for his family that their best expectations will be fulfilled. We wish the same for the 60 Indonesians who are recovering from injuries following this crash, and of course our thoughts are with the families of those 16 Indonesians who have not got their loved ones back home.

It was a terrible, frightening and awful event. As others have said, we see too many of these accidents. Insofar as our best wishes and condolences go to all those affected, let them be as effective and as heart-warming as we can make them.

Question agreed to, honourable senators standing in their places.