Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the opposition to support this condolence motion. Our message to the families and friends of the victims of this tragedy is this: Australians are thinking of you, Australians know your pain, and Australians stand in sympathy with you in this time of bereavement. We all know the death of a loved one opens up a terrible void—a sense of loss, heartache, sadness and grief. When the death is due to ill health or accident it is bad enough, but when we lose someone in a senseless act of violence—here, an act of murder—the grief is compounded and the pain is all that much harder to bear. When the numbers of people losing their lives mount so high, the shock and dismay for all is magnified further. The shooting down of MH17 on 17 July this year was an unthinkable tragedy and a heinous crime. A Boeing 777 flying high above the Earth, travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur, carrying men, women and children going about their business—travelling abroad on holidays and work, returning home to loved ones—was hit and destroyed by a missile fired from the ground, 10 kilometres below. And every soul on board that jet aircraft perished—298 people: 283 passengers and 15 crew. Some 30 of those who lost their lives were Australians and people who call this country home.

These people were a cross-section of Australia—school teachers, doctors, office workers, retirees, small business owners and public servants, a real estate agent, an award-winning novelist, a gym instructor, a Catholic nun and several young children. They were the kind of people who make Australia what it is—a diverse nation of hard-working yet easy-going people; people who love to travel and who have an open-minded approach to the world. They were coming home after taking family holidays, attending weddings, visiting relatives in Europe. And their stories break our hearts—the Sydney nun coming back to Australia after a retreat in France, a Perth man flying home with his grandchildren, the Melbourne family of five who all lost their lives.

With this condolence motion, together we express grief for those who have died and sympathy for our fellow Australians whose lives have been changed forever by this event. We also express grief for those from other nations who died on board MH17—193 Dutch nationals, a frightening death toll for that nation, which included a leading clinical researcher coming to Australia for the international AIDS conference and a member of the Netherlands Senate. Australia has a sizeable Dutch community, and for them the loss of so many Australian and Dutch citizens is a double blow. There were also on board 43 Malaysian nationals, including the 15 members of the plane's flight crew, and people from many other countries, including the United Kingdom, Indonesia, New Zealand, the Philippines and Canada. This motion offers condolences to all those affected, both here and overseas.

Six weeks after the shooting down of MH17, this event remain shocking, distressing, painful and almost impossible to fathom. For the relatives and friends of those who died, it will be etched into their psyches and it will rend their hearts for the rest of their lives. That is why it is important that we think of them. We struggle, with them, to understand this calamity. We respect and admire their courage and dignity. We stand by them in their grief.

On behalf of the opposition, I would also like to acknowledge the actions taken by the Prime Minister and the government, including the Minister for Foreign Affairs, in responding to this tragedy on behalf of the nation. I reiterate the pledge by our opposition leader, Mr Shorten, to support the government's efforts to help the families and friends, to investigate the shooting down of this aircraft and to seek justice for the victims.

I also place on record our acknowledgement of the role of officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade in providing consular assistance and support to persons affected by this tragedy and of the Australian Federal Police and other personnel involved in the recovery mission and investigation, including the former Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston.

I conclude by again expressing our most profound sympathy to those who have lost their loved ones. Amidst the grief that seems without limit our words seem small, but our sincerity is not. This Senate, this parliament and this nation mourn with you.