Lisa Singh (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary to the Shadow Attorney General) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I was also very saddened to hear this morning the news of the passing of Australia's diplomat Julian Simpson, and I would like to, firstly, thank Senator Bernardi for calling me so early this morning to let me know of the sad news. With Senator Bernardi, I also had the privilege of working with Julian at the UN for three months last year. His particular role at the Australian mission was to guide us and to help us through the complexities of the UN, and he did that with generosity, with kindness and with no level of detail left out. I think that so many people today at the UN and at the Australian mission, and his family and friends, must be really suffering and mourning his loss. It is a life lost too soon. He was a fine, intelligent young diplomat. We were very well looked after by Julian and very much made to feel like we were part of the mission family, and it is such a tragedy that Australia has lost such a fine young man, a fine young diplomat. We couldn't have had—and I'm sure Senator Bernardi agrees—a better person to be our diplomatic support while we were at the UN. I pass on my sincere condolences to his family, to his wife and to his friends and the staff at the mission.