STATEMENT ON INDULGENCE ON THE MEMORIAL FOR VICTIMS OF MH17

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

 

MONDAY, 22 JUNE 2015

 

*** CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY ***

 

 

Thank you Madam Speaker.

I thank the Prime Minister for updating the house.

Labor wholeheartedly supports not only the memorial service, but the permanent memorial to those who lost their lives aboard MH17.

Madam Speaker, for those loved ones left behind –it is still a time, I believe, of slowly-passing shock, of disbelief and of mourning.

This Parliament has acknowledged their grief in this place, but we cannot share it.

We did repatriated their loved ones, but we are unable to fill the void of their loss.

Like the Prime Minister, we can hope for an end to the quest for a reason, but that will never be enough.

Anything we can do, we should, we must.

And so we wish the memorial and the project well.

ENDS

MEDIA CONTACT: LEADER’S OFFICE MEDIA UNIT – 02 6277 4053