STATEMENT ON INDULGENCE - RELEASE OF THE MH17 REPORT

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, CANBERRA

 

WEDNESDAY, 14 OCTOBER 2015

 

Thanks Mr Speaker,

 

I rise to join in the response to the MH17 report, provided by the Prime Minister.

 

For the friends and families of 38 people who called Australia home, and for people right around our world who lost someone they loved in the skies over Ukraine on that fateful morning in July, today is another step in the unfinished journey to justice.

 

On behalf of my colleagues, I want to acknowledge the efforts of all those who have contributed to this report.

 

In particular, we thank the Dutch Air Safety Board who led the work and to all of the Australian experts involved.

 

Also at this time, we think of Malaysia in particular who suffered such tragedy in recent times.

 

Mr Speaker,

 

This report tells us more of the mechanics of the MH17 tragedy, the how.

 

But not who perpetrated this atrocity, or why.

 

These questions deserve answers.

 

And the answers must lead to justice.

 

But for those who mourn the loss of a loved one, even this will not be enough.

 

Because grief is not ultimately about how someone is taken from you, or even why.

 

It is about who has gone and what you will miss.

 

The unfinished conversations, the too late statements of love, the unmade plans for shared adventures, the familiar places and the memories you made there together.

 

This is the lonely road of mourning.

 

For some it means putting photos in a drawer, unable to look upon them until the scars heal.

 

For others it will mean putting up more photos than ever before.

 

All of us, as we grow older, experience the pain of mourning, the heavy weight of sadness and sorrow and loss.  But none of us in this place can imagine the added burden of the families of those aboard MH17 have had to bear.

 

Their courage, their resilience, their patience, their remarkable ability to endure the harsh glare of the public spot light on their unwanted private grief, will be again unlocked today from the compartments of memory.

 

I hope they can draw some modest consolation and affirmation from the knowledge they're not alone.

 

The hearts of all Australians are with them.

 

Prime Minister, just as I worked with the Member for Warringah on this, and I acknowledge his unflinching efforts on this, Labor supports every effort here and abroad to bring the perpetrators of this incomprehensible crime to account.

 

We urge the parties involved in the crisis in Ukraine, to fully commit to ending the violence in Ukraine.

 

No more lives should be lost over matters that can and should be resolved around a conference table.

 

Today we honour the lost and we stand with their loved ones now and always.

 

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