Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion by the Leader of the Opposition regarding Australian victims of terrorism attacks overseas. The Leader of the Opposition first introduced a private member's bill in February 2011 and has since attempted to amend the Social Security Amendment (Supporting Australian Victims of Terrorism Overseas) Bill 2012 to provide assistance to all Australians who have suffered at the hands of terrorism since 10 September 2001. They reflect the importance of supporting the struggles that such victims face in putting their life back together. As the motion notes, these victims have not been entitled to the same compensation that domestic victims of crime receive under state and territory victims-of-crime schemes. Since that fateful day of September 11, 2001, some 300 Australians have been killed or injured in terrorist attacks. Most notably, 88 Australians were killed on 12 0ctober 2002 in attacks that overall killed more than 200 people in Bali's nightclub district. This year hundreds of Australians joined the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition to remember those who died.

Although terrorism has seen the murder of thousands across the globe, as Prime Minister John Howard often remarked ultimately what unites us as Australians is more important than anything that might divide us. As I have remarked previously in this House, the aim of terrorism is simple: it is to destroy people's pursuit of a peaceful life. In order to achieve this, terrorists have engaged in horrific acts of violence and manipulation at unexpected times, and, particularly over the past decade, they have shifted society's mindset toward the security of everyday life in unimaginable ways.

As a nation, we must never forget the high price innocent Australians have paid at the hands of terrorists. Although terrorists' actions are aimed to send a message to the state and its leaders, it is the innocent individuals within these states who are targeted. However, because of the nature of terrorist attacks, victims can often be left feeling like just another statistic. The numbers of people who are killed or injured in terrorist attacks are what make the news—the statistics, not the names. Whilst no-one would deny the empathy felt for these victims within our society, news is reported through statistics and through the place of an attack, which, whilst shocking, in a way desensitises us to the suffering and experiences of those who actually lived through the attack. Terrorists attack en masse; yet, at the end of the day, it is the individual and their families who must pick up the pieces.

The motion before us today, as with many motions and bills introduced by the Leader of the Opposition previously, recognises the very real consequences of terrorism, and will go some way toward helping individual victims of overseas terrorist attacks. For many there is no going back to the way things were; they must rebuild a life for themselves after losing what is perhaps the last bastion of innocence—the belief that you are safe. For a terrorism victim and their family, the fact that they were part of an attack when simply going about their own business, and the knowledge that these terrorist groups, and terrorist mentality in general, are still out there, would be almost crippling.

These victims need to know that their government supports them—not just on a global stage and not just as a nation opposed to terrorism, but supports them personally and individually, and that is what the Leader of the Opposition's motion is all about. We have all stood in this chamber and spoken about the importance of supporting Australian victims of terrorism. Yet this Labor government continues to say that, as a nation, we are not willing to help those who have suffered in some of the worst terrorist attacks the world has experienced.

It continues to make no sense that the government has not made this positive, helpful and necessary legislation retrospective in order to support victims of past terrorist attacks while it has introduced other retrospective legislation that has had a negative impact on our society and economy. Here we are today, more than 10 years on from the Bali bombings, with this Labor government introducing taxes such as the Minerals Resource Rent Tax—a tax designed to raise billions of dollars a year from mining companies but which to date has raised zero dollars—and yet not supporting this inexpensive but very important and significant measure.

The victims of past terrorist attacks need our support just as much as future ones will. I implore the government to give them hope, and support the Leader of the Opposition's motion.

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