Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I deeply regret to inform the House that there was a vicious attack in Bangkok last night. A bomber or bombers struck near the Erawan Shrine, which is a popular tourist location. The attack was clearly aimed at innocent people. While full details are yet to be entirely known, we do know that at least 20 people have been killed and at least 125 have been injured. This is yet another attack on innocent people going about their daily lives.

I can inform the House that our embassy in Bangkok remains in close contact with the Thai authorities to determine whether any Australians have been involved in this atrocity. So far, we have no information to indicate that there are any Australians among the dead or injured. I can further inform the House that the Australian Federal Police have offered their Thai counterparts technical assistance. Other security agencies have also offered support to their Thai counterparts.

Some 900,000 Australians travel to Thailand every year. Thailand is a friendly neighbour. Millions of Australians have happy memories of trips to Thailand. Australians should continue to go to Thailand, because the object of the sorts of people who let off bombs in crowded cities is to scare us from being ourselves. We should never be cowed or intimidated by that. Nevertheless, Australians overseas should remain vigilant, they should monitor the Smartraveller website and they should exercise an appropriate degree of caution.

In these sad circumstances, we are honoured to be joined today in the chamber by the Thai ambassador. I welcome His Excellency to the chamber today.

Honourable members: Hear, hear!

All Australians are very, very sad. We abhor this atrocity and we extend our sympathies and our condolences to the government and the people of Thailand.

Let me finish on this note: attacks such as this only strengthen the resolve of the government and the people of Australia—the people and the parliament of Australia—to do whatever we can to counter extremism and to combat terrorism.

See this speech in context