Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the Assisting the Victims of International Terrorism Bill 2009 put forward by my colleague and friend, Tony Abbott. Tony Abbott understands the needs of people who have been affected by acts of terrorism. This bill provides $75,000 for the victims of terrorist acts overseas, and there is a precedent for this—that is, that the states provide $75,000 to victims of crime. Indeed, the federal government has a precedent for this, because under the Howard government $25,000 compensation was paid to prisoners of war. I congratulate Tony Abbott for introducing this bill.

If every person of the around 300 people who have been injured or killed in acts of terrorism offshore made a claim, this bill in its full capacity would amount to less than $22½ million. It is not a lot of money in the scheme of things, considering the pain and suffering that these people go through. Today I saw a person who has been a friend of mine for a number of years, Paul Anicich, come to this House. The Paul Anicich of today is not the Paul Anicich I have known for the best part of 14 years. He is a shell of the man, and still struggles daily to deal with the after effects of the Bali bombing. This is a man who was an outstanding and successful legal practitioner; this is a man who was a leader in our community and a very passionate advocate for the Hunter region. Today, Paul works hard at just trying to keep his life and his family together because it was not just Paul who was affected—Penny was also involved in the blast, and their young bloke has had to suffer the effects because of the stresses on the family.

Paul, when he came to see me not long after he got back to Australia and had recovered, wanted nothing more than a victim’s gold healthcare card, a gold healthcare card that helped meet the shortfalls in the medical expenses, a gold healthcare card that allowed for the provision of electronic transfer of information so each and every time that the—

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