Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Hansard source

That is absolute nonsense. Only somebody who would ascribe the most base political motives to everything that people do in this chamber could ascribe those motives to the way the opposition has behaved in pursuing what we believe are very honourable objectives. We have never politicised these measures. We have done everything we can to work in a spirit of constructive cooperation with the government, and we are genuinely disappointed that the government has not seen fit to accept our point of view. I hope that when these amendments are divided upon the House will see fit to accept our point of view.

To compensate future victims is good and appropriate, and I congratulate the government on that, but it makes absolutely no sense without applying it to the Australians who have already been victims of terrorism because of the events of September 11, the events in Bali in 2002 and 2005, and further terrorist events in London in 2005, Mumbai in 2008 and Jakarta in 2009.

If this bill proceeds in its present form and the House does not see fit to accept our amendments, every member should be aware that all previous Australian victims of terrorism will not be eligible for compensation under this measure. That would be a shame, that would be a travesty and it completely defies the whole point about why we are debating this here today, because this bill has its genesis in the Leader of the Opposition and also the member for Paterson being concerned about and talking with and being heavily involved with victims of the 2005 bombing in Bali. The whole reason we are debating this here today is because the original intent was that those Australian victims of terrorism—some of the 300 Australians who have been killed in previous terrorist acts—get access to what we believe is appropriate compensation.

The 300 killed and the countless hundreds who were injured were killed and injured through absolutely no fault of their own. They were completely just in the wrong place at the wrong time. They were targeted because they were Australians and because they were Westerners by, quite frankly, very evil people who are attacking us because of who we are and because they hate what we stand for.

I would urge all members of the House to think very seriously about how they vote on these amendments. The government's position is inconsistent. There is absolutely no reason to apply this only to future victims of terrorism. I would sincerely ask every member of this House to think very carefully on their vote, because we believe it is completely appropriate to compensate all Australian victims of terrorism, regardless of when they fell victim to it.

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