John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek the indulgence of the House to say something about the remarkable events in Beaconsfield this morning. Few incidents in the life of this country in recent years have gripped the attention of the Australian public like the extraordinary saga of the rescue of Todd Russell and Brant Webb from their apparent entombment in the goldmine at Beaconsfield on Anzac Day. The nation followed this event partly because of the intense human interest involved but also because it was an extraordinary demonstration of Australians pulling together for a common purpose and a common goal. I express the joy and happiness of all members of this House that these two men have been brought to the surface in apparently robust good health, which is a great tribute to them and to their powers of resilience.

In expressing that joy and admiration, let us also think of Larry Knight, who died in the mine collapse and who is being buried virtually as we meet here. We extend our thoughts and sympathy to his family and remark upon their extraordinary demonstration of mateship in deferring the funeral of their loved one so that it was possible for his two mates, if they were rescued, to attend the funeral and to share in the bereavement and grief of the family and of the community.

This remarkable rescue feat has been, in every sense of the expression, a triumph of Australian mateship. Many sections of the community worked together in harmonious, dedicated resolve to rescue the two men, and it is impossible to complete the list of expressions of gratitude and of tribute to so many who have played a role. We must, I believe, give pride of place to the men who risked their own lives to bring their mates to the surface.

Mining is a dangerous, dirty, difficult profession. It carries enormous risks for all of those involved in it. For all that we think of the different issues in relation to something like this, none of us should ever forget how fundamentally dangerous it is for people to go underground for extended periods of time and to win the produce of the earth. If you look back over the history of mining in Australia, as you do over the history of mining all around the world, it has always been a dangerous occupation. We must all stand in awe of and pay tribute to the men and women who are prepared to go underground.

I therefore want to particularly pay tribute on your behalf to the men who risked their lives. I think of those who went underground day after day, shift after shift, to try to get their mates back. I also think of the man who, I suppose, bore the ultimate responsibility, Matthew Gill. It was his job on a regular basis to tell the public of the progress made. He knew that, ultimately, if something went wrong he would carry a greater share of the blame than anybody else. I thought he did his work with great calm and stoicism, and we ought to pay tribute to him.

I would like to pay tribute collectively to the community of Beaconsfield. I think the mayor, Barry Easther, displayed great community leadership. I pay tribute to the work of the members and the officers of the Australian Workers Union, who properly represented the union interest in this matter.

Let us also pay tribute to the spiritual leadership of the local churches. It was wonderful how throughout the ordeal they provided spiritual comfort and leadership to those who sought it—and, as the days went by, increasing numbers of people sought spiritual guidance and comfort—and food and other sustenance to keep body and soul together. That lovely story of the Uniting Church bell being rung for the first time since the end of World War II really did sum it up.

In every way it has been a remarkable demonstration of a community pulling together. Our thoughts are, and always were, very much with the families of the two men. Their joy last Sunday week in knowing that their sons, husbands, brothers and fathers were still alive must have been an experience almost beyond understanding.

I pay tribute to the emergency services, to the Tasmanian government and to the West Tamar Council, which, under the leadership of Barry Easther, established a command centre, a recovery centre, which was manned by council staff and volunteers. I pay tribute to the many other community organisations I have not specifically mentioned and also note the contribution of the Minerals Council of Tasmania, led by Mr Terry Long.

Larry Knight died and we mourn his death, and we extend our compassion and sympathy to his family. But we rejoice for two lives that we all, I guess, in our innermost thoughts must have imagined were gone some time ago. Those two lives were saved and they were brought back through a feat of mining rescue capacity which has almost certainly established a new benchmark in the mining industry around the world. Let us not play that down. This has been a remarkable achievement by the men who got their two friends out. We must be unstinting in our praise for them and unconditional in our admiration of what has been done. As is appropriate, there will be a coronial inquiry into the death of Larry Knight, and I have been informed that—also as is appropriate—there will be a full independent inquiry established by the Tasmanian government into the circumstances of the mine accident. Both of those inquiries are entirely appropriate.

It is likely that the mine will be closed for some period of time. If that eventuates, there will potentially be a very significant dislocation for the local community. It is a tight-knit community which is heavily dependent on this mine for its regular sustenance. In that connection I have already indicated and I repeat to the House that, whatever assistance it is appropriate for the Commonwealth to provide to assist the community, particularly the employees of the mine who may be displaced as a result of this, we will be very ready and willing to provide. A task group has been established by the Tasmanian government, and the Commonwealth will be represented on that. I have already in several discussions I have had with the mayor of West Tamar indicated our willingness to assist. Also, if it proves necessary, such ex gratia assistance as may be needed, particularly by the family of Larry Knight, will be provided.

This is an occasion for support, but it is also an occasion for us as a nation to in a sense step back and allow this wonderful community to rejoice in its achievement. This is a victory that belongs to the people of Beaconsfield—that is, to all of them, whatever their backgrounds. It is a victory that belongs to the unions as much as it belongs to the management. It is a victory that belongs to the people of the community, whatever their views on any particular subject. Those things are but secondary. We are united in our relief. We are united in our joy that this outcome has been achieved.

I think it is appropriate, given the scale of what has been achieved against such incredible odds, that this parliament take an opportunity, perhaps in the second week of these sittings, to invite all of those involved, including the two men, to a reception in the Great Hall. I will arrange for my office to discuss with the office of the Leader of the Opposition arrangements for that so that it can be conducted on a totally bipartisan basis and so that we, as the representatives of the Australian people, can salute this colossal achievement of Australian mateship and this extraordinary feat that has brought from the bowels of the earth two of our fellow countrymen.

Whilst I am on my feet—and this is the first occasion since that the parliament has met—I record my sorrow at the death in Baghdad of Private Jacob Kovco whilst on active service with the Australian Defence Force in Iraq. I have already done so but let me repeat here my expression of deep condolence to his widow, Shelley, to their two little children, to his parents and to his wonderful extended family. I had the opportunity, accompanied by the defence minister, of attending his funeral, which was also attended by the member for Chisholm and Senator Stephen Conroy, representing the opposition. In that way, in a bipartisan fashion, the sorrow of the nation was expressed to that family that had lost so much.

Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I wonder if I could have indulgence to speak on the same matters.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Leader of the Opposition may proceed.

Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank you, Mr Speaker, and I thank the House. All Australia is jubilant today at the safe rescue of Todd Russell and Brant Webb. Can I say at the outset of my remarks that I look forward enormously to joining with the Prime Minister and making certain that this huge community effort in their rescue is properly recognised in this place. I look forward to that opportunity, as I am sure all members of parliament here today do.

This is a rolled gold miracle. It is an epic Australian story. It is a celebration of those great Australian values of mateship, courage, community, family, resourcefulness and skill—all the things that we believe are significant in the Australian character and are demonstrated by incident after incident, which go together to create the Australian legend. This at Beaconsfield has now been added to that list. It was an extraordinary event.

We meet as a parliament today in the shadow of the sad side of this epic story, and that is the sorrow that we all have at the death of one of the miners, Larry Knight, and our sympathy with the family and with what they must now be going through. Indeed, we meet and discuss these matters here today probably at the same time as the conclusion of the private funeral that is being held for him. I do understand that Todd Russell and Brant Webb managed to make it to that funeral. The generous act by the Knight family to hold off the funeral until they came out of their cage has been honoured by the fact that they have been able to make it in that time.

The thing that we do need to recollect here, as the Prime Minister said, and what has been demonstrated to all Australians, is what a very dangerous profession mining is. It is an enormously lucrative industry from the Australian national point of view but enormously dangerous for those who participate within it. It requires resources of courage to go down to such depths every day in circumstances where you are not absolutely certain that all the day’s proceedings will be conducted in a way that preserves your safety. But, just as it takes extraordinary courage to go down daily in those circumstances, much more courage is required to go through that process to rescue your mates in what is a destabilised deep mine. It is important for us as a place to reflect both on the courage of those entrapped and on the massive courage of those engaged in the rescue activity—the courage it took day after day to go into a destabilised mine at its depths in what has been a largely experimental process of working a way through to the entrapped miners. The courage of the individuals who performed those tasks and those who supported them—the paramedics and other volunteers who were down there providing aid and comfort to the entrapped miners—is something that must be noted and registered with the whole community.

I appreciated enormously an opportunity Bill Shorten provided me to talk this morning to two of the miners who were amongst those volunteers, including the one who made, as I understand it, the initial breakthrough into the cavity in which the cage with the entrapped miners was contained. They were just laconic Australians. There was, as you would expect, no sense of heroism—just doing a job for your mates, just doing your business, just doing what you are trained to do and getting on with it and achieving outcomes. But there was that absolute determination that the outcome would be good. We should place on record our appreciation not only for the courage of the entombed miners but also for the courage of those who were at the rock face, so to speak, of the rescue.

We also ought to pay tribute to the skill of the engineers who worked their way around the engineering problems associated with this and in that regard to the mine manager, Mr Gill, who was mentioned by the Prime Minister in his remarks. They were the ones who had to make the decisions as to what help would be brought in and what assistance sought from elsewhere from their knowledge about the character of the mining industry—that knowledge that would enable them to call for the right sources of help from state government level, other state government level and the private sector and the like to provide them with the capacity to make a judgment on which of the many alternatives they should take.

The epic character of this is enhanced further by the fact that these miners were discovered by somebody ‘allegedly’ performing a rogue act—going where he ought not have been but determined to try to find out whether there was any chance of anyone else left alive and, when all had largely given up hope, hearing those voices. Imagine the horror of the four days of hearing nothing of the two persons before he arrived on the scene and then hearing their voices in the dark—nothing but a destabilised rock face, a destabilised tunnel a mile below the earth’s surface.

It is an extraordinary tale. There are all the other issues of community resilience: the marvellous unity of the Beaconsfield community, the effectiveness and the commitment of those in the different community organisations, from the religious groups and the churches through to the local government, all absolutely determined that this epic tale would have a successful conclusion. Along with the Prime Minister, I pay tribute to all of them.

I also appreciate and note the Prime Minister’s statement about the preparedness of the federal government to play a role in the economic recovery of the community. This is obviously a dangerous mine at the moment and there will be issues determined in the various inquiries proceeding as to how it got into that situation. But one thing must be absolutely clear for all of us in public life who have any influence over these proceedings: nobody should mine that mine again until we are absolutely certain it is completely safe. If that means it is shut for a time, it must be shut for a time. Should the community be decimated and destroyed as a result of an essential, sensible safety decision? Obviously not. The federal government has a role to play there and it is important that the Prime Minister has offered that role.

Can I also pay tribute to Bill Shorten, the AWU official who was frequently the person who conveyed information to the rest of the public as to what was going on in the mine. Of course, apart from the public explanation, he also explained it privately, working closely with the miners to make sure that they were happy and satisfied that correct judgments were being arrived at in relation to the rescue effort. There was a side to his activity and the union’s activities that was an explanation to the public of what was going on. There was another side that was representational, in circumstances of great doubt and difficulty in determining what the correct and safest course was. The fact that the miners were so prepared to go after their mates may well have had something to do with their level of confidence that their interests and the security of the rescue effort were being properly watched by those who spoke on their behalf more generally in the community. So I pay tribute to Bill Shorten there.

It is of course a time of mixed emotion. We mentioned that with regard to the terrible losses suffered by the Knight family—made worse, I am afraid to say, by the fact that there was so much activity around them when what they really desperately needed was privacy for grief, reflection and reconstruction of the family. They were caught up, in their grief, in what was the wider inspection, if you like, of the community by all the rest of us as we watched the saga unfold. They have had a terribly difficult time.

But we can also note and share in the enormous joy of Brant’s and Todd’s families, the enormous joy that they displayed so obviously before us all this morning, and as a parliament—and we should have this opportunity, as the Prime Minister said—we express our solidarity with them. This is an epic Australian story of great Australian mateship that has reached a successful conclusion, and we should all take joy in it.

Very briefly, the Prime Minister mentioned the family of our first casualty in Iraq, Private Kovco; the first casualty himself; and the funeral of Private Kovco that took place recently. All Australia shared the grief of the Kovco family in the circumstances of his passing. Their thoughts would have been with him at the time that that funeral took place. The event is a brutal reminder that Iraq is a dangerous place—that those who go in harm’s way find themselves at risk, whether that risk is a product of accident or a product of events on the battlefield. The War Memorial here makes no differential between those who are killed as a result of a bullet, as a result of disease or as a result of accident. That War Memorial is for all our honoured dead. Private Kovco joins them.