Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On Saturday, two large truck bombs were detonated in a public area in Mogadishu. Over 300 people were killed and many hundreds more have been wounded. The bombing is one of the worst terrorist attacks anywhere in the world since September 11. It's been attributed by the Somali government and others to the al-Qaeda affiliated Al Shabaab, and I utterly condemn those who have perpetrated this act of extreme violence.

Today I wish to extend my deepest condolences to all of those who have been affected or who have lost loved ones in this atrocity both in Somalia and here in Australia. My electorate of Melbourne is home to many Somali-Australians, and the local community has been deeply shaken by this devastating attack. Members of Melbourne's Somali community have raised funds and called for peace in the wake of this bombing. They have informed me of Mogadishu's overwhelmed hospitals and the urgent need for medical aid.

Our media and political system must not fail the Somali community in the wake of this bombing. When terrorists kill white people, it's on the front page of every Australian newspaper and dominates the nightly news, but when it happens in Africa, it's buried up the back of the world news section. It pains me that we didn't even have a statement from the Prime Minister or a minute's silence in here as we have had when there have been other terrorist attacks. We need to send a strong statement from this parliament that black lives matter as well and that, when people in Africa are killed by terrorism, we should treat it just as importantly as when white people are killed. Sadly, when people flee Somalia and seek safety here, we too often lock them up and turn them away. We must not fail our Somali community.