Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to place a spotlight on the case of a missing mum, missing wife, missing partner and missing Australian citizen, Mrs Annapuranee Jenkins, also known as Anna Jenkins. Anna and her husband, Frank, are both constituents of mine in Glenelg South. I first met with Anna's family back in February this year. Her husband, Frank, her daughter, Jen, and her son came into my office in Glenelg and began to tell me about Anna and her situation.

Fast forward to October and the family has still not been reunited with Anna. In fact, unfortunately, she has not been heard from in quite some time. Anna first went missing on 13 December last year on the way to visiting her sick 101-year-old mother, based in an aged-care home in Malaysia. Mrs Jenkins took an Uber from her dentist to her mother's nursing home, some 15 minutes away. She then stopped near an orphanage, four kilometres from her destination. The Uber driver has subsequently helped the family investigate the path that was taken. The last known footage taken of Anna Jenkins was taken at a hotel in Penang, Malaysia, on a Wednesday, in December 2017. There have been similar cases with elderly people disappearing, but there are two differences with this particular scenario. No. 1: Anna's bank account has not been touched. No. 2: there's been no demand for money or a ransom from anyone claiming to know where she is or to have her. This has also been known to occur in this area.

I've written to the Minister for Foreign Affairs on two occasions. I'm still waiting on a response to my July correspondence. I'm hopeful that it will arrive soon with some answers about what the Australian government is doing and how they're liaising with the Malaysian authorities. I ask anyone: if you're watching or listening to this speech and you'd like to help the family or you know anything about her disappearance, please go to the Facebook page that has been set up by the family. They've got a Facebook page, an Instagram account and GoFundMe page to help fund the search. A Google search for 'Anna Jenkins missing' will bring up a number of articles, newspaper reports and media reports with further information, including photos and links to the case.

As you can imagine, travel to Malaysia is expensive. So far, the family has raised over $15,000, but the funding that has been raised is quickly drying up. The family has co-opted the services of a private firm called Panoptic Solutions to help do some of the groundwork in Malaysia, but they've also come up empty-handed. We know that, in the week before her disappearance, Mrs Jenkins went for a walk and collapsed, prompting a two-hour search before security guards found her at a church. Unfortunately, on this occasion her phone was left at the hotel. Her handbag, which she had with her, has not been recovered.

With the anniversary of her disappearance quickly coming upon us in a couple of months, I'm hopeful that the department of foreign affairs here in Australia and the minister are providing the maximum amount of assistance available to this family. When it comes to Australians missing overseas or in trouble, we should always do whatever we can, and do over and above what is necessary to help. I'm sure the Minister for Foreign Affairs is doing whatever they can and would strongly agree with me. The family have gone to great lengths to keep Anna in the media, including multiple interviews in media outlets, including The Advertiser, Sydney Morning Herald, A Current Affair, Daily Mail and many other media outlets in Malaysia and The Indonesia Times. You can imagine the toll this has taken on the family—sleepless nights, anxiety, gut-wrenching pain. The family is close and is keen to get answers as to what happened. I know what I would want to do if a member of my family or a member of anyone I know's family disappeared without a trace—you would never give up looking. I know most of us would never give up looking. Tonight, I pass on my sincere thoughts to the Jenkins family. I hope Anna returns to Adelaide soon. I look forward to an update from the Minister for Foreign Affairs soon. But you can imagine the pain this family is going through, so we wish them all the very best and hope that something turns up very soon.