Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

A year ago today, we were shocked as we saw the images coming out of Beirut. While Isaac Oehlers was in his high chair, we lost a two-year-old Australian. His parents, Craig and Sarah Copland have been at the forefront of arguing for the same thing that members of the Australian Lebanese community have been arguing for: an independent investigation of the circumstances that led to that disaster in Beirut. More than 200 people lost their lives and, while Isaac was the only Australian citizen, he was not the only member of the Australian family. Every village of Lebanon, because of immigration, has people who are members of the Australian family. Before the blast, there was already, in many ways, a political crisis in Lebanon, and a financial crisis as well. COVID had largely at that point spared the villagers, but after the blast COVID found its way into the villages as people moved from Beirut quickly. We join and stand in solidarity with the Lebanese community all around the world and we join them in prayer for those events 12 months ago, which still need to be properly investigated.