Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There are a number of times in this chamber when you have to give speeches that you don't want to give, and today, unfortunately, is one of those cases. As you may recall, Speaker, in November 2024 there were the tragic deaths of two young Australians in Laos: Bianca Jones and Holly Morton-Bowles. These two young girls, with four others, had methanol poisoning at the prime of their lives, when they had just finished school and gone for a holiday to Laos to celebrate the fresh chapter in their lives. It ended in tragedy through methanol poisoning.

As difficult as, of course, it was at that time for the families, tragically I have to say that their trauma lives on because of the consequences of the failure and injustice that we have seen and we are experiencing. To the families—Samantha Morton, Shaun Bowles and Mark and Michelle Jones—we send our love. Unfortunately, today there have been media reports that the families have since found out that justice has not been delivered at all. Instead, secret court cases have been held in Laos, which led, on 29 January this year, to 10 people receiving an utterly irrelevant pittance of a fine, equivalent to A$185, for these deaths. As the families have rightly outlined, this is insulting. Even worse than that, it's made an unbearable grief even worse. For these families, who have already lived such a tragic loss, to now have to continue to fight for basic justice for their lost loved ones is so difficult.

I say without any sense of partisanship but with extreme disappointment that the families found out about these secret court cases through a British family, because they were not kept informed by the Australian government. Let's be very clear about this: this is a failure of the Australian government to keep these families informed of the path for justice. We know they had a reasonable expectation not just to bring those who perpetrated this crime to justice but more importantly—because it's also about protecting the lives of other young Australians and others—to ensure the situation is not repeated. Secret court cases and $185 fines for the loss of six lives at such a young and tender age are nothing short of disgraceful, but it's also disgraceful that our government has not lived up to its obligations and kept the families informed and that the families have had to find out through other routes.

So I'm simply requesting of the Minister for Foreign Affairs and of the government that they tell the Australian people and the parliament what their diplomatic efforts have been with the Laotian government, including the requests to any foreign authorities and the avenues they've pursued; that they ensure appropriate communication with the Laotian government for justice, because this should not be the end; that we ensure someone is charged with the deaths of Bianca Jones and Holly Morton-Bowles, as should be the case; and that the families receive all the support they need, including being kept informed by the Australian government, as we should all expect.

This is not an unreasonable request from the families. This evening, I spoke to Mark Jones about raising this matter in parliament because I was so disappointed and so saddened, as the family is, with the consequences of the decisions of the secret court cases. Now is a time that the families rightly expect to be kept informed by the Australian government and to be kept informed not just of what has been done but, more importantly, of what steps are now going to be taken through consular and diplomatic efforts to provide a sense of closure to the matter for justice and for the families. In that context, Speaker, I seek leave to table the letter I have sent to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Penny Wong.

Leave not granted.