Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

It has been 10 years since the bomb struck Paddy's Bar and the Sari Club in Bali, tragically claiming 202 lives including 88 Australians—43 from my state, New South Wales. At least 100 others were injured, maimed by the horrific fires and destruction that followed. I recall vividly visiting several in the burns wards of two Sydney hospitals. Tomorrow, the Australian government will hold memorial services in Bali and Canberra to commemorate the bombings. Those who lost their lives or were injured were innocent people going about their daily lives, many of them young people enjoying a holiday at the beach. We will never forget them.

Prime Minister Gillard will represent the Australian government at the service in Bali. The Governor-General will lead the service at Parliament House in Canberra, which is open to the public. We should acknowledge the spirit of the Australian response in those terrible hours and days after the bombing, like the team of Australian doctors and nurses who happened to be in Bali on holiday and rushed to help the victims, a burns doctor from Perth and his wife, an army medic from Darwin, and many others. It is that spirit—the refusal be cowed by evil extremists and our sense of common humanity—that we pay tribute to tomorrow.

You might recall one family from my own electorate in Maroubra, a mother and father who lost their 17-year-old son who was on his first holiday apart from his parents—his first holiday overseas. Their tragedy was to receive his bloodied bag that contained in the suitcase the present he bought for his mum and dad. I recall going to a funeral on the Central Coast of New South Wales. The family's dad—who survived the bombing and worked as a fire fighter at the Maroubra police station, just around the corner from where we live—lost his dear wife and one of his two daughters. The members of a football club at Coogee bore a great loss as well.