Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I thank the minister for her positive response to my suggestion we mark this tragic anniversary in the chamber today, and we join with her in the comments she's made. On this day one year ago, Australians were horrified by the images of the Beirut port explosion, an explosion more powerful than the one that destroyed the Chernobyl reactor, killing over 200 people, wounding thousands more and wreaking untold damage across the city of Beirut. Tens of thousands were made homeless, and the city remains scarred by this blast. Its reconstruction has been hampered further by, of course, the COVID pandemic and Lebanon's economic collapse.

The youngest victim of the blast was an Australian, two-year-old Isaac Oehlers. Isaac's mother, Sarah Copland, describes her loving and affectionate son thriving in Beirut, already picking up Arabic and French to the delight of locals. Our thoughts today are with Sarah, her husband Craig and their loved ones as they mourn again their loss. Isaac's portrait is memorialised alongside over 200 victims of the blast in Beirut, and we will not forget them.

The opposition also salutes the vital work of our embassy in Beirut throughout this crisis. Australian embassy staff were themselves injured in this blast. Homes were destroyed and their workplace was damaged, but under the leadership of Ambassador Rebekah Grindlay, they managed to navigate the chaos of the explosion's aftermath to ensure Australians in Beirut were accounted for and help them get to safety. We thank them for their work.

This is a particularly difficult time for Lebanese communities in Australia, many of whom are locked down and unable to come together with friends and family, and of course, they remain unable to travel to their homeland to grieve with their loved ones and to help rebuild what was lost. We know that, as a country, Lebanon has faced difficult times before, and now it has a challenging road ahead to rebuild its city, its economy and the trust of its citizens in their political leaders to be transparent and accountable, and this is what the people of Lebanon demand and deserve.

Regrettably, 12 months on from the blast, the grief and losses felt by the people of Lebanon and Lebanese communities in Australia have been compounded by the fact that those responsible have still not had to answer for their failures. This was a tragedy that should have been avoided, but warnings were not heeded, and Lebanon is still grappling with the consequences of this neglect. The victims of this terrible tragedy are still waiting for justice, and the absence of justice inhibits healing. Sarah Copland is fighting for that justice, for a full investigation into how this tragedy could happen and to ensure it never happens again for the victims of that day and for Isaac. So we reiterate our call on the Australian government to support an independent, impartial and transparent investigation into the explosion. We stand with the people of Lebanon, with Lebanese communities in Australia and with the Oehlers-Copland family in their grief.