Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Citizenship and Multicultural Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Minister. I do point out that in the hours after the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami there were some 15,000 Australians unaccounted for, so I appreciate this is a significant consular crisis, but we have dealt with ones of a similar magnitude before. Last week, Minister, DFAT ordered the departure of dependants from Israel and facilitated the departures of dependants from Jordan, Qatar and the UAE. If the government knew the situation was deteriorating to the point of withdrawing its own personnel, why did you not publicly front up and warn the Australian public at that time?