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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 12 Hansard (12 November) . . Page.. 3405 ..

MR STEFANIAK (continuing):

I saw in the audience at the ceremony at Parliament House-and I won't give his full name because I am not quite sure if he would want me to; I will just refer to him as Tony-a good friend of mine who I must assume lost a loved one in Bali. He lives in Canberra and I hope to see him soon, but he was there grieving with his wife.

I spoke to another young man who was also very courageous-another young footballer I coached at university who was with Peter Cosgrove and is now a sergeant with the 1st Royal Australian Regiment. He, too, was injured at Bali, thankfully not too badly. According to General Cosgrove, this young bloke, who is of course pretty modest, did a wonderful job, too, in going in to assist people who had been hurt very badly.

Mr Speaker, I think Mr Quinlan made some very good points. Evil cannot be allowed to prevail and the perpetrators of these horrible crimes must be brought to justice. Good people cannot stand still. I share with Mr Quinlan the hope that the large number of moderate Muslims throughout the world, who are shocked by this event, will give help and support to each other to ensure that we are forever vigilant against acts by evil people who really don't care whom they kill, and whom you literally can't reason with.

This tragedy has brought out so much courage and so much goodness in so many people that I think there is significant hope. But we cannot, as Mr Humphries said, let down our guard. We do have to be vigilant. We do also, though, have to give as much help, assistance and encouragement as we can to other decent people in decent countries throughout the world.

Together with other members, I send my condolences to all of the families affected and I certainly hope we don't see an event like this again.

MS DUNDAS: One month ago a terrible crime was committed in Bali, and our thoughts today must be with those who are personally touched by this tragedy. On behalf of the ACT Democrats, I offer our sincere condolences to the many Australians who have been directly affected-those who have lost loved ones and those who have suffered and may never experience closure as friends and family remain unaccounted for.

We recognise that in those Bali clubs there were people from all over this country, from Indonesia, and from many other countries around our globe. We will remember these people. We will remember them not only as victims of a vicious indiscriminate attack that occurred without any warning, but as they were: loved members of their families, sons and daughters, partners and parents; many with their team-mates celebrating sporting successes-all of them having fun.

One eulogy reported in the Sydney papers spoke of a mate who died as he loved to live-surrounded by girls and with a beer in his hand. His mates, in mourning his death, also sought to celebrate his life. Many of the victims were young, and all were innocents. Our thoughts and our hearts go out to them and their loved ones. I hope that the authorities are able to bring those responsible to justice, and are doing whatever is just and right that will help prevent such terrible crimes from occurring in the future.

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