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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 12 Hansard (12 November) . . Page.. 3408 ..

MR SMYTH (continuing):

I should draw attention to the response at the personal level, whether it be the nurses and the doctors and the Red Cross workers who assisted, whether it be the AFP officers, the DIMA officers, the DFAT officers who went to Bali straight away. I think the fact that people immediately put up their hands and said, "I will go,"says that we are responding to this sense of loss. Perhaps we can address that sense of loss by acknowledging the individual heroism that Mr Stefaniak spoke of where some of the victims said, "I don't accept what you have done to me and mine, but I will respond appropriately by helping those who are injured."

If we as a community say that out of the sense of loss we will gain the sense of purpose mentioned by the Chief Minister that says, "Yes, we will protect ourselves but beyond that we will reach out, we will assist, we will address the root causes and we won't lose our sense of generosity, our humour, our sense of adventure,"then we will win. If we change for the worse then they will have affected our behaviour, but if we rise to the challenge, change for the better and work out what is going wrong and what we need to do, then we as a nation, we as a community and we as individuals will triumph.

The work of groups like the AFP and the Australian defence forces in the immediate days after the event is worthy of recognition. Mick Keelty, the Commissioner of the AFP, was there almost immediately. Ben McDevitt has been coordinating activities. To all those men, women of the defence forces who flew, who served, who offered comfort and succour, I would say thank you on behalf of all of the people of the ACT.

A lot has been said about what happened at Kuta Beach. The words that we heard from the Prime Minister, Mr Howard, our Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Anderson, and the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Crean, at the national day of mourning were good words and appropriate words. I think if people listen to the sentiment in those words, they will gain something from them.

The words spoken by Bishop Tom Frane, who I think is the Anglican bishop of the defence forces, about not letting what happened change you for the worse are the most powerful words that we have heard since that sad event. He dealt with this tragedy in a powerful way by incorporating all religions into the ceremony-whether by way of giving speeches, lighting candles or saying prayers-so that we could speak as a nation, without discrimination, without segregation.

I would like people to think about the ordinary people of Bali. The Balinese are renowned for their friendliness, their courtesy and their gentleness. The eye of the world is on Indonesia through Bali. I think that what they have lost is particularly sad. If we as a community want to frame a response, I think it is really important to consider how we react with the Balinese.

I think most of us have received an invitation to a function tomorrow night at Madew's winery at Lake George. A group of citizens have reacted really well by running this benefit night, the proceeds of which will go to the Denpasar hospital. If anybody would like more information about this function or hasn't received an invite, I would be happy to hand on the details. Unfortunately for us as MLAs, the function is set down for 6 pm tomorrow evening, which makes it a bit awkward. But something constructive is being done by the community. I think it is very important to fund a hospital which has served

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