Page 1925 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 5 August 2014
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expecting, not wanting to be involved, people who are just wanting to get on with their lives. We often feel sympathy for those who live in war zones, but it can be more difficult for us to relate to them. I note that the conflict in Palestine is also one that is creating victims who likely want none of it: women, children, families. There are conflicts ongoing right now in Syria, Sudan South Sudan, Central African Republic, and Somalia and there are other conflict hotspots: Iraq, Libya, Yemen, and Afghanistan.
But the reality is that most of the people on MH17 probably had little idea about the conflict that was occurring below them in eastern Ukraine. Like most who travel on international flights, they likely assumed that those worlds of conflict were far from their world. Some perhaps, as they reviewed the path of the plane on the TV monitor or peered out of the window at the twinkling lights may have wondered about how life was for the people 30,000 feet below, but they never expected to be integrally involved. This is perhaps what makes this tragedy so unfathomable for us.
When Rin Norris and Anthony Maslin put their three children onboard flight MH17 to fly home with their grandfather to Perth, they did not have a thought for their whole family becoming victim to someone else’s conflict. Nor did Shaliza Dewa and her husband Johannes van den Hende who had been on holiday in Amsterdam with their three children, nor Howard and Susan Horder, or Jack O’Brien or Emma Bell, nor any of the other passengers onboard MH17. And why would they?
Today we pay our respects to them all. To the 38 Australian citizens and permanent residents who were lost, we give our sympathy. Liliane Derden was the only member of our community onboard MH17. To Liliane’s family and friends here in Canberra, we send our special thoughts and our sincere condolences. To all of the 194 Dutch citizens who were lost, the 43 Malaysians, the 12 Indonesians, the 12 British, the four Belgians, the four Germans, the three Filipino, one Canadian and one New Zealander, we pay our respects.
These are difficult times. Today we send a message to those that are left and grieving that we here in the ACT are thinking of them and sending our thoughts. While you are grieving, we know that you are remembering the joy that your loved ones brought to your lives and while that may only serve to sharpen your grief now, we hope that in time it brings some solace.
Question resolved in the affirmative, members standing in their places.
Petitions
The following petitions were lodged for presentation:
Disability services—early intervention—petitions Nos 9-14 and 13-14
By Mr Wall, from 1,562 and 431 residents:
To the Speaker and Members of the Legislative Assembly for the Australian Capital Territory
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