The terrible attack in Bali on 1 October, despite its awful resonance with the events of 12 October 2002—which may perhaps in some way have prepared us—nonetheless produced a deep shock. It produced in the Australian community a sense of outrage that, once again, Australians engaged in the innocent pursuit of a holiday with families and friends amongst people they have come, over the generations, to love and admire a great deal—that is, the people of Bali—should be caught up in a terrorist attack.

That sense of outrage is not limited to the pain inflicted on innocent Australians; it is also extended to the pain and death visited upon people of many countries, many races and many nationalities. As a result of the bomb attack, four Australians have been confirmed dead, including a 16-year-old boy from Busselton in Western Australia, Brendan Fitzgerald. A death in a wanton, indiscriminate fashion is always totally abhorred and is saddening. But there is something particularly poignant about the taking of the life of a young man at the threshold of his life and at the threshold of adulthood. To see the photographs of him and to be reminded of the immense loss to his family and loved ones in the circumstances is deeply moving.

Jennifer Williamson and Colin and Fiona Zwolinski from New South Wales make up the four Australians who have lost their lives. A number of others were injured. On behalf of me, my wife and all of the members of this House, I extend a very deep sympathy and feeling of particular loss and grievance on this occasion. Two communities in Australia, particularly the community of Newcastle in the Hunter Valley and also the community of Busselton in Western Australia, have been left grieving by these events.

I want to pay a special tribute to two of our colleagues, the member for Newcastle and the member for Paterson, both of whom threw their offices open over the weekend and did everything they humanly could to help their communities on this particular occasion. The outpourings of community and solidarity—and I use that word in its best sense—of the people of Newcastle and the Hunter Valley towards those who have lost so much was eloquently expressed in that very moving address given by Joe Frost at the ceremony of remembrance held in the Catholic cathedral in Newcastle. He said it all on our behalf and perhaps said it more powerfully than it has been said before. That Australians going about something as inoffensive as a holiday should have their life interrupted—and, in the case of four of our fellow Australians, taken away—produces in all of us a deep and strongly held sense of outrage. That is a depth of feeling that should be maintained by the Australian community. We must not allow the passage of time to remove the sense of outrage and the sense of hostility shared by this community towards the perpetration of acts of terrorism and acts of violence of this kind.

I again have occasion to record my gratitude and, I know, the gratitude of all members of this House to the men and women of the Australian Public Service who, from the moment news came through of this attack, put aside anything else they were doing and set about putting in hand the Australian relief effort. Once again that effort was impressive. Once again we were speedily able to medically evacuate people who needed medical evacuation. On this occasion I instructed that that offer be made available to people irrespective of nationality, and I am pleased to say that that offer was picked up in relation to one or two people. Once again I thank our medical teams, the Australian Defence Force, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the magnificent Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, David Ritchie, who has had to cope with a terrorist attack in each of the three years that he has been our ambassador. Can I say this is a reminder to all of us that the jokes that are occasionally made at the expense of our overseas representatives fall rather flat and are seen in their proper perspective when a challenge of this kind has to be endured. The RAAF transferred nine of the most seriously injured from Darwin to Newcastle on 5 October so that they could be near their families and friends. I am pleased to know that many of them are making a speedy recovery, although the psychological recovery will inevitably be far more prolonged, far more difficult and, sadly, much delayed.

In the aftermath of the bombings, on Sunday, 2 October, I spoke to President Yudhoyono of Indonesia, and we both agreed to redouble our efforts to fight terrorism in our region. There are obviously issues that will be the subject of discussion and debate in another context in this place. But we did agree that rather than driving us apart these attacks would bring the people of Indonesia and the people of Australia closer together. I think I can say without any contradiction that this attack was not only an attack upon innocent Australians and innocent foreigners but also an attack on the moderate face of modern, democratic Indonesia. It is in the interests of terrorists to undermine President Yudhoyono. It is in the interests of terrorists to instil fear and instability in that country. It is in our interests and in the interests of the entire community to do everything we can to ensure that that attempt does not succeed. I offered President Yudhoyono all possible assistance, and already there has been very close cooperation, as there was in 2002, between the Indonesian police and the Australian Federal Police. Some 28 Australian Federal Police officers and some of their state counterparts, including people involved in the grim task of victim identification, have been working in Bali for some days already.

The impact of this attack on the people of Bali will be devastating. It is an interesting observation to make that the links between Australia and the Balinese are very strong. I have not heard one Australian who has been to Bali do other than speak highly of the Balinese people. The constant refrain, even from people who had been injured or who had lost loved ones in that beautiful spot, was to speak well of the people of Bali and to express their sympathy for the Balinese people for what they had lost and for how much they had suffered. Obviously the terrorists will be pleased that the tourist trade in Bali has been virtually destroyed. They will be delighted at the fact that shops will be empty, that tourists will stay away, that people who are poor will get even poorer and that the sense of suffering and deprivation will be the greater. That is their goal. They will rejoice in that. They will draw satisfaction and pleasure from the pain they have inflicted not only on foreigners and Westerners but also on their own people. It is a measure of the type of people that we confront and are dealing with that that should be the case.

May I also—because this is the week of the third anniversary of the attack in Bali on 12 October 2002, when 88 Australian citizens and three permanent residents of this country lost their lives—recall again the extraordinary and devastating impact that that attack had on this country. That attack and the response by the Australian people has become an indelible element of the Australian story. It reminded us of our vulnerability to terrorism and it reminded us that we could suffer greatly, even though the terrorist attack had not occurred in our country. It brought forth something that we had always believed about ourselves but perhaps on occasion were a little unwilling to express—that is, we are a wonderful combination of strength and determination on the one hand and warmth and compassion on the other. The response to that attack in 2002, and the way in which Australians have recalled it in the three years that have gone by, reminds us of that wonderful duality of the Australian personality. It is tough and we are proud of that. We are direct and we are laconic, but we are also an incredibly warm, compassionate and sentimental people when that is needed. I think it is a wonderful duality for a nation’s personality to possess. I could not think of a better duality for the personality of a nation than what is expressed in those characteristics of us Australians.

On Wednesday, to mark the precise third anniversary, I have in discussion with the opposition arranged a simple commemorative ceremony near the Bali memorial in the gardens adjacent to the House of Representatives. I understand, Mr Speaker, that if it meets the convenience of the House there will be a short adjournment, or perhaps this ceremony will start, before the House meets, to accommodate it, at 9.15 in the morning. It will be an opportunity for all of us, in a quiet, simple and dignified way, to remember that day which will forever be part of Australian history as the day when evil struck in full force with unconditional ferocity and a total absence of pity and claimed 88 Australians, and indeed citizens of many other countries.

Many millions of words have been spoken about terrorism and about its causes and its responses, and there are issues relating to it that do belong properly to other debates in this parliament. Let me simply say something again that I said at the time of the attack on London—that is, barbarism will never cow a free people. We are a free people, we are a very proud people and we have every reason to be both free and proud. And whatever our views, whatever our background, whatever our politics, we must on occasions such as this reaffirm our determination in the relevance of that proposition that we must never allow barbarism to cow a free people.