SENATOR THE HON PENNY WONG
LEADER OF THE GOVERNMENT IN THE SENATE
MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS
I pay my respects to the Ngunnawal people, thank you for the Welcome to Country, I acknowledge them as the traditional custodians of this land, and pay my respects to elders past and present.
I acknowledge the Governor-General, Her Excellency the Honourable Sam Mostyn AC.
I acknowledge representatives of the Diplomatic Corps.
I acknowledge former Prime Minister the Honourable Tony Abbott AC – thank you for being with us – and former Foreign Minister the Honourable Julie Bishop – thank you Julie.
To the Chief of the Defence Force, Admiral David Johnston AC RAN.
My ministerial and parliamentary colleagues including the Assistant Foreign Minister Tim Watts and the Shadow Foreign Minister Simon Birmingham.
AFP Commissioner Reece Kershaw, Department Secretaries, Members and Senators.
But today, most importantly, I acknowledge and welcome the families and loved ones of victims here today.
Today in this ceremony, may you know the sympathy and kindness of the nation.
As you know there are also those joining the Attorney-General at the memorial in the Netherlands organised by the MH17 Air Disaster Foundation Kin.
Ten years ago, we woke to news as incomprehensible now as it was then.
298 lives taken.
298 voyages ended, yet forever incomplete.
38 who called Australia home; one of the worst peacetime losses of Australian life.
And for you and so many others, the flight code MH17 serving as an impersonal signifier of the most personal loss.
Of the sudden violence of that day.
Of the cheating of innocence.
Children travelling across continents and oceans to be home in time for a new school term. Future’s promise broken.
Families returning from a European summer holiday, years in the dreaming, giddy with stories that would never mellow into memories.
Mothers, fathers, grandparents. Pillars of communities. Lives of service cut short. Each a singular tragedy and an infinite loss.
Each person with more to give, more to feel, more to do – each person with a whole world that revolved around them.
All those worlds suddenly needing to find a way to keep turning without their axis.
So I say to you today, you have lost so much but you are not alone in your loss.
We are with you in your grief.
And your grief steels us in the fight for justice.
Just as it has steeled Australia since that terrible day.
As it steeled our diplomats – led by former Minister Bishop – to achieve what at first seemed impossible: a unanimous UN Security Council resolution that condemned the attack, and that gave international backing for an independent investigation – carried without Russian veto.
And as your grief has steeled the hundreds of Australian Federal Police, Defence Force and Australian Transport Safety Bureau personnel whose thorough and painstaking work supported that independent investigation through the MH17 Joint Investigation Team.
Together, these efforts – on your behalf, on behalf of those we lost and on behalf of the country – have seen charges laid and convictions secured against perpetrators.
Sentences of life imprisonment levied against Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy, and Leonid Kharchenko in 2022 for their involvement in the downing of MH17.
And your country has imposed sanctions against these three, as well as Sergey Muchkaev who commanded the Russian Brigade that provided the missile that shot down Flight MH17.
The findings of this same court unequivocally and conclusively establish Russia’s responsibility for the downing of MH17.
So while we are appalled that Russia has withdrawn from the action Australia and the Netherlands initiated in the International Civil Aviation Organisation, the case will continue.
And we will not be deterred in our commitment to hold Russia to account.
We can but imagine the courage you have needed to summon to get through these ten years. Grief never fully leaves us but time and love can lessen its weight.
The people you love – the people taken from you - remain in our hearts and in our purpose.
Today, on behalf of the Australian Government, I recommit to our collective pursuit of truth, justice and accountability for the outrages perpetrated on July 17, 2014.
I recommit to our ongoing partnership with the Netherlands, which lost nearly 200 nationals, with Malaysia, Belgium and Ukraine.
Today, we stand with you in your grief.
And we say to you, it is not your sorrow to bear alone.
We stand with you and we will not forget those we lost on flight MH17.
ENDS
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Foreign Minister's Office: +61 2 6277 7500
Authorised by Senator the Hon Penny Wong, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Australia.
