Bali commemoration speech

12 October 2009

In the dark days after Bali, it seemed life would never be the same.

And for those who still live with grief and injury seven years later, it is hard to believe that the streets of Bali once more ring with the joy and laughter of children and holidaymakers.

It is said that “time heals all wounds”.

But perhaps some wounds need to remain open just a fraction.

After an event like Bali or September 11, we should not let the task of healing morph into forgetfulness.

A part of us should always remain angry.

A part of us should always remain sorrowful.

A part of us should always remain disbelieving.

Otherwise we hand another victory to the terrorists.

Bali must never be forgotten.

The victims must never be forgotten – because when you lose a parent or a sibling or a child, you never get over it.

When you’ve been burned and maimed, you never get over it.

Not fully.

But human nature being what it is, remembrance ebbs away as years turn into decades.

We need to remember Bali as a precious part of our national story that should never be relinquished or surrendered.

We also need to remember Bali for another more practical reason too – because the ideology that made these attacks possible lives on.

Old hands and new recruits are prepared to do the same again, given half a chance.

That chance will come if we allow ourselves to become complacent.

That chance will come as the time between attacks grows wider.

As public attention shifts to other needs and priorities.

As familiar faces from the period like Mick Keelty move off the public stage.

That is why the term “war on terror” is unhelpful to the task of remembering.

Not because of political correctness.

But because it misrepresents the type of struggle in which we are involved.

It is not a war against a uniformed enemy with a definite finishing date.

It is a long and lonely vigil, played out mostly behind the closed doors of intelligence agencies.

A struggle played out in the prosaic strands of international politics:

• building democracy
• combating poverty and ignorance
• eliminating corruption, and
• resolving the big issues in the Middle East.

None of these things are quick nor are they easy.

Already the encounter with extremism that began on September 11 has lasted for eight years – double the length of World War One.

And it stands to endure for many more years to come.

But there will be an ending.

As education and development and diplomacy work their way through Asia and the Middle East, change will come – and it will come in our lifetimes.

And when the long twilight struggle against extremism finally ends, one thing will remain unchanged – our duty to remember those who paid the price along the way.

Let us always be mindful that in the spring of 2002, a group of carefree Australians and other visitors went to Bali seeking a place of peace and happiness, only to find death and destruction.

Let it never be said of the Australian people that we allowed such an outrage to slip from our memories and our public observances.

Let us always remember.

Let us never forget.