[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 148 (2002), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 102]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        AUSTRALIA STANDS WITH US

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                           HON. STEPHEN HORN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 23, 2002

  Mr. HORN. Mr. Speaker, the terrorist attacks of last September 11th 
were a terrible blow to the United States and to all of our citizens. 
Each of us became witnesses to the coldblooded murder of fellow 
Americans by a small band of fanatics who hate our country and the 
values we stand for--freedom and the rule of law.
  But the events of last September produced not only shock and horror, 
but an immediate outpouring of support from nations all over the world. 
One voice from overseas that spoke with both power and eloquence was 
that of Premier Bob Carr of New South Wales, Australia. Mr. Carr has 
long been a good friend of the United States and his speech to 
Parliament on September 18th last year should be read by every Member 
of Congress. Today, I place that speech in our Record so that it will 
be clear to all that America has many good friends and many strong 
allies in the fight against terrorism.
  Bob Carr is not only a historian of his wonderful Australia. He is 
also a master of our history.

           Terrorist Attacks on the United States of America

             (By Bob Carr, MP, Premier of New South Wales)

       Mr CARR (Maroubra--Premier, Minister for the Arts, and 
     Minister for Citizenship) [2.18 p.m.]: I move:
       That this House:
       (1) condemns the terrorist attacks committed in the United 
     States;
       (2) extends condolences to all the victims and their 
     families; and
       (3) calls on Australians of all faiths to support each 
     other and practise the very values that were attacked--
     freedom and the rule of law.
       All who lived through 11 September 2001 will always 
     remember it. A catastrophe like that bonds us as human beings 
     and great good can sometimes flow from enormous evil as if, 
     in this time of talk of war, when facing the darkness, we 
     most value the light. The events of just a week ago have 
     shown us that human goodness is a fact--it is unstoppable, 
     and ineradicable. The firemen and police who walked into the 
     shadow of two great wobbly towers and climbed the stairs, 
     were probably aware they would not survive. The heroes on 
     United Airlines flight UA93, accepted their fate and 
     attempted by their death to save others and protect their 
     country. The husbands, wives, sons and daughters rang loved 
     ones from those planes and wrecked offices to say, ``Goodbye, 
     I'm unlikely to survive this. It was good to have been your 
     friend upon the earth.''
       Thousands volunteered their blood, their hands, their 
     exhaustion for the long nights and days that followed. They 
     are still at work. The chaplain who died in the act of giving 
     absolution to a fireman who himself died in an act of gallant 
     self-sacrifice. Our colleague in public service Mayor 
     Giuliani never slept, and former President Clinton wept with 
     the kinfolk of the fallen. Sometimes it takes this enormity 
     to show the generosity of the human spirit. It is not good 
     that the few who are not susceptible to mercy can do such 
     harm to so many.
       Today we are not here to speak--though the time will come--
     of the big picture of world terrorism, its causes and its 
     remedies, or of the strategic goals and alliances that are 
     being talked of, and the necessary action to smash 
     terrorists. We are here today only to speak our shared 
     regret, our sympathies and kindred sorrows. The number of 
     Australians currently not accounted for in New York and 
     Washington is more than the number who perished at Thredbo 
     when 18 lives were lost; on the Westgate Bridge, 35 lives; in 
     the fires of Hobart, more than 50 lives; perhaps even more 
     than in the Granville Train disaster, 83 lives lost.
       We feel ourselves one in blood with the fallen, kin and 
     bonded with all who died. A world away, we share their grief. 
     There were those that morning who had the luck. The Chairman 
     of Cantor Fitzgerald, Howard Lutnick, survived the attack 
     because he was late for work. He decided to take his children 
     to kindergarten for the first time that morning. He lost his 
     brother, though, and around 700 workmates--700! John, a New 
     York Port Authority worker, rolled himself into a ball, 
     tumbled down 80 stories as the building fell and was barely 
     scratched. Ian Thorpe came to the door two hours before and 
     then went back to his hotel for his camera.
       John Howard was giving a news conference at his hotel a 
     short walk from the White House, when the 767 airplane 
     intended for its destruction hit the ground in Pennsylvania. 
     All feel relief but also guilt that they were spared and so 
     many were lost. Human beings are like that. We feel for our 
     fellows, across race, religion and region. We breathe the 
     same air, share hopes and sorrows. We are involved, as John 
     Donne said, in mankind, and the tolling bell tolls also for 
     us as it does for comrade, foe and kin.
       We think of our lost Australian kin. Yvonne Kennedy, 62, 
     from Westmead, a widow with two sons, had recently retired 
     from the Red Cross after 25 years, having been awarded the 
     Red Cross distinguished service medal. She was on her 
     retirement holiday. Adelaide industrial advocate Andrew Knox 
     was working for an infrastructure company on the 103rd floor 
     of the north tower of the World Trade Center. Leanne 
     Whiteside, from Prahran, Melbourne, was on the second day of 
     her dream job in the World Trade Center working for an 
     insurance company. Retired Sydney Qantas baggage handler 
     Alberto Dominguez from Lidcombe had worked for Qantas for 21 
     years. He was a prominent member of the Spanish community. 
     Lesley Thomas, from the Central Coast, was working in New 
     York as an options trader for Cantor Fitzgerald.
       For these and all the others missing and not accounted for 
     among the scarred and twisted metal we hope for a miracle: 
     that among the rows of stretchers and doctors waiting for 
     patients and treating so very few, that along the unending 
     odyssey of the sniffer dog Bear, who knows in the way dogs do 
     how essential is his task, a human form in the dust will 
     unexpectedly move and show that life is there, and hope 
     abides.
       There is no joy in this occasion. There is no great comfort 
     in knowing that more lives are yet to be shed in the conflict 
     that will surely follow this atrocity, this bestial act by 
     fearless, fanatical, short-sighted men. There is no comfort 
     in sharing a planet, a fragile global confederation, that has 
     in it so much hate, and to see that hate grow by the hour. 
     There is no victory, and there is no honour, in defaced 
     mosques or churches or in abuse and street violence against 
     good citizens born in the Middle East and at peace here in 
     Australia. They detest as much as any these barbarous and 
     poisonous acts and the inhumane organization that planned 
     them and fed them.
       There is comfort, however--some comfort--in the goodness 
     this foul deed has ignited: the song and ritual and the 
     extended hands of nations met in unexpected comradeship, 
     united by their sympathy, sorrow and outrage. In the words of 
     a familiar song, ``We are one, but we are many.'' In this 
     country as in yours and at this awful time we are with you, 
     the very many of you now grieving, in spirit and in fact, in 
     our prayers and in our sorrow, and in our strategic support--
     in all this, Australia will be there.

     

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