STATEMENT ON SIGNIFICANT MATTERS - Malaysia Airlines Flight 17: 10th Anniversary

On 17 July 2014 Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 took off from Amsterdam Airport Schiphol with 15 crew and 283 passengers en route to Kuala Lumpur. Its flight plan took in the entirety of Ukraine—including the east of Ukraine, where Russian backed separatists were fighting. It passed over this area above the minimum altitude of 33,000 feet. As flight MH17 approached the Russian border it engaged in routine communication chatter with air traffic controllers in both Ukraine and Russia until 13.20 coordinated universal time, when all verbal chatter stopped. At 13.26 the aircraft disappeared from radar screens. All 298 passengers and crew were killed that day, including 38 Australians.

The circumstances leading to the downing of MH17 are now very clear thanks to the work of the joint investigative team in which Australia participated. The Buk missile deployed to shoot down the plane belonged to the Russian Army's 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade. The joint investigative team found that the missile system was transported from Russia into Ukraine, and into territory that was controlled at the time by Russian backed fighters; that a missile from that system was deployed to shoot down a passenger jet that was cruising at an altitude of 33,000 feet; and that the missile system was then transported back into Russia immediately that very same day.

In the grief and dismay after the downing of MH17, Russia was immediately a suspect. The then Prime Minister, Tony Abbott, rapidly convened a meeting of the National Security Committee of Cabinet. He declared that the tragedy was not an accident. He said that Russia faced a crucial test of its international citizenship. He resolved to use Australia's membership of the UN Security Council to push for unfettered access to the crash site. Mr Abbott was true to his word in the things that he said Australia would do. Australia pushed the UN Security Council to pass resolution 2166, which unanimously condemned the downing of flight MH17. It was at Australia's insistence that the resolution called on separatists at the crash site to ensure the bodies of the victims were treated with dignity and respect. I also acknowledge the determined and tireless work of then foreign minister Julie Bishop, which was critical to securing strong support for Australia's position. Mr Abbott put Australia's position very directly to Mr Putin at the APEC meeting in Beijing in November that year. It's a matter of record that, at the G20 meeting in Brisbane just a few days later, Mr Putin unexpectedly complained of being tired and decided he needed to leave the assembly of the world's most important economies early so he could get back to work on Monday.

I also acknowledge the strong support that was provided by the then Leader of the Opposition, the member for Maribyrnong, who stood shoulder to shoulder with the then Prime Minister on this issue. Speaking some years later, the member for Maribyrnong had this to say:

We supported, when this terrible atrocity occurred, the strong actions of the then Prime Minister, the member for Warringah.

… when it comes to the MH17 atrocity this parliament of is one mind. There is no daylight. There are no shades of grey.

The member for Maribyrnong and the Labor Party acted in best traditions of this parliament.

It cannot be said that anything good came of MH17. There is no adequate response we can offer to the families of the 298 civilians who were murdered on that day 10 years ago. But we can work through sorrow and seek to ensure there is a permanent legacy for those whose lives were cut short. Over the last 10 years the effort has been unrelenting. In August 2014 Australia joined with the Netherlands, Malaysia and Belgium in forming a joint investigation team, and that team worked with Ukraine to determine who was responsible for the attack and to collect evidence for the criminal prosecution. By December of that year, all of the Australian victims were identified and their remains repatriated. By September 2016 the team had determined that the evidence showed the Buk missile had been brought in from Russian territory and was fired from a field controlled by Russian backed separatists. By 2018 Australia, together with the Netherlands, announced that we were holding Russia responsible. In 2019 a criminal prosecution against four individuals commenced in The Hague. All four were associated with the Russian-backed military operations in eastern Ukraine at the time MH17 was shot down. The three Russians had ties to Russian intelligence agencies, and, by November 2022, three of the defendants were found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment: Igor Girkin, Sergey Dubinskiy and Leonid Kharchenko. In March 2022 Australia and the Netherlands initiated parallel legal action against Russia, under the auspices of the International Civil Aviation Organization.

The downing of MH17 also paved the way for Australia to introduce its own Magnitsky-style sanctions regime, which passed in 2021, and that sanctions regime is used to uphold human rights around the world. The coalition was pleased to see that, in June last year, the regime was used to sanction the three men found guilty by the Dutch court, as well as Sergey Muchkaev, a colonel with the Russian Armed Forces, who in July 2014 was the commander of the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade, which supplied the missile that downed flight MH17.

There is more to do. The Magnitsky sanctions regime, which in a very real way was a consequence of MH17, should be used more broadly, particularly in cases where we see the most egregious human rights abuses. The ICAO proceedings must continue. Russia should, in the face of overwhelming evidence, admit its liability. It should apologise to the families of the 38 Australians and the 260 others on board the flight who were murdered. It should pay damages and compensation. For us in this place, we need to continue our work to maintain a permanent legacy for those whose lives were cut short. I thank the House.