SENATOR ROBERT HILL: Well, firstly I’d like to express the condolescences of the Australian Government and people to all of those who lost families in this terrible event.

Australia, as a friend and neighbour, is wanting to help the people of Indonesia in the original, initial rescue phase and clean-up, and then hopefully also with a longer term contribution towards reconstruction.

So, I’ve come to meet with officials in Medan, and to talk to the Australian military people here who are part of Australia’s contribution to this rescue operation, to review the contribution that our forces are making, and basically to report back as a result of that.

We were pleased to be able to provide the early transport aircraft – the C-130 aircraft – that took humanitarian aid in and brought injured people out, and we’re now providing, have provided helicopters and we’re installing a hospital into Banda Aceh.

And I farewelled one of our ships in Darwin this morning which is bringing in an engineering unit with trucks and bulldozers and front-end loaders and the like to help with the clean-up effort.

And, as you might know, our Prime Minister yesterday in Jakarta, pledged a large sum of money as a significant contribution in partnership with the Indonesian people towards the longer-term reconstruction effort.

Thank you.