Bali bombing victim: Tony Abbott saved my life - The Age

Abbott promises compensation for victims of terrorism

Tony Abbott has promised compensation for victims of overseas terrorism after experiencing first hand the devastation days after an attack.

An emotional victim of the 2005 bombing in Bali told on Tuesday of Tony Abbott saving his life by organising an emergency medical evacuation to Singapore.
Paul Anicich, whose life as a leading lawyer in the NSW city of Newcastle was ruined by the bombing, also told of Mr Abbott sitting at the end of his wife Penny's bed for hours, comforting her, as she believed she was dying.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott meets Bali bombing survivors Paul Anicich, left, and Peter Hughes, centre. Photo: Alex Ellinghausen

''You were not acting as the Minister for Health at that moment,'' Mr Anicich told Mr Abbott.
''You were acting as the man you are. You can imagine the gratitude I have.''
Mr Anicich was one of several Bali bombing victims attending a small ceremony in Newcastle where Mr Abbott pledged that in the first 100 days of a Coalition government, he would ensure all Australian victims of terrorism overseas, past and future, would be eligible for victims-of-crime compensation of up to $75,000 each.
The compensation would cover Australian victims of terrorist attacks in New York, Bali, Jakarta, London and Mumbai.
Mr Abbott said the pledge was part of ''a bit of a personal journey'', which began when he and his family took a holiday to Bali in early October 2005.
Four Australians were killed and 68 were injured when suicide bombers attacked at Jimbaran Bay and Kuta.
Mr Anicich and his wife were among a large group of Australians who believe they were specifically targeted at a restaurant at Jimbaran Bay.
Mr Abbott spent many hours trying to help victims at Bali's Sanglah General Hospital and in Mr Anicich's words ''pulled from the sky'' an emergency evacuation plane when he learnt his life was in the balance. Mr Anicich was flown to Singapore, and his wife remained in the Bali hospital.
When Mrs Anicich awoke, she found ''this man she didn't know, sitting on the end of her bed, comforting her, while she thought her life was going to end''.
Mr Abbott had stayed there virtually all day.
The Opposition Leader said he had been trying for years to ensure all Australian victims of overseas terrorism received the same modest compensation as those who were domestic victims of crime.
He conceded that he had failed in 2007 when the Howard government was in power.
''I suppose we were a little past our prime [in 2007],'' he said. ''We should have done it.''
The Labor government had supported his move, but it had stopped short of providing the compensation to those who had already become victims, legislating only for future victims.
An Abbott government would, at the cost of $30 million, provide compensation retrospectively for up to 300 people who had been injured or the families of those who had been killed.
It was, he said, a modest payment, but significant in that it acknowledged those who had suffered as targets ''simply because they were Australian, representative of a way of life and a particular set of values''.
Correction: Mr Anicich's name was misspelled in an earlier version of this story.


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