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AAP
AAP
Politics
Maeve Bannister

Parliament remembers Bali bombing victims

Anthony Albanese commemorated Bali bomb victims ahead of the 20th anniversary of the terror attack. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS) (AAP)

The 88 Australians murdered in the 2002 Bali bombings have been remembered by federal parliament ahead of the 20th anniversary of the attacks.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese commemorated constituents from his own inner-western Sydney electorate who died, including Debbie Borgia and her daughter Abbey who at 13 was the youngest victim.

The terrorist attacks of October 12, 2002 in Bali's popular tourist district of Kuta killed 202 people from 20 nations.

"They were not combatants in a war, they were visitors and locals alike," Mr Albanese said.

"They were gathered in a place of joy because, as Australians have for so long known and cherished, few places are as welcoming as Indonesia.

"But amid the joy there was malice, terrorists who brought their depravity to Bali."

But Mr Albanese said the terrorists tried to tear the world apart, but in fact brought people closer together.

"In the end they reminded us what is so important to us and to not take for granted what we have built and nurtured over generations," he said.

"They sought to create terror but people ran towards the terror, to do what they could for friend and stranger alike."

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton said in the wake of the bombings, strangers from across the world worked together to support each other.

"Terrorism is not dispensed according to some hierarchy of disdain, it is dispensed in an indiscriminate, evil, hateful fashion," he said.

Quoting the late Queen Elizabeth II, Mr Dutton said it was in adversity that new friendships were formed and in crisis that communities came together.

He referenced the work of the Australian and Indonesian police forces to combat acts of terrorism in the two decades since the bombings.

"Every day of courage is the confident roar of freedom, of defiance, an act of defiance of that cowardly evil," he said.

"Every decade of achievement is a triumph over terrorism."

The prime minister said the bond between Australia and Indonesia grows only stronger with each year that passes.

"We will hold (the victims) in all of our hearts, we will think of everyone who never came home, we will think of all the survivors we have lost since," he said.

"We hold onto their names and faces and will never let them fade."

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