Mr SHORTEN (Maribyrnong—Leader of the Opposition) (14:13): I thank the Prime Minister for his words. And today we pause to remember a truth-teller, a man who carried his fight for justice from the remote APY Lands to Canberra. Yami Lester was just a kid when he heard Maralinga, thunder, the sound of a British atomic bomb detonated in Emu Fields. Playing outside with a home-made toy, he witnessed the black mist run over his people's ancient landscape, oily and shiny. He said: It rolled towards us without a sound. Usually you know if there is a dust storm coming so you can get shelter, but this black mist snuck up on everybody and no one could work out what it was. There was a lot of fear. And, as we learnt subsequently, in fear's wake came fever and disease, cancer, early death. The Anangu people tell stories of being bundled into trucks as they fled the scene. Others walked for miles through the desert without water to try and escape the contaminated area. These traumatic memories now sit alongside their Dreaming, fault lines in an ancient culture. Decades later, when restless elders sought to return to their traditional lands, many more were struck by lung disease and other cancers. In the sorry history of wrongs perpetrated against Aboriginal people, Maralinga is its own bleak chapter. And in the years that followed, there were many who would have preferred to flip past those pages and avert their gaze. It was Yami, blinded by 'black mist', who opened Australian eyes to the injustice that had been done. Without his sight, he could no longer ride with the skill and the daring that made him a brilliant stockman, so instead he mustered support. He wrangled politicians and lawyers and military personnel. He drove the momentum for the McClelland royal commission, where at last the truth was told, the message was heard and the first elements of compensation were delivered. But his fight did not end there. Every day of his life was given to the call for justice for his people. He would never accept half-measures. His silence could never be bought by gestures. His legacy lives on in the compensation for his people and the clean-up of their land. And it lives on, also, in his remarkable daughter Karina and her continuing mission to make the world free of nuclear weapons, a call she issued on the floor of the United Nations this year. We honour his courage and commitment today.