Mr HILL (Bruce—Assistant Minister for Citizenship, Customs and Multicultural Affairs and Assistant Minister for International Education) (09:26): Earlier this month I had the honour of travelling to Bosnia and Herzegovina, where I represented Australia at the 30th anniversary of the genocide of Srebrenica. Over five days in July 1995 more than 8,000 Bosnian Muslim men and boys were murdered and buried in mass graves in and around the small town of Srebrenica. The remainder of the local Bosnian Muslim population, some 25,000 women, children and elderly people, were forcibly deported from their homes. These atrocities were carried out despite the United Nations designating Srebrenica as a safe haven from the violence that had ravaged the Balkans for over three years during the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. What happened in Srebrenica was a horrific tragedy—the largest massacre on European soil since the Second World War—and was one of the darkest chapters in modern European history. It has been formally recognised as a genocide by both the International Court of Justice and the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia. The ceremony at the Srebrenica Memorial Center was incredibly moving. There were tens of thousands of people—near 100,000—gathered in solemn reflection to offer heartfelt respects to the victims, the survivors and the bereaved, recognising the enduring pain and trauma still carried by so many three decades on. The global community must never let the passage of time erode the truth of what was perpetrated. We can never forget those names or faces of those whose lives and futures were torn away from them, and we must never let the harsh lessons of Srebrenica go unheeded. In May of last year the United Nations adopted a resolution to designate 11 July as the International Day of Reflection and Commemoration of the 1995 Genocide in Srebrenica. Australia was among 84 countries that sponsored that resolution. We cannot dismiss the horrors of Srebrenica as the work of monsters. They were methodically planned and carried out by human beings who then tried to cover up their crimes. Each and every one of us share a responsibility to remember that we can never take the values of tolerance and respect for granted. Many who fled the Balkan wars in the 1990s, including the survivors of Srebrenica, found a safe haven in Australia, including in my own electorate of Bruce. These horrors and the brutal war of course affected the broader Bosnian diaspora, and I acknowledge the significance and poignance of this anniversary to them. In the 30 years since the Srebrenica genocide, Bosnian Australians have made such valuable contributions to our nation, adding to the strength and breadth of our multicultural society. In particular, I acknowledge my friend and our parliamentary colleague, the Hon. Ed Husic, the member for Chifley, whose family migrated from Bosnia to Australia much earlier, in the 1960s. Ed is the first Bosnian and the first Muslim to be elected to the House of Representatives and to serve in the ministry. As we remember the 30th anniversary of the genocide of Srebrenica, let us uphold those values and stand firm against hatred, prejudice and violence.