One year ago next Saturday, 353 people seeking a place of safety, including a newly born baby, still attached to its mother, drowned not so far from Bali. Someone mailed me a brief anonymous letter, "Lucky sharks!"

Perhaps after the appalling horrors of the weekend, Australians will have a deeper grasp of tragedy and a more profound empathy for the suffering of the broader human family. Perhaps they too will want a clear explanation of exactly how it happened and who was responsible. The 353 SIEVX dead deserve it, just as much as those killed in Bali.