Martin Stephens,Michael Czugaj,Scott Rush,Matthew Norman and Si Yi Chen look on as Australia and Indonesia sign an agreement for their return home.
Albanese,who spoke to the parents of one of the returnees,Scott Rush,on the weekend,said the men had committed a serious crime,paid a serious price and it was time for them to come home.
Referring to the Paul Kelly songHow To Make Gravy,sung from the perspective of a man in jail writing to his family for Christmas on December 21,Albanese said tomorrow was that day and the first in decades when the families of the five men would have their loved ones home.
“Their families had their loved ones in jail for 20 Christmases,” Albanese said in Canberra. “And that was enough.”
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Matthew Norman and Si Yi Chen to flew to Melbourne. Rush and Michael Czugaj landed in Brisbane. Martin Stephens arrived in Sydney. All had been arrested in Bali in 2005 after the Australian Federal Police tipped off Indonesian authorities about their plans.
Fellow Bali Nine members Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran were executed in 2015. Renae Lawrence,the sole female member of the group,was released in 2018. The final member,Tan Duc Thanh Nguyen,died from cancer while serving his sentence.
The five recently returned men were briefly housed in the Howard Springs Centre,a former quarantine facility in Darwin,after the federal government negotiated their release with Indonesia. They will have access to medical and support services as they settle back into life in Australia.