MH17 memorial to be built in Australia's Parliament gardens

A memorial for victims of the Malaysian Airlines MH17 disaster is to be erected in the gardens of the Federal Parliament in Canberra.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott told Parliament it would be completed for the first anniversary of the tragedy, which cost the lives of 38 people who called Australia home.

It will serve as "a reminder that we will never, ever forget them," he said.

Opposition leader Bill Shorten said the memorial was "a very worthy" idea.

Flight MH17 crashed in eastern Ukraine on July 17 as it was flying from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur with 283 passengers and 15 crew on board. The Boeing 777-200 aircraft is believed to have been shot down over the troubled country.

Besides the Australians, nationals from the Netherlands, Indonesia, Malaysia, the United Kingdom, Germany, Belgium, the Philippines, Canada and New Zealand were among the 298 people on board.