Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Leichhardt for his question and for his nine years of loyal service to the Royal Australian Air Force. We were all aware of the outbreak of violence in the Solomon Islands on 18 April and then across to 19 April. I think, like all Australians, we were particularly impressed with the very rapid response of the Australian Defence Force, which deployed within 24 hours 110 fully equipped and armed soldiers to Honiara to—along with other countries—bring stability to the Solomon Islands. Over the past month, we have had deployed from the Australian Defence Force as many as 400 Australian Defence Force personnel, which has included two companies of infantry, headquarters support, two Iroquois helicopters and two patrol boats, along with the airfield defence guards.

The national security committee considered Australia’s ongoing commitment to the Solomon Islands in terms of defence and peacekeeping in support of RAMSI late yesterday, and I can inform the House that we will commence very shortly a withdrawal of a number of our Defence Force elements and continue over the next two weeks. We will continue to have deployed in the Solomon Islands a company of around 140, and they will be supported by elements from the New Zealand Defence Force and Pacific island nations—which is currently Fiji. We will continue to closely monitor the peaceful nature of the Solomon Islands and will review that on a week-to-week, month-to-month basis.

All Australians should and can be very proud of the work that is being done by the Australian Defence Force under the leadership of Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston in this deployment. The 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment will be remaining there for the foreseeable future and the Australian Defence Force will also be contributing to the guarding of the Rove prison, which is very important to the continuing security of the Solomon Islands.

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