Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

On the evening of 27 April, Turkish time, I was returning from dinner with the Turkish Defence Minister in Ankara when I received one of those phone calls every defence minister dreads. The CDF was calling to inform me that we had lost a special forces soldier in Afghanistan and that a number of his mates had been wounded. The fact that the call came only two days after Anzac Day added to the sadness and poignancy of the news. Lance Corporal Marks was only 27 years of age and yet had already been a member of the Australian Defence Force for almost a decade. Having enlisted in 1999, he had served the 4th Field Regiment as a gunner and as a medical assistant to the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps. In 2005 he realised a lifelong dream in joining the Sydney based 4th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment—the commandos. It was as a commando that he came to serve in Afghanistan as part of the Special Operations Task Group. He was a career soldier, and the commandos represented the pinnacle of what he wanted to accomplish.

As the Minister for Defence, I come into regular contact with our service men and women and every day I witness their dedication, their skill and their courage. I am consistently amazed by their Achillean approach to their work and their overwhelming pride in what they do. From all that I have seen and heard of Lance Corporal Marks, he represented those qualities exceptionally well, and I know that his family and colleagues are justifiably proud of his service. He was highly respected by his comrades and his peers and was a soldier whose dedication and enthusiasm was an inspiration to all of those around him. He was also a wonderful and caring husband and father. He truly strove to be the best he could in everything he did.

Despite their grief, Lance Corporal Marks’s mates are continuing to fight against the Taliban in southern Afghanistan and are making a significant contribution to the stability of the region. Our troops, in conjunction with our coalition partners and of course the government of Afghanistan, are playing a vital role in keeping the Taliban and other violent extremists on the back foot. They are working tirelessly at nurturing the conditions for progress and development. Our special forces are clearing out the insurgents, and our Reconstruction Task Force is constructing patrol bases, schools, bridges and hospitals and of course training the Afghan National Army.

The international community must remain committed to this project and to a brighter future for Afghanistan, providing greater prosperity and continued freedom for every Afghan. We must honour the memory of those who have given their lives for this cause: Sergeant Andrew Russell, Trooper David Pearce, Sergeant Matthew Locke, Private Luke Worsley and now Lance Corporal Jason Marks. I thank the hardworking and professional members of the Australian Defence Force. We must never forget that our troops serving across the globe face danger every day from Afghanistan to Timor Leste, from the Solomon Islands to the Sinai, to Iraq and elsewhere. We must never forget that they work tirelessly to secure our safety and to promote our national interests. We must never forget their dedicated service and what their courageous sacrifices impart to the broader Australian community.

I felt very fortunate to be in a position to visit Tarin Kowt soon after Lance Corporal Marks’s death, both to pay my respects to him and what he did for his country and to visit in hospital his wounded mates. Both were moving experiences. The wounded, I can report, were in high spirits. They were mourning their lost mate but they were keen to get back out there again.

On Saturday I enjoyed another privilege when I welcomed home around 1,000 soldiers returning from East Timor and Afghanistan. I was there, of course, to thank them for what they are doing for their country and its people, for what they are doing for regional security, for what they are doing for global security and for what they have done for the people of Afghanistan and in East Timor. Sadly, one of those from Reconstruction Task Force 3 was not there. David ‘Poppy’ Pearce was a member of that group and sadly lost his life in Afghanistan.

The loss of Jason Marks, Poppy Pearce, Matty Locke, Luke Worsley and Andrew Russell serves as a sombre reminder of why we pause on Anzac Day and why we acknowledge all those who have served and those who continue to serve. It reminds us that the Australian Defence Force personnel face danger every day and that every day they deserve our respect and appreciation.

Again, I offer my sincerest sympathies to Jason Marks’s family: his wife, Cassie; his two young children, Connor and Ella; and his parents, Paul and Sharon. He was a young husband and father taken from them far too soon, and I cannot begin to imagine their grief. I further express my heartfelt condolences to his friends and fellow soldiers from the 4th Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment, who have also felt the pain of Jason’s death.

In response to an article that appeared in the Sydney Morning Herald this morning, can I say that the government of Australia is proud of all the men and women who serve in the Australian Defence Force, no matter whether they belong to the Navy, the Army or the Air Force and regardless of which particular role they might fill in any of those services or in the Department of Defence. When it comes to deploying Australia’s military forces, the government is guided by its principal military adviser, the Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston. Let me take this opportunity to express on behalf of the government our complete confidence in the CDF, which is borne out by the fact that we recently reappointed him for another three years in that job.

The professional military advice provided to government on troop deployments is always predicated on using those force elements with the best chance of getting the job done as safely as possible—achieving their mission on behalf of the Australian people while minimising the risk of casualties. Our soldiers in Iraq, Afghanistan, East Timor and elsewhere around the globe have been doing all that we ask of them, with the greatest of courage, professionalism and effectiveness. Tonight I again thank them for everything that they do for their country.

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