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

I begin by thanking the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and indeed all of those who will make a contribution to the debate on this very important condolence motion. For a defence minister such motions bring both pleasure and pain. The pain is obvious as we are reflecting on the loss of one of our own; nothing is more difficult for a defence minister. The pain far outweighs any pleasantness but there is pleasure. The pleasure comes from an opportunity to pay tribute to a great Australian, an Australian who made the ultimate sacrifice. He gave everything for his nation in a most courageous and professional way. We can all be very proud of all the men and women of the Australian Defence Force. We can certainly be proud of Private Gregory Sher, who was a highly trained soldier, a very effective soldier and a soldier of great courage. He is truly one of our finest in the Anzac tradition.

There are a couple of things which make Greg Sher’s loss not unique but maybe unusual. The first is that he is the first reservist we have lost in Afghanistan. That is sad, but it also helps to highlight the important role our reservists play in the Australian Defence Force. It demonstrates to the Australian community that reservists can reach the highest levels of training, professionalism and expertise—and Greg Sher certainly did that. It highlights to the broader community the important role they are playing in defending Australia’s national security. The second somewhat unusual—and, I would say, very unlucky—thing is that we lost Greg Sher while he was within one of our forward operating bases in Afghanistan. That is unlucky. Despite his high level of training, expertise and skill, nothing could have saved Greg Sher. He was literally a person standing in the wrong place at the wrong time.

When reflecting on these events, I think it is always important that we ask ourselves, as members of parliament, how we can say thank you for the sacrifices of people like Private Greg Sher. Of course, the most important thing is to commit ourselves to never forgetting his deeds and his sacrifices. Before the parliament today, I certainly make that commitment personally. He will take pride of place with those who went before him in one of our most important institutions, the Australian War Memorial.

The second thing is not so much a thanks directly to people like Private Greg Sher but a thank you that recommits us to ensuring that those who come after him, and indeed those who still serve, have all the capability, protection and training they need to allow them to do their job as effectively, efficiently and safely as is possible. This is an absolute priority for me and I know an absolute priority for the government. I have often said publicly that military planners spend a lot of time thinking about hedging against the improbable, and that is very important, but we need to spend at least equal time planning for, funding and creating the capability and training we need to ensure that the people who are doing things now on a daily basis in the most dangerous of circumstances have all the protection and capability they need and deserve. Again, I recommit myself to that very important cause.

The third thing, of course, is to finish the job, just as Greg’s mates finished their job by continuing on with their important mission despite the loss of Private Greg Sher. And they did so very successfully. Indeed, they met their main objective when they removed from the equation Mullah Abdul Rasheed, a key Taliban leader. Disrupting the insurgency leadership is crucial to better progress in Afghanistan and that is what Greg and his mates were going out to do after they were to leave that forward operating base on that fateful day of 4 January this year.

Afghanistan remains a great challenge but we must follow the job through. We must ensure that Greg Sher and the seven other Australians who lost their lives wearing the Australian uniform, and indeed the Australian recently lost wearing a UK uniform, did not give their lives in vain. Again, I say to those still mourning the loss of Greg Sher that we intend to continue on with our determination to ensure that Afghanistan does not once again descend into a breeding ground and a safe haven for those who train for and plan their acts of terror and give them application around the globe, including in our own backyard in this region and potentially right here in Australia. That is our most important task: ensuring the government in Afghanistan is able to take care of its own security in the long term and a government in Afghanistan, which, unlike the former Taliban regime, is not prepared to give a safe house to terrorist groups like al-Qaeda—groups which are prepared to perpetrate those acts of terror in the name of their extreme form of Islamic fundamentalism. Of course, there are other important tasks in Afghanistan, the least not being the opportunity to lift the Afghan people out of a life of abject poverty, to promote human rights—for example, giving women equal rights and the opportunity to secure an education—and to turn off that drug flow that produces around 90 per cent of the world’s opiates. They are drugs that fund terrorism both within Afghanistan—the money is used against our own troops—and around the globe. Some of those drugs obviously end up on the streets of Australia and in the arms of young Australians.

So the best way we can thank Private Greg Sher and those who went before him is to finish the job. As I said, we continue to remain committed to the job. There has been a lot of speculation recently about whether we would be asked to do more in Afghanistan and, as I have said publicly on a number of occasions, we will always consider any request from our allies to do more, because this is an important project. But there are some threshold issues: we would expect those undercommitted NATO countries to do more, we would expect the coalition to produce a new plan for greater success and we would expect the request to come with some strategic justification—that is, not more numbers for the sake of more numbers but as part of a broader plan to produce that greater success. And of course the risk analysis is always very important—that anything additional we might do carries acceptable risks in terms of the risk it poses to those who are fighting under our flag in that theatre. It remains to be seen whether any such request comes forward, but they are the conditions under which this government would give any further consideration to doing more than we are as a non-NATO country fighting a NATO mission. We are the largest non-NATO contributor and the 9th or 10th—the number fluctuates—contributor overall.

The other pleasant thing one experiences in the difficult event of losing a soldier is the opportunity to meet their family and mates. It never fails to amaze me how close our ADF community is and, when you break that down, how close particular units are—for example, the special forces family. I have had the great pleasure of meeting many of the people who trained with and worked with Greg Sher—and indeed trained him—and they are a wonderful group of people, committed to their work. I know they provided great comfort to Greg’s family and I want to pay tribute to the way they have handled the situation and for the support they have given to Greg’s family. It has been absolutely wonderful.

The member for Paterson read into the Hansard the eulogy for Greg Sher, presented by a very impressive young captain at the ramp ceremony when Greg returned home. It is interesting to note that the eulogy was written by a few mates in the pub late the evening before. I think there could be nothing more Australian than to have collectively scribed their tribute to their mate over a few beers in the pub the evening before. I thought some of them looked a bit tired that day. We would not deny them that.

Greg’s family and friends have established a website, which is quite unusual. It is www.gregsher.com, and I recommend it to members of parliament but also the broader community because if you go into that website you will see the extent to which Greg Sher was both loved and respected. There are pages and pages of tributes from a whole range of people who knew Greg Sher in various forms throughout his life, whether it was at school, in his work or through his involvement with the Australian Army. I recommend it; it is a wonderful tribute to a wonderful Australian.

Lastly, the family—what a wonderful family the Shers are: Greg’s dad, Felix; his mum, Yvonne; his brothers, both of them wonderful people; and his partner, Karen, who as much as anyone of course is feeling his loss very strongly. Families react differently to tragic events like this. Some cannot stop shedding tears. Others appear to be, if you like, much stronger, but on the inside the result is just the same.

The Shers have been very, very strong and very appreciative of the way the Australian Army have dealt with their loss. Felix specifically asked me to pass on his thanks during the condolence debate today. He was in awe of the way the Chief of Army and those under him have supported the family through their most difficult time. I should say that since becoming the minister that has been my experience on each occasion we have lost a soldier in theatre. The Australian Army are very good at taking care of their own and very good at helping, in any way that they can, the families who have tragically suffered a loss. I thank them for that and pay tribute to them.

To Felix and Yvonne, to Steven and Barry, to Karen and the broader family and all Greg’s friends: I extend once again my deepest sympathy. One thing common amongst these families is that they always say that their son was doing what he wanted to do, he understood what he was doing, he knew the risks and was prepared to take those risks, and he fully believed in what he was doing for his country. The Sher family certainly fall into that category, and for that I pay tribute to them. They have been supportive of Greg in his ambition to rise through the Australian Army and his skill competencies and they remain supportive of his decision to deploy to Afghanistan, even though the outcome for them has been so tragic.

As others have said, Greg was a member of the commandos; indeed, the 1st Commando Regiment, based in Sydney, but more specifically the 2nd Commando Company, based in his home state of Victoria. He previously had deployed to East Timor and was a highly decorated soldier. I will not go through the list of his awards again. That has already been done by others. Again, my deepest sympathies to the family and my thanks to Greg Sher for what he did for his country. He is truly a great Australian.

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