Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I wish to update the House on Australia’s approach to Afghanistan and Pakistan. My colleague the Minister for Defence updated the Senate on 12 August on the security situation in Afghanistan and on Australian efforts to help bring security and stability to Afghanistan as part of the United Nations mandated International Security Assistance Force. The Minister for Defence and I want in particular to ensure that the parliament and the Australian people are well informed about Australia’s commitment to Afghanistan. Minister Faulkner described Australia’s military role. I will place that highly valued role in the context of Australia’s across-the-board, whole-of-government approach to Afghanistan. I will outline recent enhancements to our civilian and diplomatic engagement in and with Afghanistan. I will also detail the related situation in Pakistan.

The strategic objective which Australia and our partners in the international community are pursuing in Afghanistan is clear: it is to ensure that Islamist extremists and terrorist groups are denied safe haven in Afghanistan so that Afghanistan does not become a breeding ground or hotbed for international terrorists. Failure to achieve this objective would lead to a jihadi state and again allow international terrorists to re-establish themselves in Afghanistan. It would also put intolerable pressure on neighbouring Pakistan.

International terrorism emanating from Afghanistan and Pakistan poses a grave threat to both those countries, to the region and to the world. Australia is not immune from this threat. More than 100 Australians have been killed in terrorist attacks in recent years in Bali, London, Mumbai, New York and, most recently, Jakarta on 17 July. Many of these attacks were perpetrated by terrorists who trained in Afghanistan or Pakistan.

It is unambiguously in Australia’s national interest to work with the United Nations, Afghanistan, Pakistan and our partners and friends—the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and, in particular, the Netherlands, with whom we work closely in Oruzgan province—together with our NATO and ISAF coalition partners, to stare down this threat. To achieve our objective, we continue to play our military role in the United Nations mandated NATO led force in Afghanistan. Our objective, however, can only be achieved through an approach that combines military action with national development and political effort. The pursuit of our objective is built around a number of policy and operational strategies: military, civilian, political and regional engagement.

The Prime Minister announced in April the deployment of additional Australian troops both to support the Afghan elections to be held later this week and to provide training to Afghan security forces. Both sides of the House support that commitment and recognise the excellent work of our troops. Greater recognition, though, needs to be given to the work of our diplomats, aid officials and police officers in very difficult and dangerous circumstances.

The magnitude of the task ahead in Afghanistan should not be underestimated. While the problems in Pakistan and Afghanistan are linked, Australia recognises that Pakistan and Afghanistan have their own histories and that the nature and character of each nation is different. Australia both understands and values what is distinctive and special about each country, and has a different policy emphasis towards each. Afghanistan is an extremely poor country with a troubled past. It continues to suffer from violence, poverty and corruption exacerbated by an extensive narcotics industry, which is also funding the insurgency. Australia believes Afghanistan deserves a future in which its people can live in peace and security, with better health services and better educational opportunities for Afghan girls and boys.

Progress is being made. The Afghanistan of today is far removed from Afghanistan under Taliban rule. School enrolment has jumped sixfold. Thirty-five per cent of children at school are girls. Only eight years ago all girls were banned from school under Taliban rule. Under-five mortality has dropped 25 per cent. With international support, Afghanistan has held presidential, parliamentary and provincial council elections. Twenty-seven per cent of seats in Afghanistan’s parliament are held by women. Australian assistance is contributing to these results.

Australia will continue to work closely with the Afghan authorities, the United Nations and the international community to help Afghanistan continue to improve on these fronts. On Thursday this week, 20 August, Afghanistan will hold elections. These are the first Afghan led elections in 30 years. Afghans will be electing a president and 420 provincial council members, including 120 positions reserved for women. This is an important step for Afghanistan’s developing democracy and for a country that was ruled by the brutal Taliban regime until 2001.

Australia is helping to provide extensive international assistance to ensure the elections are as secure and efficient as possible. On the security front, the government has deployed an infantry company, about 120 troops, specifically for election security, and additional military airlift capacity to help provide logistic support during the course of the election. An Australian Army officer, Brigadier Damien Cantwell, is the Chief of the Election Task Force within the Headquarters of the International Security Assistance Task Force. Brigadier Cantwell coordinates security efforts between Afghan authorities and the International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, to ensure a comprehensive, synchronised and cooperative approach to security for the elections.

On the civilian side, Australia has provided $9 million in support of the elections, including for voter registration, voter education, public outreach activities and to establish the Independent Electoral Complaints Commission. Australia is also supporting a regional election observer mission. This will see 50 men and women from Asian countries observing the Afghan elections. As well, we have supported the training of 200 female Afghan election observers. We will also have a small team of three Australian civilian observers who will contribute to ensuring the polls are conducted properly. The precise role and placement of the observers will be determined by security at the time.

The Afghan government, UN agencies and ISAF have done much to try to ensure that the elections are credible, secure and with the broad participation of the Afghan people. This has not been easy for a range of reasons, including Afghanistan’s challenging geography, nascent institutions, and a security environment where the Taliban aim to disrupt the elections and prevent ordinary Afghans from exercising their democratic rights.

I am concerned that the days ahead are likely to see a continuing escalation of violence. Afghanistan is a dangerous environment and the election makes it even more so. We should not forget the Taliban have announced they will deliberately target the elections. This was vividly and tragically demonstrated by the Taliban suicide attack in Kabul on Saturday, 15 August in which seven Afghans were killed.

Notwithstanding the challenges, preparations for the elections by all accounts are on track. About 16 million Afghans are enrolled to vote. The Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Afghanistan, Kai Eide, recently said he has never witnessed such a vibrant political debate in Afghanistan. The Taliban has not been able to suppress this debate, in spite of their efforts to intimidate and terrorise the Afghan people.

The elections are also important in reinforcing the authority of the Afghan government, which strives to present the Afghan people with a better future than that offered by the Taliban. Critical as they are, the elections are only one step in the pursuit of improved circumstances. Irrespective of which candidate or candidates might actually win, the newly elected Afghan government will need to commit to addressing corruption and investing in and building public services and the institutions of state.

Australia is committed to a substantial capacity-building, nation-building, development assistance contribution to Afghanistan. Civilian development efforts are an essential complement to military force in stabilising Afghanistan. These efforts are an essential part of the overall strategy in Afghanistan. Last year, Australia pledged $250 million in civilian development and reconstruction assistance to Afghanistan. This brings Australia’s total development assistance commitment to over $600 million since 2001.

The government is increasing the number of AusAID personnel and technical advisers working in Afghanistan to strengthen the capacity of key Afghan ministries. A senior AusAID position will be established in Kabul to lead Australia’s development program. In the coming months, Australia will also provide up to six technical specialists, including to advise the ministries of health, education, agriculture, and rural reconstruction and development. The first of these specialists will commence in September and work with the United Nations and the Afghan Ministry of Agriculture to coordinate international assistance in the agriculture sector. We are also considering establishing an additional small number of positions in southern Afghanistan.

Australia’s development assistance has already contributed to improvements in health, education and community development. Australia’s aid has been put towards Afghan government efforts to build over 800 schools and provide basic health services to about 80 per cent of the population. We have contributed to the rehabilitation of 9,000 kilometres of road nationwide and helped generate over 12 million days of community labour.

Oruzgan province has been the focus of the Australian Defence Force’s mission in Afghanistan. Australia’s civilian development efforts have complemented our military contribution by supporting the rehabilitation of important rural roads and helping to fund wells and irrigation in rural communities in Oruzgan province.

Australia responded positively to last year’s food crisis brought on by serious drought. This included feeding 30,000 needy children in Oruzgan. Australia is also supporting a program that teaches health and hygiene to around 2,000 primary school children in Oruzgan. Our practical efforts are focused on delivering results for the Afghan people at the national and provincial level. We are working with the Afghan government to build its administrative capacity to provide basic services and security for its people.

In parallel with Australian Defence Force efforts to build the capacity of the Afghan National Army so that in time Afghanistan can defend itself, the Australian Federal Police, the AFP, will deploy additional resources to Afghanistan to enhance Afghan National Police capacity, as Home Affairs Minister O’Connor announced this morning. Australian Federal Police officers are also building the capacity of the Afghan police in the areas of criminal investigation and counternarcotics, all vital tasks as we help the Afghan government develop the means to cater for its own internal security.

The conflict in Afghanistan will not be ended by military force alone. At some point in the process, there needs to be a political reconciliation in Afghanistan to ensure that the vast bulk of the Afghan people who want to take part in a political process in a peaceful way are able to do so. Those who do not want to pursue their ideas or ideals through the barrel of a gun must have the full and appropriate opportunity to engage in such a political process without ongoing fear for their security.

These political efforts are not a substitute for the military, construction and capacity-building efforts that the Minister for Defence and I have outlined. On the contrary, if political reconciliation and realignment efforts are to yield fruit, it will be essential to maintain military pressure on hardcore terrorists, while at the same time offering those less committed to such a course the opportunity to renounce violence and accept the Afghan government’s conditions for rapprochement. These conditions continue to be that insurgents respect the Afghan constitution, lay down their arms, and no longer support groups taking part in international terrorism.

To be sustained over the long term, any political settlement in Afghanistan will need to be supported by regional powers, including Afghanistan’s South and Central Asian neighbours. I welcome recent high-level discussions between the Afghan and Pakistani leadership. Pakistan is a strategically important country. It is critically located at the intersection of South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. It has the second largest Muslim population in the world and on current projections will overtake the larger Muslim population of Indonesia by midcentury. What happens in Pakistan directly affects the security of the region and Australia’s long-term national interests. Since the government came to office, it has increased its engagement with Pakistan. I visited Pakistan in February—the first visit to Pakistan by an Australian foreign minister in over a decade—to enhance bilateral relations and urge decisive action by Pakistan against terrorism and against extremists crossing the border into Afghanistan.

Pakistan faces complex and urgent security, economic, humanitarian and political challenges. The threat of terrorism and extremism has become so severe that even President Zardari himself has now described it as a threat to Pakistan’s very existence. As in Afghanistan, stabilising Pakistan’s border regions must involve a combination of strategies. Pakistani security forces are now turning their attention to South Waziristan and continue to conduct counterinsurgency operations in areas of the North-West Frontier Province in an effort to drive out extremists and terrorists operating in the area. The Pakistan government now faces the long-term task of holding the ground the Army has cleared.

A military solution alone will not solve Pakistan’s fight against terrorists. As my colleague the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Mr Qureshi, says, Pakistan cannot solve its security problems without solving its economic problems as well. It will require a comprehensive approach, fostering economic reform and development, building capacity and improving governance. Australia stands ready to assist Pakistan in this task. It is also vital that the Pakistan government makes every effort to protect the welfare of citizens caught up in the conflict and ensures that international human rights obligations are met.

The conflict in the North-West Frontier Province has displaced more than two million people. Australia welcomes the recent announcement by the Pakistan government that displaced persons are beginning to return to their homes and that over 765,000 registered internally-displaced persons have returned to their places of origin. Up to 33 per cent of displaced populations have returned to the Swat and Buner districts. It will be important that the returnees are helped to rebuild their lives and their communities as quickly as possible. Australia has provided $23 million to help meet the humanitarian needs of these internally displaced people since August 2008. Australia’s contribution has been directed through United Nations agencies, the International Committee of the Red Cross, the World Food Program and Australian and international nongovernment organisations to meet the immediate needs of adversely affected communities. Australia continues to monitor the situation and will provide further support for humanitarian and reconstruction efforts as appropriate.

Australia condemns unreservedly the recent brutal terrorist attacks in Pakistan. The attack on the Pearl Continental Hotel in Peshawar earlier this year was especially shocking, as it killed innocent Pakistani civilians and United Nations workers helping Pakistanis who had fled fighting in the border areas. This included United Nations workers directly engaged in delivering Australian development assistance to Pakistan over a long period. In recent months, four staff from the UNHCR and UNICEF have been killed in Pakistan. Pakistan has said that this is its war. We look to Pakistan to take the lead in implementing strategies to combat extremism, to promote stability and to foster economic development.

As we urge Pakistan to deal with these challenges in an integrated and comprehensive manner, at the same time Australia stands with the government of Pakistan in its fight against extremism. As a founding member of the Friends of Democratic Pakistan, Australia is working with Pakistan and the international community to ensure a coordinated effort is made to support Pakistan. We are enhancing our defence and law enforcement engagement. We have increased the number of defence training places in Australia for Pakistani personnel from 10 to seventy. Australia is also providing technical assistance and training to Pakistan’s financial intelligence unit to tackle terrorist financing. We are assisting Pakistani police to improve their forensic investigation techniques.

Australia encourages Pakistan’s efforts to address structural economic issues which impact negatively on the people of Pakistan. At the Pakistan Donors Conference in Tokyo in April, I announced that Australia’s aid program to Pakistan would rise to $120 million over the next two financial years, representing a doubling of development assistance in 2008-09. This assistance is focused on the provision of health and education services, including in the Pakistan-Afghanistan border region.

Our aid program also focuses on improving rural livelihoods, strengthening standards of democratic governance and protecting internationally recognised human rights standards. Australia’s support has helped improve food production in the border areas, building better food security and rural livelihoods. We have also contributed to the development of effective agricultural extension programs and integrated crop management practices in the Punjab, Sindh and the North-West Frontier Province, which has delivered increased crop yields and better incomes for rural farmers.

Our support for voter education in the North-West Frontier Province and Balochistan has improved civil society participation in the electoral process. Other assistance is focussed on promoting democratic governance and strengthening social justice and community participation in 40 districts in all four provinces of Pakistan. This program will build the capacity of local-level community institutions and civil society networks, strengthen the role of women in community development processes and strengthen public-private partnerships for primary education, mainly for girls.

Pakistan remains the first country of refuge for millions of Afghan refugees. Australia has and will continue to provide assistance to help meet the needs of the refugees. Australia and Pakistan are working together to explore avenues to expand trade and investment, particularly in agribusiness and agricultural science linkages.

The government has boosted Australia’s diplomatic resources to deepen our engagement with Afghanistan and Pakistan, our partners, the United Nations and NATO. The appointment of Australia’s Special Envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, Mr Ric Smith, is a demonstration of our commitment to coordinated and effective regional and international diplomacy. Special Envoy Smith was appointed in April to ensure that Australia’s significant commitments are integrated into the broader international effort. Australia’s Special Envoy represented Australia at the G8 Foreign Ministers’ Outreach Meeting and has visited Afghanistan and Pakistan, and reiterated to its leaders Australia’s long-term commitment to both Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Australia’s commitment to Afghanistan is underpinned by a UN Security Council mandate and supported on the ground by 42 countries forming the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan. I note that ISAF Commander, General Stanley McChrystal, is currently undertaking an assessment of the situation in Afghanistan and that he will report his findings to the US Administration and the NATO Secretary-General when complete.

Australia’s combined military, development, and diplomatic efforts, in partnership with other coalition members, is aimed at denying Afghanistan as a training ground and operating base for terrorist organisations; stabilising Afghanistan; and building the capacity of the Afghan government and security forces to better provide for the welfare and security of the Afghan people.

Australia supports Pakistan in its efforts to overcome its complex security, economic and political challenges. These are complex challenges which directly impact on Australia’s national interests and which the government remains committed to addressing head-on. I thank the House.

I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the Deputy Leader of the Opposition to speak for 21 minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of standing orders be suspended as would prevent the Deputy Leader of the Opposition speaking in reply to my ministerial statement for a period not exceeding 21 minutes.

Question agreed to.

I apologise in advance to the Deputy Leader of the Opposition. An unavoidable commitment means that I cannot stay and listen to her speech, which I would of course normally do.

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