Julia Gillard (Lalor, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, on indulgence, as members of the House would by now know, overnight in Afghanistan we lost an Australian commando, Sergeant Brett Wood. On another occasion we will have a formal condolence motion for Sergeant Wood, but it does seem appropriate, as the House sits today, to say a few words about him and also about his brothers who were injured. Overnight, we have had five Australian soldiers injured—two in the same incident in which Sergeant Wood lost his life, three in a separate engagement. This is a very tough day for our nation. As we speak, our soldiers continue in action, so there is a limit to what can be said about the operational circumstances in which Sergeant Wood was killed and in which other soldiers were injured. But nothing stops us paying tribute to Sergeant Wood in this place today.

Sergeant Wood was a 15-year veteran of our army. He was a genuine professional. He had been deployed overseas on a number of occasions—in Bougainville, in East Timor, in Iraq and on more than one occasion in Afghanistan. Sergeant Wood was a decorated man. He had won the Medal for Gallantry in action in Afghanistan. The Chief of the Defence Force today described him as a magnificent soldier, an inspirational leader with incredible operational experience. Sergeant Wood was a son and a husband, and our heart goes out today to his family, who would be grieving and still very much trying to absorb this devastating news. I am sure that our thoughts will be with them today and will continue to be with them.

With the five soldiers who are wounded, our thoughts are with them as we trust that they make a full recovery. Two of them are described as seriously ill. For their families this is a dreadful time of waiting and uncertainty. Of course our thoughts are with those families as well.

As I said earlier today, on days like this there can be some members of our nation who despair and who wonder at the losses in Afghanistan and the brutal nature of the engagement there. To those Australians who perhaps today might be despairing about our deployment in Afghanistan, I reaffirm that we are making progress, that it is difficult. But through the eyes of those who have regularly gone to Afghanistan—for example, Ben Roberts-Smith, our most recent VC winner—there can be no doubt: we are making progress. We make that progress because of the sacrifice and dedication of people like Sergeant Wood.

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