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

I join with the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Defence Minister and all members who have so respectfully made a contribution to this motion, and in doing so of course have risen to pay their respects to and to honour Private Matthew Lambert.

As others before me have indicated, Private Lambert was a sniper with the Townsville based 2RAR. He was of course very much part of an important campaign we have embarked upon in Afghanistan. I did not know Private Lambert, but as a former Defence Minister I know many people like him. All of our soldiers are individuals and each and every one of them is different in some way, but there is something common to them all, and that is their courage, their high level of fitness and training, their very high level of competence and expertise, and in addition to that their commitment to their service and their thorough belief in what we are doing in Afghanistan. I am sure that Private Lambert is no exception to that rule. Nor do I know Private Lambert’s family and friends, but having spoken to so many family members of those who have fallen before Private Lambert I would be very surprised if Private Lambert’s family were not fully supportive of what he was doing, were not fully aware that he believed in what he was doing, both the cause and the way he was pursuing that cause, and that he really wanted to be doing what he was doing.

All members of the Australian Defence Force are volunteers. They undertake their task for the right reasons. I have not found an exception. All of them do it for the right reasons and because they believe in what they are doing. I also believe that both our soldiers and their parents fully appreciate the risks involved. Parents in particular are not happy about their sons taking those risks but are fully supportive of their decision to do so. We not only thank Private Lambert for his service today; we also thank his family, friends and spouse, who I should have included in my earlier comments about parents. We also thank them for lending their support to him in terms of what he had decided to do with his life. I say ‘life’, because in many senses this can be a lifetime commitment.

This is No. 29, which is 29 lives too many. One life is too many. As I have said many times in this place, both as minister and as a private member, the longer we are in Afghanistan, the more people we lose, the more difficult it will be to take a majority of the Australian people with us, or in other words to persuade the majority of Australian people that we should be there.

Again, like others, I take this opportunity to explain why we are there. We are there as part of an international force playing our role, an important role, in maintaining stability and safety in a global sense. We are also there to protect Australians, whether they be Australians here in Australia or indeed Australians travelling elsewhere in the world, including other countries in our neighbourhood.

We have seen two very significant events both in Bali and in Jakarta, very close to home. Many Australians travel to that part of the world. This is about ensuring that these acts of terror do not again proliferate and come so close to our doorstep. Can we win? That is always the question. It is a reasonable question. There is not much point in being there given the expense both in human life and fiscal terms if we cannot win. I always say that it depends on what your definition is of ‘winning’. For me, winning is the international forces withdrawing from Afghanistan safe and secure in the knowledge that the Afghan national security forces, both police and armed forces, have the capacity to maintain their own security. Of course, that only comes if collectively we play a significant role in building an economy, in building governance and in building a justice system.

I go back to the question, based on that definition, can we win in Afghanistan? I believe the answer is yes. It will not be easy. We as a country have now reconfigured our operations—I was minister at the time—to focus on the training of the Afghan National Army in particular but also the Afghan National Police, and we are still playing a role in those other areas—governance building, aid and building an economy. But our key focus now is to lift the 4th Brigade of the Afghan National Army to a level in which not just we are confident but the international community is confident. The test is applied by NATO and not by us. It is not for us to determine when they are ready. 4th Brigade needs to reach a point where we are all collectively confident and satisfied that they are capable of maintaining their own security.

All the reports that I receive are that we are making very good progress in that regard. I do not know the detail, but no doubt Matthew Lambert was patrolling with members of the Afghan National Army at the time of his tragic loss. We are making good progress. We are getting there. It is an achievable objective and we will get there. When we get there we can leave Afghanistan with the rest of our international partners and allies safe in the knowledge that Afghanistan will not again descend into chaos and will not again descend into a breeding ground and launching pad for those extremists determined to perpetrate their acts of terror indiscriminately not only in Afghanistan but around the globe, including potentially Australia. We have been very lucky on Australian soil— touch wood—thanks largely to our very competent intelligence and security bodies. We have been very lucky not to have an event here, but we know from those we have averted that it is very possible. Afghanistan and all of its consequences for the border region with Pakistan is very important in terms of maintaining our success in avoiding such attacks.

Private Matthew Lambert, with his colleagues, was playing a very important role in that mission and achieving that objective. On that basis we say thank you to him for his huge sacrifice, we say thank you to his spouse and his family for their huge sacrifice, and we send the message to them that we shall not forget his deeds and we will maintain the course in his honour and finish this job.

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