Wyatt Roy (Longman, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

) (11 I rise to honour the memory of Private Matthew Lambert, who was tragically killed while serving with Mentoring Task Force 3 in Oruzgan Province in Afghanistan. Today, in this parliament, we offer our deepest sympathy to his family, to his friends and to his mates. I make particular reference to the member for Herbert, who spoke very eloquently earlier. Our thoughts are very much with the Townsville community in this difficult time and I am sure the member is providing excellent support for a community in mourning.

Private Matthew Lambert’s colleagues described him as a man who excelled at any task he was assigned to and a soldier who proudly served his country. Only a few short weeks ago I returned from a trip to Afghanistan, where I was privileged to spend time with countless service men and women of the ADF, but I was particularly fortunate to spend a day with Mentoring Task Force 3. The men and women of MTF3 are proudly upholding the Anzac legend, a legend that has seeped into our national consciousness. They are upholding courage; they are particularly upholding compassion, often in the face of significant adversity; and they are upholding the value of having a go and that eternal Australian spirit of mateship.

The men and women of MTF3 are doing an incredibly good job in the face of difficult challenges. They are providing the essential framework for civil society to be born in Afghanistan. In doing so, in providing security and in enabling the Afghan people and particularly the Afghan National Army to provide their own security, they are providing that essential ingredient that will see this nation change eternally for the better. It is now more viable—and it will continue to be more viable due to the work of MTF3 and the ANA—for locals to be part of a proactive, prosperous and peaceful civil society. It will be more viable for them to be part of that than to pick up a weapon and continue to do what they have done for generations. This would not be possible without the work of MTF3 and soldiers like Private Lambert.

It is incredibly encouraging to see on the ground the changes that are taking place in this country. These are changes that will not easily be eroded. When I was talking to members of MTF3 I said to them, ‘If we don’t get this right, is this like putting our hand into a bucket of water, only to withdraw our hand and see these changes go away?’ They assured me and then showed me some of the tangible gains that we are making. Because we have a safe security environment or a better security environment due to the work that MTF3 has done with the ANA, we have seen the opportunity for economic development to take place. A perfect example that they showed me was a short bitumen road that had been laid between two towns, providing the ability for economic development. They said that in the town at the end of the road the cost of an average commodity dropped by seven times when it was connected by this bitumen road. One of the great assets of a bitumen road is that you cannot lay IEDs underneath it. It continues this cycle of further security and further economic development.

The Afghan locals I met are forever grateful for the work that MTF3 has done and the work that soldiers like Private Lambert have done. As a nation we mourn his loss, but we should be rightly proud of what he and the Australian soldiers are achieving in Oruzgan Province. Today we rightly honour Private Matthew Lambert, a man who proudly upheld everything his battalion stands for—duty first.

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