Deborah O'Neill (Robertson, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am delighted to have the opportunity to acknowledge and applaud the work of the Royal Australian Navy in the Middle East, particularly their work against piracy and smuggling. I have to say that it was a life-changing and extremely enlightening experience for me to spend some time on HMAS Stuart last year. Imagine, if you will, a 39-hour series of flights to get to Aqaba in the Middle East, arriving in the hot, dark night, the palm trees swaying, the evening lit up by people having coffees with their friends; and then getting our documents translated into Arabic, meeting with local officials—smoke curling tendril like to the ceiling—as we finalised our access out of Jordan and onto the Australian ship.

As we passed the third checkpoint with the machine guns and the fine, fit young men who were there to provide support defence, I saw a sight I will never forget: Commander Brett Sonter in his full-whites Middle East rig standing at the top of the gangway to welcome me aboard at midnight. He had entertained local people, doing that important part of the work that the Royal Australian Navy do in terms of quiet diplomacy and understanding the nature of things that are emerging in the area which is so vital to our understanding of our operations there and so vital to understanding our connections with each other as human beings across these bridges.

Once on the ship, I went down into a mess of 15 women. By a small red light, I fumbled in my bag in the darkness. In the morning, when I was able to see a little better but not much because it was a watchman's mess, there were 15 small lockers, and I mean small lockers—the same size as school lockers. This was an insight into the extremely spartan conditions in which the men and women who serve our national interests in the Royal Australian Navy in the Middle East live.

In the time that I was on the ship with these amazing young men and women, officers, seamen and sea women, I tried to live as they do so that I could develop an understanding. I do not think I will ever quite forget sorting the rubbish at the back of the ship. Nor will I forget chopping up food and preparing things in the junior mess. But I have to say that one of the most lasting impressions was a conversation that I had with 12 young men and women who were on that ship from the Central Coast. Having found out that I was from the Central Coast, they had a lot of agency themselves and got together and asked if we might have a meeting to discuss things back home. They were very happy to let me know that, while they were giving of themselves in the service of our nation in the cause of freedom, they were very, very aware of the risks involved in the work they do in trying to suppress piracy and in trying to make sure that they interrupt the smuggling of drugs and arms across the region. They were thinking of their families at home. They were interested in developments in the main street of Gosford. In particular they let me know of their concern about postnatal depression amongst women who had given birth while their husbands were away. They spoke to me about the power of new technologies and what Skype had done to change their sense of connection with home while being deeply proud of their service overseas. That was quite an amazing morning.

The thing that I found quite overwhelming was the youth and the incredible standard of professionalism—whether it was the people who prepared the helicopter to fly off the ship, those who flew it, those who did the communication, those who were incredibly fit and spent hour after hour every day preparing so that they were in a fit condition to board vessels at appropriate times, the surveillance team, the team who worked the mess, the engineers and the amazing engineering that they keep running all the time, the fire wardens who protect health and safety, or the chaplain—a man of generous nature—it was an overwhelmingly empowering experience for me. I felt so proud to be an Australian and so proud of those who serve our nation and our commitment to being good global citizens.

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