Craig Kelly (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, I would like to acknowledge the most thoughtful and touching contributions by those who have spoken before me on both sides of this House. We are in this chamber today to pay our respects to Lance Corporal Mervyn McDonald and Private Nathaniel Galagher and to offer our condolences to their colleagues in the 2nd Commando Regiment and their respective families and friends.

The motto of the 2nd Commando Regiment is foras admonitio, or without warning, and the brave soldiers of the regiment live and serve by this motto. Australian commandos are respected around the world for their skill, professionalism, dedication, discipline and strong determination. The 2nd Commando Regiment has been awarded the unit citation for gallantry and the meritorious unit citation for their role in Afghanistan. It is in this noble and brave vein that these two young Australians served.

Lance Corporal McDonald was an experienced soldier and on his sixth deployment to Afghanistan, while having completed four deployments in East Timor between 2001 and 2007. He was generous with his experience and someone that his younger colleagues looked up to. Among them was Private Galagher. Private Gallagher was a young solider who gained entry into the elite commando unit within four years of joining the Army. He has been described as someone with a 'can-do' attitude who always put 110 per cent into everything he did, and there is no doubt that this is why he was so well thought of by his colleagues.

The loss of any soldier serving overseas is a tragedy and one felt right across our community, and it is heightened when they are our much respected neighbours stationed at Holsworthy. Today, I am particularly struck by the stories of these two young men, and I have a deep sympathy for their families and their partners. These brave young men have made the ultimate sacrifice: giving their lives in defence of the principles in which they believed—the principles of freedom, democracy and mateship. These men, like all those who join our defence forces, did so out of a love for their country, a love for freedom and a love for the Australian way of life. Both these men travelled to the other side of the world to defend those who could not defend themselves, to give hope to a population that, for so long, has had none. These men are true heroes and will be remembered forever for their sacrifice and their service.

Given some recent comments in the media, it is worth recounting the absolute evil that our troops are fighting against in Afghanistan and the evil for which Lance Corporal Mervin McDonald and Private Nathaniel Galagher gave their lives fighting against: the evil of the Taliban. This is a group so evil that it commits systematic massacres against its own civilians. This is a group so evil that it has denied UN food supplies to tens of thousands of starving civilians, with the UN confirming that the Taliban had starved civilians for their own military agenda and were using humanitarian assistance as a weapon of war. This is a group so evil that it conducts a scorched earth policy, burning vast areas of fertile land and destroying tens of thousands of family homes. This is a group so evil that a report by the Physicians for Human Rights said:

To PHR's knowledge, no other regime in the world has methodically and violently forced half of its population into virtual house arrest, prohibiting them on pain of physical punishment …

This is a group so evil that it has issued edicts forbidding women the most basic human right of being educated, forcing girls to leave schools and colleges. Again, I quote the same report by the Physicians for Human Rights. It said:

The extent to which the Taliban regime has violated the human rights of Afghan women is unparalleled in recent history.

…   …   …

It is difficult to find another government or would-be government in the world that has deliberately created such poverty by arbitrarily depriving half the population under its control of jobs, schooling, mobility and health care. Such restrictions are literally life threatening to women and to their children.

This is a group so evil that it has planted improvised explosive devices in girls' schools. This is a group that dynamited the famous sixth century archaeological masterpieces of Buddha statues at Bamiyan. This is a group so evil that it outlawed sports, denying children the right and the joy of kicking a ball, and turned sports stadiums into public execution grounds, shooting people, hanging them from goalposts and chopping off their limbs. This is a group so evil that it seeks to deny people the joys of music and, only recently, took knives and beheaded 17 people for simply playing music at a party.

We should never forget the words of Edmund Burke, who once famously said, 'The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.' Lance Corporal Mervyn McDonald and Private Nathanael Galagher were good men. They were prepared to stand up and to fight evil to ensure that it will not triumph. Australia, and the world, is a better place for their sacrifice and their service, and their efforts should never be forgotten. Lest we forget.

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