Mike Kelly (Eden-Monaro, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The member for Melbourne has referred in his motion to the negotiations between the Afghanistan government and the Taliban. The Taliban and the people that we confront are a very diverse range of actors. Certainly there are discussions, negotiations and engagements taking place. These are on the three principles of: acceptance of the constitution; a disavowal and renunciation of violence; and a separation from al-Qaeda. Within that, there is scope for discussion. Certainly we can divorce certain elements of the opposition that we have confronted over time from those harder core elements that, I believe, we will probably never be able to come to any agreement with. For them, often there is only one solution—and that is a military or kinetic confrontation which may well and truly end up with their deaths. We have to accept that those are the consequences of operations at times when we confront evil.

But the member for Melbourne and many of the Greens would have us believe that there is no progress being made in Afghanistan. As my responsibilities relate to the transition there, I should report that in the course of this year I have had occasion to monitor closely our efforts and the progress that is being made. We are not focused on an end date in Afghanistan; we are focused on an end state, a conditions based approach to the success of our mission and our withdrawal. Our troops are achieving great success in the competencies that they are attaining for the 4th Brigade. There is a clear program of operations that is setting out to achieve a level of security—as they would put it, cutting the grass to a point at which the Afghan security forces can maintain the lawn. That program of building competency and conducting security operations will intersect at point where the Afghan security forces will be able to conduct operations and maintain security under their own steam, under their own responsibility.

At this point, Australian forces will withdraw more into a ready reaction force overwatch role. For example, there was the situation that occurred in relation to the tragic loss of our troops recently in the so-called green on blue incident at patrol base Wahid. Those sorts of opportunities for the insurgents or for any who seek to do our soldiers harm will not arise because we will no longer be in those patrol bases. That day is fast approaching. So why, at this point, would you seek to withdraw or cut short our program of operations when we are so close to achieving the ultimate success, the ultimate states and conditions that we have sought to achieve these long years?

We have seen reference by the member for Melbourne to conditions on the ground, of which he knows nothing. Many times I have tried to get the Greens to participate in programs to go to Afghanistan or in the parliamentary exchange program. The only one to participate, to his credit, has been Senator Ludlam. When you talk about the conditions on the ground, there is reference to the Afghans believing us to be a continuation of occupation forces of the Soviet Union and the like; that is simply not the case.

The most detailed study that has yet been done on the attitudes of the Afghans has been done by The Asia Foundation. I was fortunate to be in Washington to hear a briefing by the President of The Asia Foundation, David Arnold. This is the most extensive survey done, involving thousands and thousands of Afghans in face-to-face interviews. It is instructive to understand their attitudes because it relates to the success of our mission. Eighty-two per cent of respondents in Afghanistan support the government's attempts to address the security situation through negotiation and reconciliation. The levels of sympathy with the motivations of armed opposition groups reached its lowest level in 2011. The support statistic has fallen all the way down to 29 per cent. This is a rapidly declining trend in support for any armed resistance to the government.

The majority of respondents report satisfaction with the availability of most basic services, including education for children, 73 per cent; water for drinking, 70 per cent; the ability to move safely in local areas, 70 per cent; and the availability of clinics and hospitals, 57 per cent. There are obviously still issues that they have raised in relation to unemployment, corruption and those sorts of local issues at municipalities, but their satisfaction with central governance is growing and increasing all the time. They view with great positiveness now the delivery of services such as education and health care by central governance.

Importantly, in relation to the Afghan National Army, 93 per cent of respondents agree that the ANA is honest and fair with the Afghan people compared to eight out of 10 who say the same about the ANP. So we are making significant progress with the Afghan National Army. A similarly high proportion agrees that the ANA is helping to improve the security situation in the country: 87 per cent of respondents. The attitudes of the Afghans themselves are the ones we should take most notice of and they are the people we seek to help.

In relation to the rights of women—something the Greens should be very interested in—support for the principles of gender equality remains high, including equal rights under the law regardless of gender, ethnicity or religion, at 82 per cent; equal educational opportunities for women, 85 per cent; and women being allowed to stand up for their individual rights, 79 per cent.

So progress has been made in the attitudes of the Afghans themselves, which ultimately is going to be the source of long-term sustainability of what we have attempted to achieve. We are committed to making the security effort sustainable based on our investment in the social and economic political aspects of the mission, as all counterinsurgency missions must be. Our $260 million a year for the next four years will underpin that in relation to support for elections, road building, education and the like. Certainly our efforts in relation to the provincial reconstruction team, the taking over command of the combined team in Uruzgan, augers well for the future in terms of the ability of our forces to see a successful transition. Therefore, this motion bears no relevance to the operation and should be dismissed and not supported.

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