Jane Prentice (Ryan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion and, in doing so, congratulate the member for Solomon. I know that she is a great support to the many troops stationed in Darwin, particularly at Robertson Barracks and Larrakeyah Barracks. She is there for them when they need her, and she has spoken up many times in this place in support of their needs.

In my maiden speech I mentioned the fact that it is the government's decision whether we send people to war. We have wonderful Australian Defence personnel, men and women, who are prepared to put their lives on the line for our democracy and for our freedom of speech. It is our decision in this place whether they go and where they go. In the first week after my election, before I had even been sworn in in this place, I had the sad opportunity to go to several services in memory of some of the soldiers who had died who were members of 6th Battalion RAR, part of Gallipoli Barracks, at Enoggera, in my electorate of Ryan. I attended the memorial services and funerals for privates Tomas Dale and Grant Kirby and for Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney in those first few weeks. Let us never forget these brave Australians and all of our troops and veterans who have answered the call whenever their country has asked. Equally, we must never forget that these courageous men and women have volunteered, knowing that they put their own lives at risk to ensure our safety.

The Australian troops have spent many years in Afghanistan and the Middle East, but they have also achieved great things. We must always look at what legacy they have left and at what they have achieved in their time there. I refer in particular to Uruzgan province, where Australian soldiers did a lot of work and leave behind some great assets, including 26 schools for girls. This is an area where girls were not going to school and could not go there safely. I have just come from the House of Representatives chamber where we spoke about the Nigerian terrorist groups trying stop girls going to school. Yet our troops have left behind 26 schools for girls. We have also left behind over 200 kilometres of sealed roads and also bridges so that people can get around their country. We have left behind doctors and nurses and, hopefully, some better democracy and better representation, as well as a safer place for women.

I was very fortunate, Mr Deputy Speaker Porter—and I know that you know what a strong advocate I am for the ADF parliamentary program—to be able to go over to Afghanistan and be with our troops. The member for Solomon went to the Middle East at the same time. I was with our troops at Al Minhad, at Tarin Kot and then at Kandahar. It was quite an eye-opener for me. I thought I was going to be very clever and go there before my son was deployed—possibly a mistake in hindsight. Our soldiers, our men and women, did the most amazing job in an incredibly difficult situation. I look in particular at the Role 3 hospital in Kandahar, where they said that, if you still had a heartbeat, you would live; you would come out alive. That was because of the great work of our volunteer doctors and nurses who were participating in running, with the Americans, the Role 3 hospital there. I saw the work they did in Tarin Kot. Unfortunately, I was there during fighting season so they would not let me outside the gates—probably a good idea in hindsight. I have the most utmost respect and admiration for our service men and women.

As the great-granddaughter of Australia's longest-serving defence minister, as the daughter of a fighter pilot and prisoner of war survivor from World War II and, as the member for Lingiari said, as the mother of a serving soldier who has served in Afghanistan, I have to pay tribute to the wonderful job that our men and women do in the services. I am proud of the contribution they have made in Australia's name and of the contribution made by thousands of Australian service men and women who have individually helped to make that contribution. We expect the best from our troops and they always give it. To all of those troops and, importantly, to their families, I thank you. To our special forces, who continue nonstop in a relentless and magnificent manner, I acknowledge the huge contribution you make against all odds.

I seek leave to table the list of soldiers who gave their lives in Afghanistan fighting for Australia so that their names are on the permanent record of our parliament. Lest we forget.

Leave granted.

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