Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for External Territories) Share this | Hansard source

It gives me great pleasure to participate in this debate. I think it is extremely important to acknowledge all Australian Defence Force personnel, whether they are at home or overseas. We know that there are 2,100 Australians currently serving overseas. However, for them to be able serve overseas requires the support of tens of thousands of Defence Force members here in Australia who, by doing the training and the work back home, make it possible for their Defence Force brothers and sisters to be deployed. I want to thank all of them and recognise their ongoing commitment to our national security.

We have people deployed overseas from every arm of the services. From the Air Force there are pilots, engineers, refuellers, logisticians, communicators—the full panoply of trades that are required for an aircraft to fly in a battle situation. These are very important tasks. It is not only the role of our front-line pilots who may be flying over Iraq; it is the role of all those who support our operations overseas, in this case in the Middle East. We have heard about the Navy in the Gulf. The Newcastle is currently there and is soon to be replaced by the Melbourne. But we do not hear nearly enough about those sailors involved in border protection work, those sailors off the northern Australian coast sailing patrol boats who are working with others in the Border Force—previously in Customs vessels—to prevent people wanting to come to this country by sea from coming here. However, I do not believe we understand or really appreciate the dreadful nature of some of this work. We can debate, as we do in this place, the merits or otherwise of people being stopped by our vessels, but it is these sailors, both men and women, who have and have had the responsibility of retrieving bodies out of the water and of looking after men, women and children in desperate situations. They are doing this on our behalf, and I do not believe we give them enough acknowledgement.

We see the work which is being done in the Middle East—and thank God it is being done! We acknowledge the work of our special forces in Iraq. We understand the nature of the Air Force's role in the Middle East. We see the role of our trainers in Afghanistan. We know how important these elements are. We know how important it is that we support them in that work. But I want to mention specifically and especially these people working off our northern coastline on patrol boats. I want to say this to them: although at last in the previous parliament you got medallic recognition for your operations, the fact is you carry out a vital service for this country and I do not believe we give you enough credit for what you do.

We know that a lot is being said about the need to make sure that, when soldiers, sailors, airmen and airwomen leave the service, they are properly cared for and looked after; we now have on-base advisory services from the Department of Veterans' Affairs trying to address some of the transition issues. But we still do not acknowledge enough the families of those who are working in the Defence Force or the strain that it places on partners and on children to have their partner or parent deployed for six or nine weeks at a time, off the northern coast, uncertain of when they are coming home, and then to see them go off again very quickly. The men and women who look after the interests of our serving men and women are very brave Australians. They deserve our proper recognition, just as those who are in uniform do. I want to thank them, as I do the men and women of the Australian Defence Force, for the magnificent job that they do securing Australia.

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