Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

In accordance with the resolution, I move:

That the House:

(1) notes with great concern the urgent and dangerous situation in Afghanistan and the uncertainty ahead for the Afghan people;

(2) acknowledges the role of Australia's service men and women during the last 20 years within the coalition forces, working with our allies and others, in the cause of fighting terrorism, promoting freedom and seeking to support the people of Afghanistan;

(3) honours the sacrifice of the 41 Australians who have died in Afghanistan in the service of their country, and acknowledges the terrible loss suffered by their families;

(4) recognises the service of the more than 39,000 Australian Defence Force men and women who served their country in this, our longest war, and the sacrifice of their families in supporting their service;

(5) acknowledges the work of thousands of diplomats, aid workers, members of the Australian Federal Police and other government officials who have contributed to our efforts;

(6) recognises the sacrifice of our coalition partners and our allies, who have seen their service men and women give their lives for the work they undertook in Afghanistan;

(7) recognises the sacrifice of the people of Afghanistan, particularly those who have died in war or in conflict;

(8) acknowledges and expresses gratitude for the important ongoing role of ex–service organisations in supporting veterans and their families;

(9) commits to the continued work in providing support to all current and former service personnel and their families, and to those who work to serve Australia's interests at home or abroad;

(10) acknowledges and commends the ongoing work and dedication to duty of those Australian personnel and officials who are providing and have provided assistance and support to those in Afghanistan in an extremely dangerous situation;

(11) notes the Government is continuing to take urgent action to evacuate from Afghanistan Australians, Afghan visa holders and others, along with their families, in cooperation with other coalition partners, in extreme conditions;

(12) notes more than 8,500 Afghans have been resettled in Australia since 2013, including more than 1,900 locally–engaged staff and their families;

(13) notes the Government's work since April to bring out more than 430 locally–engaged employees and their families to be resettled in Australia, and that this number is increasing as further evacuations are now undertaken;

(14) notes the Government is committed to providing at least 3,000 places for Afghan resettlement in 2021–22, with further commitments to increase the intake in following years; and

(15) calls on any future government of Afghanistan to respect the human rights of all its citizens, especially women and girls, and for the international community to hold any future Afghan government to account.

For almost 20 years, tens of thousands of Australians have served in Afghanistan under the authority and direction of successive parliaments. It is right that here in our national parliament we give an account of recent events, as well as begin a more considered reflection on almost 20 years in Afghanistan. Liberal democracies do not shy away from history. Debate, accountability and responsibility are fundamental to who we are.

The situation on the ground in Kabul and across Afghanistan is dangerous and changing rapidly. The National Security Committee of cabinet has been meeting daily on Afghanistan, and Australia is working closely with our allies and partners. Our priority is the safe and orderly departure of Australian citizens, permanent residents and visa holders, including former locally engaged Afghan employees. I can report that, with the assistance of partners in the United Kingdom and the United States, we've been able to evacuate more than 1,000 people in 12 flights from Kabul since last Wednesday. The first people evacuated from Afghanistan landed in Perth, via Al Minhad Air Base, early on Friday morning, and another flight landed earlier today in Melbourne. The evacuation flights will continue for as long as we can continue to operate and get people out.

This is an urgent and dangerous mission. The member for Herbert said it best when addressing the soldiers from 3rd Brigade departing on the first rescue mission last week:

You are going into the belly of the beast, a place where the rule of law does not exist, on an operation that is dangerous, serious, and it's in our national interests for you to succeed.

As we speak, more than 700 Australians are playing their part in this mission from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Home Affairs, the Australian Border Force, and the Australian Defence Force. Many of these people have been deployed directly to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. We currently have two C-17A Globemasters, two C-130J Hercules and one KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport aircraft deployed to the Middle East conducting and supporting evacuation operations. These evacuations are both dangerous and complex. Landing slots in Kabul are limited and the on-ground time is also limited. Access to the airport for those seeking to be evacuated is a major limiting factor and the approaches are very dangerous.

I thank our key international partners, the United States and the United Kingdom, who are helping to secure Hamid Karzai International Airport, and our close friends in the United Arab Emirates, who have been generous hosts for Australia's evacuation efforts. We deeply appreciate their support. I was pleased to pass on our thanks directly to His Royal Highness the Crown Prince MBZ for his support. And I also thank our state and territory leaders for the reception arrangements they have so quickly and instinctively put in place, without having to be asked, to support the returning evacuees.

Since April this year, we've been able to bring out more than 430 Afghan locally engaged employees and their families, who have been resettled in Australia. This is not a simple process. It has taken many, many months, both in preparation for the uplift at that time and since. This number continues to grow as each evacuation flight makes its way from Kabul back to AMAB. As mentioned, more than 1,000 people have already been evacuated on those flights since last Wednesday—as many as four flights going in every evening—including locally engaged Afghans and their families. They will add to the more than 8½ thousand Afghan nationals that have been resettled in Australia since 2013, including more than 1,900 Afghan locally engaged employees and their families. We're committed to doing the right thing by those who have stood with us, and that's what we've been doing for some period of time, and we're doing absolutely everything we can do right now to help them.

I also want to address our humanitarian intake. Australia will welcome an additional humanitarian intake of some 3,000 Afghan nationals by next July as part of our annual program. I expect that this will increase in the years ahead. I commit our government to continue to increase our intake of Afghan nationals at elevated levels into the years ahead. At this stage, the 3,000 will come from our existing 13,750-person annual humanitarian program. But I want to stress that that 3,000 is a floor; it's not a ceiling. If we need to increase the size of the overall program to accommodate additional persons then we will. We will be resettling people who have legitimate claims through our official humanitarian program. We will not be providing a pathway to anyone who seeks to come here by any other means or changing the status of others who have come by other means.

Next month, it will be 20 years since the September 11 attacks. Al-Qaeda, using the safe haven provided by the Taliban, attacked our way of life. Those attacks on freedom were subsequently mimicked by other extremist groups, such as Jemaah Islamiyah, in the years that followed. In 2001, when the Taliban refused to hand over al-Qaeda terrorists, Australia supported a US led operation to root them out and eliminate the capacity to stage more attacks against the West from Afghanistan. That we have hampered, interrupted and curtailed mass casualty attacks on so many occasions since then should be in no doubt and is a testament to all those who have served. That determination to keep the world safe from terror attacks has not changed and will not change.

Together with our allies and partners, we also laboured long and hard to help the Afghan people secure a better future—to restore a broken state. We invested in schools, in health care, in power generation and more. We saw to the education of women and girls. Heartbreakingly, the fruits from those seeds of hope are now very uncertain. We must recognise with realism and humility the limits of our power and resources to secure the outcome so many Afghans, not least millions of women and children, yearn for. But let no-one say this noble endeavour was anything other than a sign of what marks Australian sacrifice for the good of others—the cause was and always will be a just one.

It's been said that memory is a place where our vanished days gather. For all our veterans, police officers, diplomats, aid workers and others who have served in our name and in our cause, there is already a gathering of days. Today we recall the cost of this, our longest war. As the member for Canning might say, we're looking sacrifice right in the eyes. As former Prime Minister John Howard has reminded us, 'There is no hierarchy of sacrifice,' and I would add to that 'amongst those who fall in our name, in our uniform, under our flag, standing up for our values'. We honour the sacrifice of the 41 Australians who died in Afghanistan in the service of our country, and we acknowledge the terrible loss suffered by their families, whom I know that so many in this chamber know personally, as do I, and would have spoken to in these last days especially. We must acknowledge that for every name inscribed along the Hall of Memory at the Australian War Memorial there are thousands more who also paid a terrible price for their service: painful memories that cannot be shaken.

I know many of you are asking a simple question: was it worth it? Yes, it was. We did the right thing. You did the right thing. As with any war, of course there were errors and miscalculations. History won't shy away from that, and neither will we as a free people. Yet, because of you who have served, your skill, your fearlessness and your courage, Australia is safer today because of your efforts and your sacrifice. Australia is better because of you. None of us can give a full answer to the questions you are asking yourselves and each other, and none of us can predict what lies ahead, but be assured of this: you are not alone. Be assured of this: Australia is proud of your service. I am proud of your service. Your families and all those who so dearly love you are so proud of you.

And we are proud of your families, who have also carried the burden of your service, as only you can know, and we are deeply thankful to them. We are proud, too, of our defence personnel and officials working day and night right now to evacuate Australians in Kabul, and the many Afghans who have worked with us. And in keeping with the good and decent country you sought to serve, Australia will resettle thousands upon thousands, as we have already done, of Afghans who courageously stood with us. So, to the living, I say this: we will remember and honour your service. And to our fallen, we say: lest we forget.

See this speech in context