Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] In 2007, Jason passed the gruelling SAS selection course. Jason was trained to fight on land, water and air. The following year, during a parachute course, he broke his leg doing a jump. One of his mates recalled: 'Instead of sitting around feeling sorry for himself, he'd go down to the local shooting club in Perth every day. That was the type of person he was.'

In April 2010, Jason deployed to Afghanistan with his unit as part of Operation Slipper. On 13 August, Jason was part of a five-man patrol that had been involved in a disruption operation in northern Kandahar province. Towards the end of the operation, the patrol was faced with crossing a river before reaching their extraction zone. At 6.30 pm, as the Australians made towards the crossing point, they passed a dense thicket of vegetation along the riverbank. Without warning, the patrol came under heavy fire from a concealed weapon at close range. Jason, who was in the middle of the patrol, took the full force of the opening salvo. Despite wearing a helmet and body armour, multiple machine gun rounds pierced his side, and he fell immediately. His patrol mates reacted instantly, running 20 metres across open ground to come to his aid. One member of the patrol remained with Jason, his equipment and clothing being hit by enemy fire multiple times. From this exposed position, he fired on the enemy, killing the machine gun. This allowed another member of the patrol to move forward to help him move Jason and begin first aid. Despite their best methods, Trooper Jason Brown was dead.

Two members of the patrol were subsequently decorated for gallantry. One received a Commendation for Distinguished Service, and the other received the Star of Gallantry, Australia's second-highest award. Jason Brown was the 18th Australian of 41 to make the supreme sacrifice in Afghanistan. His body was repatriated to Australia, and his funeral was held two weeks later with full military honours at the Queen of Peace Church in Normanhurst, the same church where he'd been baptised and confirmed. Jason's uncle, Father Paul Fitzpatrick, celebrated mass, and more than 700 people attended.

Jason Brown was one of the many Australians who served in Afghanistan. For their service, our soldiers received commendations, medals and awards for gallantry, including four Victoria Crosses. I honour the service of our forces and thank them for defending our values and being prepared to serve and put their lives on the line for the cause of freedom. I also want to acknowledge the diplomats and aid workers in the AFP for their service too. While Afghanistan is in for some dark days, the service of our troops gave the Afghan people for the first time a taste of peace, stability and freedom, an education for women and girls and a series of opportunities that would never have been available to them. Whatever the Taliban may do, they cannot take away the ideas and knowledge that have been planted into the minds of the Afghan people. They will not be able to stop the quiet fluttering of the flag of freedom in the hearts of ordinary people.

Last week, I met with nearly two dozen members of the Afghan community from my electorate and across Sydney to discuss the crisis on the ground in Afghanistan. The group I met with, Lobby for Afghanistan, is made up of leaders and professionals from all walks of life, led by my friend Nasiba Akram. Nasiba made a home in my constituency after being forced out of Afghanistan after the communist coup in 1978. She was a member of the Afghan foreign ministry, working for their minister's office, when the Marxists overthrew the government. Nasiba has not only built a life for herself here but spent decades helping others do the same, assisting hundreds of new families to settle. She established a number of services to provide Afghans with education and access to mental health support as well as legal and social support as they try to build their lives in Australia. The discussion with my Afghan community was wide-ranging. We discussed increasing humanitarian visas and vital aid and for the treatment of women by the Taliban to be condemned in international fora by our government. Some participants also asked the Australian government not to recognise the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan.

Australia has been a steadfast contributor to the war in Afghanistan. I take our responsibility and our continuing obligation seriously. I support bringing the Afghans who assisted us in our work as locally engaged staff and their families to Australia to keep them and their families safe. Since 2013, we've granted more than 8,500 visas to Afghans under Australia's humanitarian program. That includes 1,800 visas to locally engaged staff and families. Around 640 locally engaged employees and their families have been granted visas to settle here over the last few months, and more than 500 have already arrived. The ADF has deployed more than 250 personnel and up to five aircraft to support efforts to evacuate Australians and visa holders from Afghanistan. Last night, around 1,200 people were evacuated on six Australian flights. They included Australians and Afghan nationals. In total, around 4,000 people have so far been evacuated on 29 flights in eight days, 639 of whom are already here, including 220 who arrived today. The Prime Minister has announced that an initial 3,000 humanitarian refugee places will be allocated to Afghan nationals. We anticipate that this initial allocation will increase over the course of the year. Australia will prioritise the offshore Afghan nationals within our humanitarian program in the year ahead.

Despite the challenges faced, I want to end with the optimistic words of recent days from the US President who led the operations in Afghanistan in 2001. President Bush said:

Like our country, Afghanistan is also made up of resilient, vibrant people. Nearly 65 percent of the population is under twenty-five years old. The choices they will make for opportunity, education, and liberty will also determine Afghanistan's future. As Dr. Sakena Yacoobi of the Afghan Institute of Learning, which has opened schools for girls and women around the nation, wrote this week: "While we are afraid, we are not defeated." She added, "Ideas do not disappear so easily. One cannot kill whispers on the wind. The Taliban cannot crush a dream. We will prevail, even if it takes longer than we wanted it to."

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