Dave Sharma (Wentworth, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's an honour to speak in support of this motion, put forward by the Prime Minister, which reflects on the commitment and sacrifice that Australians have made in Afghanistan over two decades. Each of the Australians who has served there—and we've had around 40,000 Australians who have been through Afghanistan, either in uniform, as defence personnel, or as civilians—has given something of themselves to help build that new nation; to help make it a better country; to help create opportunities for young women and girls to express themselves, reach their own conclusions, study, educate themselves, and do many other things besides. Today in particular I think of those many thousands of Australians who have served and given something to that country.

Some of them, of course, had to make the ultimate sacrifice. We lost 41 Australian lives in Afghanistan, and we should reflect upon each of those sacrifices and honour the memory of all those who were killed. Even among those who served and came back alive, a lot still carry the scars from their time in Afghanistan and the memories of what they saw there and what they experienced. I know this would be a particularly difficult time for many of them, soldiers and civilians, who gave of themselves to help build up that country. To have seen the country going backwards at an alarming rate over the last few weeks must have been particularly distressing.

I visited Afghanistan in 2011, only the one time, with then Prime Minister Julia Gillard. I was an official with the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. We flew in from Al Minhad Air Base in the UAE on a C-130. We visited the Australian contingent at Tarin Kowt. That was when we were in charge of one of the provincial reconstruction teams. We met with the soldiers. We met some of the civilians. We met some of the tribal leadership in Tarin Kowt. Then we flew on to Kabul, where we met with then President Karzai in the palace. We were also briefed by General John Allen, who was the head of the NATO International Security Assistance Force at the time. I recall that it was obviously still a tense time in the country. Even then, the Taliban remained a presence. There was a green zone inside Kabul and blast walls and patrols on the street. But there was certainly an optimism in the air amongst the leadership that we met with and amongst some of the new figures about the future that they were building in Afghanistan and the opportunities that they would have in that country. It's very sad to have seen the events of the last few days and the last few weeks and to know that those people and those individuals, some of whom we met then, will have seen much vanish before their eyes as military reversals on the ground have laid the pathway for the Taliban to re-establish themselves as the governing authority in Afghanistan.

I was opposed and remain opposed to the US decision to withdraw its presence from Afghanistan. I think it was a poor decision. It was also poorly executed. Most obviously, it's undermined civilian rule in Afghanistan, but, more importantly, I think, it's also sent quite a damaging signal to US allies around the world.

Whilst reflecting on Afghanistan, though, we should also reflect on the fact that we achieved a great deal. Al-Qaeda was rooted out of Afghanistan. Afghanistan was no longer an incubator or an exporter of terrorism to the rest of world, as it had been most dramatically in 9/11 but also, even before then, with the bombings at the US embassies in Dar es Salaam and Nairobi in 1998 and the attack in the Gulf of Aden on the US naval presence there. All of these things emanated from Afghanistan and al-Qaeda's presence there. Our intervention in Afghanistan prevented al-Qaeda from regrouping and from launching further attacks against us elsewhere around the world.

In addition to doing that, we helped create a more modern and tolerant Afghanistan, one where women and girls could be educated and go to school, one where people could play or listen to music. They could practice arts, consume culture, make their own life decisions, receive a formal education, be involved in cultural activities and any number of other things—vote in elections, of course. They could express themselves freely, join an independent media organisation, publish opinion pieces in newspapers and record podcasts. We helped to make all of those things possible in Afghanistan, and I think we should look back proudly when we reflect on those achievements.

People say, and there were many in America who were saying, that the purpose of our mission in Afghanistan was not about nation building, and that is true to a degree. We can never create a nation. Ultimately, the people of that country have to build and secure that nation for itself. But while Afghanistan was never going to be a model liberal democracy, and certainly it would take generations for that to be the case, nor did it have to become a brutal theocracy. By withdrawing a presence that was modest by international standards, was sustainable, both politically in Washington and on the ground in Kabul, and was one where lives were not being lost—no NATO personnel had been killed in over 20 months in Afghanistan—I fear that we have accelerated the return of a brutal theocracy in Afghanistan.

Some people have also characterised this as a forever war; well, I don't buy that characterisation. I don't accept it. I think if it was an enduring commitment, the shape and nature of that commitment would obviously change over time, as it should. And the United States and its allies have made enduring commitments to a number of countries around the world for decades. The United States retains a sizeable presence in South Korea—tens of thousands of service men and women—a sizeable presence in Japan, and a sizeable presence in Germany. These commitments have lasted upwards of seven decades and have involved countless personnel. But it's what an enduring commitment looks like. In the Sinai Peninsula, US personnel and a US mission continue to serve in monitoring and ensuring compliance with the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. Sometimes an enduring commitment is what's needed to stabilise a situation around the world, and sometimes there is a value in equilibrium and a modicum of stability, even if you're never going to obtain perfection. I think that's an enduring lesson of statecraft, and one that, unfortunately, this US administration did not heed in its decision.

But we are where we are today. I want to reflect on the current challenges in Afghanistan. Obviously, our priority right now, in the immediate moment, is to get as many Australian nationals and permanent residents and their family members, and those who served or worked with the Australian presence in Afghanistan to safety. And over the last week since 18 August we've been successful in evacuating almost 3,700 people. Even overnight, on four ADF flights and one New Zealand Defence Force flight, we were able to get almost a thousand people out. Beyond that, since April we've been able to resettle and remove 400 of our locally engaged staff, people who worked with the Australian mission in Afghanistan, and we've removed 1,800 of those people since 2013.

Of course, beyond that we've had a broader humanitarian commitment to resettle Afghan people, and we've resettled almost 8½ thousand since 2013. It's important the commitment endures beyond this, but, regarding the air bridge in Kabul, the Taliban have given every indication that, come 31 August, they expect the presence of Western countries in Kabul airport to be finished. So this is a limited operation. We're obviously doing as much as we can in the time available to us, and given the very challenging security circumstances that we face, but, beyond that, we will have to make—and I'm pleased we will make—an enduring humanitarian commitment to Afghanistan to resettle refugees and people who are fleeing Afghanistan, people who will undoubtedly have a well-founded fear of persecution.

I lastly want to reflect on and thank the many personnel who are in Kabul, in the region and in Canberra, who are right now working around the clock tirelessly to allow us to conduct this operation in incredibly trying and difficult security and other circumstances. We have people from the Australian Defence Force, we have people from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, we have people from the Department of Home Affairs, we have people from the Australian Border Force—all of them working exceptionally hard right now to do the right thing by the people we are helping and to honour our obligations as a nation, so that we can acquit ourselves with honour by helping as many people to safety in the very limited window that we have available. Deputy Speaker, allow me to acknowledge and thank all of those who are involved in this operation for their service.

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