Ed Husic (Chifley, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] I'm grateful for the opportunity to follow the member for Riverina, who gave the parliament a very clear and, I thought, a very important contribution in respect of the contributions made by fellow Australians, particularly in our defence forces, in helping rebuild Afghanistan and playing a part in providing security there. They did so at high cost, with a number of ADF personnel having lost their lives there. Forty thousand made a contribution, as the member for Riverina indicated. We here in Australia are obviously conscious of that contribution, but I think there are, in watching what's happened in Afghanistan, a lot of questions that have been raised, some that should be answered at another time. In particular, after a 20-year engagement in that country the question of how things have got to this is probably the thing that stands at the front of a lot of people's minds. Answers aren't necessarily ready to be put forward at this point in time, given that the focus is on saving a lot of people. It is difficult, as someone who has vocally and openly supported the engagement that we made as a nation in Afghanistan 20 years ago in the aftermath of September 11, with the priority to track down those who had aided, abetted, encouraged and, in fact, planned other terrible events—notably through al-Qaeda, who had set up a presence deep in Afghanistan and needed to be tackled. It was important for us to deal with that, but it was also important to provide longer-term security and help for Afghanistan.

Besides Australian defence personnel, there were a lot of people in the NGO community who had worked with local communities in various parts of Afghanistan to try and restore life, improve the quality of life for people there. Given that long contribution, to see where we've got to now is not only difficult for veterans here who are having to watch what has occurred in a country where they have made a very noble and important contribution but difficult for other Australians as well who had done likewise.

As someone who represents nearly 1,500 people of Afghan heritage in my own electorate, I appreciate the impact on Afghans here in seeing what's happened over there, plus the wider concern in the broader community about what's gone on and a feeling that we have not acted, which is often the case, quickly enough, surely enough, comprehensively enough to help friends out, particularly Afghans who, in Afghanistan, risked a lot to help us. It is important to point out that they undertook work with Australians, either in the ADF or elsewhere, at great personal risk. We've all been taught to back people who had backed us, to help those who had gone out of their way to help us. I think that is the big thing that a lot of Australians cannot fathom, that we have been slow, in particular the government has been slow, to act on this. They may emphasise now how quickly they have moved, but this has been a situation that's been developing for some time. Regardless of politics people have called up politicians, in particular former prime ministers of both political persuasions, and urged this government to act much more forcefully, and with greater energy and speed, in particular to help those who had put themselves in harm's way. It's been enormously frustrating and concerning that that was not taken up earlier. Now we are playing catch-up when other nations have moved a lot more forcefully to address this situation.

In trying to extend assistance to Afghans in that country right now who are trying to flee, the way in which it has been made difficult for them to do that, based on some of the approaches used by this government and its arms, at various points in time—it had been noted, for example, yesterday that Afghan interpreters, who've worked with Australian soldiers, were told by Australian officials to send their visa application in the post when they needed to be evacuated. I don't think anyone out in the broader community would think that that is a satisfactory or a proper way in which to assist people in such a life and death situation. There certainly wasn't a need for this when the US government stepped up and evacuated some of these families. People are having to wait extraordinary numbers of hours outside Kabul airport to try and get assistance—as has been raised in the last 24 hours

As I said, the impact of this is being felt by people in our area who are gravely concerned about the situation. I've received hundreds of contacts from people locally who have raised their concerns about what has gone on. On the weekend I hosted an online forum with people who had contacted me locally, many from the Afghan Australian community, joined by the shadow minister for home affairs, Senator Keneally; SydWest Multicultural Services CEO Elfa Moraitakis and the Mount Druitt Ethnic Communities Agency manager, Daniel Gobena. We all heard from residents about the fears they had for safety of family in Afghanistan who are around the airport and trying to flee the country.

One constituent shared the story of her brother, who used to work with the Afghan government and who was killed recently by the Taliban. Her family had to flee and are trying to find a way to get here safely. Another shared her story about her mother and sister. Her sister had worked as a midwife in the US aid program and they applied to come to Australia. But because, sadly, her mother passed away during the application process the department rejected the application as the mother was the main applicant and the sister was the secondary applicant. This doesn't take away from the situation that her sister faced in Afghanistan, but it highlights the serious flaws in the way in which we process some of these visas and the application system which basically surrounds it. This resident is still willing to sponsor her sister but our government has not been as helpful as it could be there due to these processes.

This is the frequent concern that is being raised by my constituents of Afghan heritage who are trying desperately to save their families. They want processes that are easy to navigate and where they don't have the bureaucratic run-around. Some of them are concerned, for example, that if there is one error in their form then the form and the whole process is reset and they're forced to go to the back of the queue as a result of something which could be addressed quite easily and which would literally be a life-and-death decision for some people. That is what their concern is if they're forced to go back. They also want all Afghans to be treated equally. There are Afghans of various backgrounds within that nation who have made a contribution and are expecting that we would have their backs when they had ours. We should certainly make sure in the way that's done that we don't have an overly bureaucratic, red-tape-laden approach to the way in which people can apply to flee. We should be doing more to help out in that way.

The other thing that I'm very concerned about is the fact that we don't have any sense of how the 3,000 places that have been set aside in the current humanitarian intake were determined, when other nations are clearly stepping up to do more. While I'm heartened to hear that the Prime Minister said he would be willing to acknowledge that this is not a floor but that it can be lifted up, I think the key will be not only to provide additional places but, as I said, based on what I'm hearing from Afghan Australians, that the process is not overly difficult.

What we also don't need to hear, quite frankly, are some of the things that suggest why that assistance hasn't been provided. For example, in the last week there was the suggestion made by the Minister for Defence that some Afghan interpreters weren't assisted because there were concerns that they might be part of some sort of terrorist group or have some sort of terrorist question mark hanging over them. If there is proof of that he should step forward with it. We've had episodes in times past with suggestions that people fleeing persecution are doing terrible things, or might be in the process of doing terrible things, and where that simply was not sustained. Anyone who looks at the history of the scandalous 'children overboard' saga would know that we do not need speculation made by people in significant positions in government. They should have evidence based ways in which they make those claims and back them up. We don't need that type of rhetoric ramped up and used at such a difficult time. People should be using their heads a lot more clearly.

We owe it to people who helped us to help them out in their time of need. People do not need to be given the run-around; they should be backed up, they should be supported and we should do what's right. We should not be seen as a nation who, when people help us, aren't there to help them. That is my big concern coming out of this. For people in my constituency: I will absolutely speak up for them. We will work to help them wherever we can and we hope that the federal government does the same.

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