Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Defence. Would the minister explain to the House how the Australian Defence Force is helping to maintain law and order and assisting legitimate governments in the Asia-Pacific region?

Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Herbert for his question and for his very strong commitment to the Townsville defence community. Traditionally Australians have considered, understandably, Australia’s defence as relating directly to Australia itself, but in this century as things have changed so too has our defence strategic outlook. Defending and protecting our people, our interests and our values relates to protecting not only our borders but also countries in our region and indeed the global interests of Australia. In that regard, as we go forward it is obvious that the security of countries in our region relates directly to the security of Australia. And so the Australian Defence Force has been called upon recently—and is likely to be again in the foreseeable future—to support, amongst other things, the protection of borders in countries in our region and the stabilisation of governments and security in countries in the Pacific region and other parts of Asia. We are also required to support humanitarian and disaster relief. At the moment Australia is actively involved in counter-terrorism arrangements in a number of countries.

I think we all recall the Boxing Day 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. We were all impressed that within 48 hours the Australian Defence Force was providing humanitarian relief. We were all impressed in April this year when we saw 110 specialist troops fully armed in combat gear deployed within less than 24 hours to the Solomon Islands. The Defence Force peaked at 400 in the Solomons. Similarly, in May we saw the Australian Defence Force go into East Timor at the request of the East Timorese government to provide and support peace and security. In all of that Australians should be equally proud of the courage and efforts of the Australian Federal Police. Very often we see the high-profile activities of the Australian Defence Force and the Army, but working alongside them in these countries is the Australian Federal Police.

It is extremely important to us as Australians that we appreciate that we cannot afford to have failing states in our region. The so-called arc of instability, which basically goes from East Timor through to the south-west Pacific states, means not only that Australia does have a responsibility to prevent humanitarian disaster and assist with humanitarian and disaster relief but also that we cannot allow any of these countries to become havens for transnational crime or indeed havens for terrorism. We are extremely proud of the efforts of the Australian Defence Force. We will be building on those in the future. Australia has a responsibility in protecting our own interests and values to support the defence and protection of the interests and values of these countries in our region.