Warren Truss (Wide Bay, National Party, Leader of the Nationals) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer him to his statement six days ago on Adelaide radio that ‘huge political instability in Afghanistan’ was one of the so-called push factors in the surge of asylum seekers in the waters north of Australia. I ask the Prime Minister if he is concerned that the announcement of an early exit strategy from Afghanistan, as foreshadowed by the defence minister, would lead to greater political instability in Afghanistan, more Taliban terror against Afghans and therefore a much greater flow of refugees?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Suddenly, it seems, the coalition have discovered push factors in asylum seekers. Suddenly, a week and a half into this debate, they have discovered push factors. Why? They spot a sliver of light—a possibility—for getting some political advantage. Except, once again, they have failed to do their homework. The defence minister has consistently argued that Australia must stay the course in order to execute the mission statement which I referred to before. Those opposite now seem to embrace the argument that one of the push factors alive in the asylum seekers debate globally is in fact instability in Afghanistan, and, as a consequence, parallel debates about instability in Sri Lanka. All governments must of course be seized of what is happening within push factors around the world.

In a specific reference to Afghanistan, the UN Secretary General stated that in 2008 we saw the ending of the most violent year in Afghanistan since 2001. That is fact No. 1. A further fact relevant to this is that in 2008 there was an 85 per cent increase in the number of Afghan asylum seekers claiming protection in industrialised countries worldwide. Thirdly, between 2005 and 2008 the number of internally displaced persons assisted by the UNHCR in Afghanistan increased from 142,000 to 230,000, an increase of 62 per cent.

These are the facts which the global community is dealing with. If you look also at the impact which those numbers have had right across the rest of the world, you will see a parallel impact in terms of the number of Afghan refugee flows across Europe, including the United Kingdom, as in fact has occurred in parallel circumstances to Australia. That is what is called in the debate ‘push factors at work’. That is why this government has remained resolute in its commitment to prosecuting the military campaign in Afghanistan. We cannot afford for that country to lurch back into the circumstances that prevailed prior to 2001. We do not want that country to become a training ground for terrorists. We do not, therefore, believe that we should replicate the policy of those opposite between the years 2003 and 2005, which was to abandon the field altogether. Instead, this government’s policy has not simply been to continue the troop presence that we inherited from those opposite but to increase the troop presence by 40 per cent in a decision taken by this government earlier this year. The government’s mission statement in Afghanistan is clear. It is resolute. We will continue to prosecute that strategy in partnership with our ally the United States of America.