Julie Collins (Franklin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on his visit last week to Afghanistan and Australia’s mission in Afghanistan?

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

Together with the defence minister I visited our troops at Tarin Kowt last week and spent time with them and spent time also with of course their commanders and with the United States commander responsible for the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan, General McChrystal. It was an opportunity to meet with our troops serving in Afghanistan in what is a very difficult and challenging operating environment. In addition to meeting our troops, we were able to be briefed fully on the proposed plans ahead for dealing with what is a difficult and mounting insurgency in the south of the country. General McChrystal was able to brief me on the operations of ISAF in Afghanistan, the challenges he faces and the strategy he is proposing for the future. General McChrystal also expressed to me his appreciation for the work that Australian forces were doing in Oruzgan province. He praised the work that they do highly as well as those Australian embedded staff who are working within his own command and General Rodriguez’s command in Kabul and also command operations out of Kandahar. He made the point that providing security in Oruzgan, including through training the Afghan national security forces, was a critical part of the international mission in Afghanistan. I also met with our diplomats, our Federal Police representatives, our development assistance representatives and other professionals based in Afghanistan. It was useful to receive at firsthand from them and from serving officers information on the challenges they face in what will be a particularly difficult year ahead. Also I was privileged to be able to attend, with the troops there and the defence minister and General McChrystal, our Remembrance Day ceremonies at Tarin Kowt. We were also able to reflect upon the contribution of the 11 soldiers who have so far given their lives in that conflict.

I also had the chance to engage with representatives of the Afghan government during my visit. I spoke to President Karzai on the phone when I was there. He was in Kabul. I congratulated him on his return to office. I also said, in my conversation with him, that Australia was committed to Afghanistan for the long haul but we also expect much from our Afghanistan partners in deliverance of better governance to the Afghan people in the future. In Tarin Kowt I was also able to meet with the governor of Oruzgan province, Governor Hamdam, and the Minister for Rural Rehabilitation and Development, Mohammed Ehsan Zia. Through their combined efforts we are also, together with our own aid agencies and the work of the reconstruction task force, involved in much good reconstruction work. I was able to be briefed firsthand on the building of schools, the building of health centres and the building of other much-needed supports including bridges and roads, which our troops and the aid agencies are actively engaged in. This is all part and parcel of supporting the civilian arm of what must be an integrated civilian and military strategy in Afghanistan for the future. As I have said previously, our mission in Afghanistan is difficult and it is dangerous. In spite of the difficulties our troops are doing a first-class job and those who are engaged with our troops, such as the Americans and the Dutch, acknowledge the professionalism of all those Australians active in the field.

The mission is making demonstrable progress within our province, Oruzgan, disrupting insurgent networks, increasing training for Afghan battalions as part of the 4th Brigade of the Afghan national army, which we are seeking to raise through our training effort and the combined efforts of others. Also, we have expanded the area in which Afghan security forces provide protection to local communities. Importantly, we have developed our own integrated civilian-military strategy that also focuses on the building and reconstruction effort within the province. I referred to some of those examples just before. Australia remains committed to our mission in Afghanistan. It is a vital mission, one that helps to deny Afghanistan as a safe haven for terrorists. As the debate on Afghanistan continues to unfold in our community, let us never forget the reasons why we are there through our unified joint resolution of this House back in the end part of 2001. That is our reflection on what happened to our American ally from the events of September 11: the terrorist attacks on the United States, in New York and in Washington and elsewhere, and therefore our common resolve not to allow Afghanistan again to become a safe haven for the operation of terrorist organisations in the future and, building on that, to raise also the effectiveness of the Afghan security forces—the army, the police and its civilian infrastructure—to ensure that the Afghans can in time take responsibility for the administration of that province. That is our mission within the country. It is a mission which is specific to the problems of Oruzgan together with the combined efforts of our embedded forces in both Kandahar and Kabul. We intend to be in Afghanistan for the long haul.