Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government is committed to providing regular reports and updates on Afghanistan, including and in particular to the parliament. This year I have reported to the House on three prior occasions, in March, May and July.

I last reported to the House on 7 July, which followed my attendance at the meeting of NATO and International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) defence ministers' meeting in Brussels in June, the beginning of the northern summer fighting season, United States President Obama's statement on Afghanistan on 23 June and the commencement of transition to Afghan-led security. My report on this occasion follows my visit to Afghanistan on 3 October and my attendance at last week's NATO and ISAF defence ministers' meeting in Brussels on 5 and 6 October.

Why we are there

My visit to Afghanistan and my attendance at the NATO/ISAF defence ministers' meeting in Brussels has reinforced the government's view that it is in our national interest to be in Afghanistan, not just with our alliance partner the United States (US), but also with 47 other members of ISAF acting under a United Nations mandate.

Australia's fundamental goal is to prevent Afghanistan from again being used by terrorists to plan and train for attacks on innocent civilians, including Australians in our own region and beyond. Last month's commemoration of the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks was a sober reminder that there are serious and horrifying consequences if international terrorists are allowed to operate unchecked.

It is therefore imperative that we remain focussed on our goal to help prepare the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) to take lead responsibility for providing security for the Afghan people. To do so we must continue in our efforts to stabilise the security situation and to mentor and train the Afghan security forces. To leave now would be to put at risk the gains so hard fought for and won.

ISAF campaign progress

In Afghanistan and Brussels I met senior NATO/ISAF commanders and my defence ministerial colleagues from a number of NATO/ISAF contributing countries including Afghanistan, the United States and the United Kingdom. Ministers and commanders are confident of the good progress that is being made in Afghanistan. We are now seeing results from a clear strategy, appropriate resources and a realistic transition time line. Afghan and ISAF forces have stalled, then reversed, the Taliban's momentum. This fighting season, the Taliban has been unable to retake any ground in Oruzgan, or indeed across Afghanistan. The transition to Afghan-led security commenced with the handover of seven provinces and districts to Afghan-led security in July this year. This process has not been reversed by the Taliban.

In my March update to parliament, I warned that we had to expect the Taliban to fight back through high-profile, propaganda motivated attacks. Regrettably these high-profile attacks have come to pass. While the Taliban have not been successful at the tactical or operational level, high-profile attacks have occurred with a high civilian casualty toll and the terrible loss of former Afghan President and Chairman of the High Peace Council, Professor Rabbani. These high-profile attacks are aimed at undermining confidence in Afghanistan and sapping political will in the international community:

Australia condemns these civilian casualties. A failed insurgent attack on Oruzgan province Governor Shirzad on 28 July resulted in the deaths of 16 civilians, including 12 children killed in a callous way. There have been more such instances across Afghanistan. As the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General, Steffan di Mistura, advised the NATO/ISAF defence ministers' meeting in Brussels, around 85 per cent of civilian casualties are caused by the Taliban. Afghanistan and the international community need to make clear that the change of tactics by the Taliban to mount such high-profile, propaganda motivated attacks and suicide-bomb assassinations is a sign of Taliban weakness not strength.

O ruzgan campaign progress

During my visit to Afghanistan, I visited Australian troops serving in Oruzgan province in the south of Afghanistan. I met Australian troops at the multinational base in Tarin Kowt and Patrol Base Wali in the Mirabad Valley and again thanked them for their excellent work. I met with Australian and United States operational commanders in Oruzgan province, including the United States Commander of Combined Team Uruzgan, Colonel Robert Akam. I also met with Oruzgan Governor Shirzad and his provincial security chiefs; the Commander of the 4th Brigade of the Afghan National Army, Brigadier Zafar; the Provincial Chief of Police, Brigadier Mattiullah Khan; and the Provincial Chief of the National Directorate of Security, Colonel Khan Muhammed.

In Oruzgan, Australian troops are working under an International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) flag with their colleagues from the United States, Singapore and Slovakia in Combined Team Uruzgan. Their mission is to train the Afghan security forces to take on lead responsibility for security by 2014. They are well on track and making good progress to achieve that objective. ISAF, working closely with Afghan partners, has expanded its security footprint across Oruzgan to encompass over 30 operating bases and checkpoints. In turn, this has allowed the Afghan government to expand its influence and provision of basic services to the people of the province. Since 2008, Australia has increased its effort from the mentoring of a single kandak (battalion) to mentoring six kandaks plus the brigade headquarters.

At times the Australian Defence Force (ADF) has had a presence in more than a dozen different bases in Oruzgan. Due to the increasing size and effectiveness of Afghan forces in Oruzgan, ISAF is progressively transitioning control of these checkpoints and operating bases to Afghan counterparts. This has included the recent handover of three patrol bases to Afghan forces. By the first half of next year, 2012, it is anticipated that the Australian Mentoring Task Force (AMTF) will be in a position to reduce its footprint to as few as four main locations in Oruzgan, with mobile mentoring teams able to assist Afghan partners at their operating bases for periods as required.

Australian forces continue to make important progress towards training the Afghan National Army 4th Brigade so that it can take responsibility for security in Oruzgan. As part of this work, on the advice of the Chief of the Defence Force, the government has authorised a number of Mentoring Task Force personnel to continue the training and mentoring of the 6th Kandak of the 4th Brigade in northern Kandahar, south of the Oruzgan border.

The 4th Brigade has increasingly assumed the lead for the planning, preparation and execution of tactical operations, allowing Australian forces to concentrate on mentoring and partnering Afghan command and combat support functions. The 4th Brigade is also demonstrating progress towards operating independently, with a number of infantry kandaks now expected to be capable of conducting independent operations by early 2012.

On current advice and projections, the 4th Brigade, as a whole, is expected to be operationally viable and ready for provincial transition by 2014. As my predecessor and I have previously advised the House and the Senate, Australian Special Forces are authorised to operate in adjoining provinces on operations that have security benefits in Oruzgan province. This involves operations to maintain pressure on insurgent leadership in Oruzgan, and its surrounding provinces including Kandahar, Helmand, Zabul and Daykundi.

So far this year, our Special Forces have conducted around 40 out-of-province operations, directly contributing to the security of Oruzgan and facilitating our ongoing training mission. Australian Special Forces and their Afghan partners, the Provincial Response Company (PRC) and the National Interdiction Unit (NIU), also continue to disrupt the insurgency in and around Oruzgan province by taking insurgent leaders and bomb makers off the battlefield and reducing the insurgency revenue stream from narcotics. This has helped create the environment necessary for ISAF forces to finalise their training mission and to create a safer environment for the Afghan people in Oruzgan.

Weapons cache finds have increased significantly and there has been some success in interdicting the movement of Taliban forces and supplies from Pakistani tribal areas across the border into Afghanistan. Australia's support to the NIU has reduced the insurgency's ability to fund its campaign by targeting the sale of narcotics. This support, commencing at the Afghan government's request, has led to a series of successful operations in and around Oruzgan. In September, the Afghan National Security Forces, supported by Australia's Special Forces, seized and destroyed a record amount of drug products in southern Afghanistan.

My visit to Afghanistan also confirmed that the international community is on track to achieve nationwide transition of security-led responsibility to the Afghan National Security Forces by the end of 2014. In July, Afghanistan and the international community welcomed the formal start of the transition process in the first tranche of provinces and districts across Afghanistan. This marked an important step towards President Karzai's objective that Afghan authorities assume lead responsibility across Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

The first tranche of provinces and districts to have transitioned to Afghan-led security accounts for around 20 to 25 per cent of the Afghan population. President Karzai is expected to announce the second tranche of districts and provinces for transition later this month. When this second tranche of transition occurs, Afghan security forces will provide lead security for up to 50 per cent, half, of the Afghan population. Subsequent tranches will see international forces continue the process of handing over the lead security responsibility across the country. The Taliban will continue to test the transition process through more high-profile attacks and assassination attempts.

Australia is confident that the Afghan National Security Forces will continue to demonstrate their resolve and growing capability by standing up to and against such violence. In Oruzgan, as I have previously indicated, we continue to do well in training and mentoring the 4th Brigade of the ANA. We are confident that we can transition to Afghan-led responsibility in Oruzgan by 2014.

Post- t ransition

As the international community looks ahead, ISAF must maintain its Lisbon summit commitment to transition to Afghan-led security by 2014. Likewise, both NATO and the United States must maintain their commitment to a long-term, enduring strategic partnership with Afghanistan. NATO and the United States confirmed their long-term commitments at the defence ministers' meeting in Brussels last week. NATO and ISAF defence ministers welcomed the outline of the NATO Strategic Plan for Afghanistan which sets out the proposed approach to the NATO/ISAF presence in Afghanistan for the 2012 to 2014 period, and, most importantly, for the post 2014 period. This continuing long-term commitment and continued investment in Afghanistan's future is a key to ensuring that Afghanistan and its neighbours—including Pakistan—also invest in a peaceful future for Afghanistan.

It is important to begin work on the post 2014 period now. Not to set this out soon will undermine what we have achieved, jeopardise Afghan confidence in the international community's long-term commitments to their country and send the wrong message to regional neighbours, in particular Pakistan. Australia looks forward to continued work on the strategic plan ahead of the Chicago summit in May next year.

Australia has made clear it expects to maintain a presence in Afghanistan after our current training and mentoring mission has concluded, potentially through institutional training, a Special Forces presence, military advisers, capacity building and development assistance. Important into the future will be continued international community support for the Afghan National Security Forces. The international community must ensure the Afghan National Security Forces are provided with the resources they need to maintain security into the future. Australia has lost 29 members of the Australian Defence Force in Afghanistan. Since my last update to the parliament, Private Matthew Lambert died as a result of an improvised explosive device attack on 22 August. We remember him and express our condolences to his spouse, his family and his friends.

In this period, New Zealand has also lost two fine soldiers with the tragic fatalities of Corporal Douglas Grant and Lance Corporal Leon Smith. I conveyed Australia's condolences to my New Zealand counterpart, Dr Wayne Mapp, New Zealand's Minister for Defence, at the time. I was pleased that Australia was able to assist with the initial transportation through our C130s with the repatriation of both Corporal Grant and Lance Corporal Smith to New Zealand.

New Zealand is doing excellent work and making an important contribution to the international community's efforts in Afghanistan through the provincial reconstruction team in Bamiyan province and support to the Afghanistan National Police Crisis Response Unit in Kabul. At this time of tragic loss on both sides of the Tasman, we remember our losses with our age-old refrain, so fitting for our Anzacs, 'Lest We Forget.'

With these terrible tragedies, we must continue to be clear sighted about our objective in Afghanistan. Our objective is to prevent Afghanistan, in particular the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area, from again becoming a safe haven for terrorists.

We will not be in Afghanistan forever, and we are on track to transition to Afghan-led responsibility for security arrangements in Oruzgan in 2014. It is important that the international community now begin work on planning for the post-2014 commitment in Afghanistan. This will send the right signal to Afghanistan and its neighbours to invest in a peaceful future for Afghanistan.

I table a paper in conjunction with my ministerial statement, and I ask leave of the House to move a motion to enable the member for Fadden to speak for a period not exceeding 15 minutes.

Leave granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Fadden speaking in reply to the ministerial statement for a period not exceeding 15 minutes.

Question agreed to.

Stuart Robert (Fadden, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science, Technology and Personnel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the Minister for Defence for honouring his word and for continuing to keep this parliament informed on the progress of combat operations in Afghanistan. Indeed, true to the minister's word, this is his fourth update this year, building on updates in March, May, 7 July and of course today.

It is important that we in the coalition restate our very strong bipartisan support to the government in the prosecution of war against Islamic terrorism and insurgency within Afghanistan. It is also important to state that this support is not borne of necessity but of conviction. We believe, as we always have, that the maxim that 'all it takes for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing' holds true. And good nations, Australia included, will continue to join with 47 other freedom-loving countries of the world to raise this standard high.

El Salvador's recent commitment to the fight is encouraging and demonstrates that the majority of the true democratic countries of the world are now standing shoulder to shoulder in Afghanistan. This global bipartisanship has one over-arching goal—to ensure that insurgent elements within Afghanistan can no longer use that country to extend their hate and violence across the free world. I join with the minister in acknowledging that this is indeed within our national interest. This fight in Afghanistan that we have been engaged in for so many years is in our national interest, and the coalition will not shirk our responsibility in this regard.

Australia's mission within Afghanistan remains limited and discrete. Principally, the mentoring task force—currently mentoring task force 3, based on the infantry battalion commanded by Colonel Smith—is training and mentoring the Afghan National Army, principally the 4th Brigade, in elements of the Afghan National Police. We are currently providing a substantial special operations task group—indeed, the third largest contingent of special operations currently in theatre. We provided limited rotary wing and heavy-lift support and of course a range of imbedded officers to a range of joint ISAF commands.

However, the major tasks of training and mentoring the ANA and disrupting, dismantling and destroying the insurgency through the use of the SOTG remains hard going. Be under no doubt that this enemy is tough and resilient. There is little tangible sign at present that they are ready to give in or indeed to negotiate. The minister talks of being 'confident of the good progress that is being made'. We hope and pray that his confidence is right. We certainly join him in sharing a cautious optimism but also acknowledge that there is much to do before a handover to full Afghan National Army commander control across the province in 2014. Regardless, the minister can rely on the opposition's support in this critical task.

I note recent media reports citing comments from the current Australian Commander of Joint Task Force 633, Major General Angus Campbell, that the ANA will require substantial support post 2014 to be truly ready to plan and conduct operations. Notwithstanding any comment on the veracity of those reports, it is important to note that our commander, Major General Campbell, is an experienced and respected commander, and the coalition has always held to the view that the ADF drawdown must be metrics based and command judgment led. Indeed, the minister has previously stated that a metrics based drawdown will be the order of the day.

The coalition therefore acknowledges and accepts that our nation will maintain a logistics, training and special force element in overwatch within Afghanistan post the 2014 substantial drawdown. This will include elements of the provincial reconstruction team and may include capacity-building elements in governance, electoral matters and administration. It is important that we understand that a nation such as Afghanistan, still on its knees, needs its friend's hand until that nation can firmly get on its feet. We will not abandon Afghanistan. We have expended much treasure, much toil and much blood fighting to ensure that the world can enjoy freedom from those who would seek to do it harm. So the fight ahead will be hard. The high-profile attacks against former President and Chairman of the High Peace Council, Professor Rabbani, and the increase in suicide in Kabul are a case in point. These attacks mark a tactical change in the insurgent engagement in high-value public killings. As a people in this country, as Australians, we universally and utterly condemn the suicide attacks and the numerous assaults on innocent civilians. A cowardly enemy that resorts to appalling tactics on children is an enemy that deserves to be defeated.

In my previous response to the minister in this place I remarked that of the over 30 forward-operating bases and patrol bases the vast bulk, indeed, as many as 22 or 23, are manned only by Afghan National Army soldiers. If the MTF is on track to increase this number to 26 by mid-2012, as the minister stated, and that Australian Defence Force personnel will man only four, this will be a real achievement. The ink blot approach of providing security across the population centres in Oruzgan province would appear to be linking up. The move towards mobile mentoring teams to provide assistance to the ANA kandaks is a positive step. We are cautiously optimistic.

I make the point that MTF 3 has done an outstanding job in building on the work of MTF 2. MTF 2 did a substantial amount of work in finding a range of caches and removing weapons systems and IED components from the battlefield. MTF 3 has built on this brilliantly. The Taliban has not regained any substantial initiative or indeed combat capability whilst MTF 3 has been in theatre. Indeed, all indications are that the average life expectancy of a Taliban commander who dares to enter Oruzgan is no more than five days, with the majority of commanders seeking to stay in refuge in Pakistan and to issue orders to their underlings and soldiers from the safety of that area. It does not take a rocket scientist to realise that young Taliban soldiers are not particularly impressed with their commanders hiding in Pakistan.

We certainly welcome the new deputy CTU, Colonel Ben James, a colleague of mine, and thank the previous deputy commander of CTU, Colonel Smith, for his tremendous work in being the second-in-command of ostensibly a brigade sized response within Oruzgan.

In July this year, in the third of the ministerial responses, the minister noted that the first provincial transitions in the north of Afghanistan were occurring. Something like 25 per cent of the population, by the end of July and early August, was actually being protected by full Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police control. There is every indication that President Karzai will seek to announce the second in a range of provincial handovers in the coming weeks. This may take the Afghan command and control of provinces up to 50 per of the country. It is certainly a welcome move.

It is important to note also that a coalition government will continue to reach out to Pakistan and support Pakistani counterterrorism and military efforts to improve security within that country and indeed the region. We will continue to provide the very best officer training at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, and stand ready to provide further support to Pakistan if required. Our nation's support post the floods in 2010 in Pakistan is testimony to our enduring concern for Pakistan and its people. Pakistan and Australia are not just good cricket sparring partners; we are friends. We are friends who also acknowledge the complexities of Pakistan, and we certainly join the international community in encouraging Pakistan to do whatever they can to continue to disrupt the insurgent elements within their borders.

I thank the minister for the equipment improvements that have been going into the theatre in Afghanistan since July. Moving the Giraffe, the counter rocket, artillery and mortar system, further into patrol bases is a substantial and good move that provides real and tangible benefits. The work in digger works in actually providing a colonel, in this case Colonel Blain, to oversee the equipment improvement that soldiers would seek to have is another good move, as is a range of the other equipment being put into theatre.

I acknowledge the Minister for Defence Materiel for his work in looking at greater Australian content and putting some teeth into the priority industry capability of defence apparel and ensuring that boots, clothes and hats are majority Australian content. I also call on the minister to widen that to include body armour, helmets and a range of combat clothing and accessories. A core competency of us as a manufacturing nation must be to outfit our combat soldiers on the ground with the very best of equipment.

I thank the minister for his continued updates on detainee management. Over the last three and four times we have spoken in this House on this matter I have continued to reiterate to the minister that our detainee management policy has to mirror that of our coalition partners. At present, we can only detain those within Afghanistan for four days, whereas our coalition partners can detain for periods in excess of that. It is interesting to note that under Australian domestic terror laws we can actually detain for longer than four days. I would hope that the minister would continue to look at adjusting detainee management policy to bring the amount of time that Australian forces can detain those on the battlefield in line with our coalition partners.

I join the minister in acknowledging the tragic loss of 29 soldiers in combat operations in Afghanistan. Since we both last spoke in this place on this matter, Private Matthew Lambert has been tragically killed. In August in this House we appropriately and properly paid condolences to Private Matthew Lambert, his family and his friends. I made the point that, when Private Lambert arrived in Afghanistan as part of MTF 3, his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Smith, addressed the soldiers and said to them, 'You haven't yet earned the right to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the soldiers of MTF 2, but you will. I am confident that we will build on their successes and that each and every one of you will work hard to emulate and expand on their achievements.'

I went on further to say that Private Lambert's unstinting service earned him the right to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with any in our grand military heritage, because he served in the most remote part of the province, in Patrol Base Anaconda in the Khas Oruzgan Valley. He served in the rough, in areas barely accessible by vehicle. He patrolled the valleys on foot, he manned the battlements and he mentored the Afghan soldiers he lived and fought with. He did everything asked of him in some of the most inhospitable terrain on earth, and he did it at night, in the rain, in the cold, in the heat and in the dust. Private Lambert embodied everything the 2nd Battalion is known for. Duty first. We know his deeds, and today we honour his name—a name known not only by us but known by a family who loved him, by a regiment who trained him, by the men who fought with him, by the medic who cradled him, by the pilot who flew him and by the doctors and nurses who did everything to save him. This is the great military that serves us today in our name. These are the great men and women in combat operations in Afghanistan that seek to fight for freedom where terrorism is simply a byword. They deserve our nation's absolute and enduring support.

I also acknowledge the loss of two brave soldiers from New Zealand from across the trench, and as a nation we mourn with that country.

It is important that we do not lose heart and do not lose resolve. I say to the government and echo the words of the previous joint task force commander in 2010: Minister, in government do not get the wobbles. You enjoy strong bipartisan support. You have a competent and exceptionally well-trained military. You have great commanders on the battlefield and also back here at home. You have some of the finest and most courageous soldiers, sailors and air men and women anywhere in the world. Hold the line and finish the job.