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

I rise to lend my comments on the Prime Minister's motion. In doing so I acknowledge the Minister for Defence Materiel, who is in the chamber. This is now the fifth statement that I have given on Afghanistan this year. The Minister for Defence indicated he would provide regular updates and, true to his word, he did so four times during the year. I now follow the Leader of the Opposition in response to the Prime Minister's statement. I do so noting the horrendous loss of life Australian soldiers have faced on the battlefield with 11 soldiers killed in action and numerous wounded in action this year alone—with 32 killed in action since the resumption of combat operations in 2001 and over 210 wounded in action. They have paid the price of freedom on behalf of our nation, a price that is borne by so few yet so appreciated by and for the benefit of so many. Let us never forget that we entered combat operations in Afghanistan as a result of the 11 September 2001 attacks against the continental United States of America when 19 al-Qaeda trained Islamic terrorists hijacked four commercial passenger jets and subsequently crashed them, into major state buildings, being the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, and into a field near Shanksville in rural Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 victims, including the 19 terrorists, died in the attacks. On 20 September 2001 the United States stated that Osama bin Laden was responsible for those September 11 attacks and the US made a five-point ultimatum: deliver to the US the leaders of al-Qaeda, release all imprisoned foreign nationals, close immediately every terrorist training camp, hand over every terrorist and their supporters and give the United States full access to terrorist training camps. On 21 September the Taliban rejected unilaterally the ultimatum.

In response President Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom, the US's global fight against terrorism. The initial military objectives of Operation Enduring Freedom, as outlined by President Bush in his 20 September address to a joint session of Congress, was the destruction of terrorist training camps and infrastructure within Afghanistan, the capture of al-Qaeda leaders and the cessation of terrorist activities in Afghanistan. We make it very clear that terrorist activities have not ceased in Afghanistan. Not every terrorist training camp or the ability to train, indoctrinate and lead has been destroyed. Many in the media profess that Osama bin Laden has been caught and died during that capture operation; therefore, the initial objectives have been achieved. Never forget the threefold initial objectives of Operation Enduring Freedom—the cessation of all terrorist activities in Afghanistan, the destruction of all terrorist training camps and the capture of all al-Qaeda leaders.

Let us also not forget that under the auspices of Operation Enduring Freedom the US assembled an international coalition of the willing, a coalition against terrorism. By 2002, 136 countries had offered a range of assistance: 55 countries had provided military force, 89 countries had granted overflight status for US military aircraft, 76 countries had granted landing rights and 23 countries had agreed to host US and coalition forces. Today over 40 countries continue to fight side by side to achieve the cessation of terrorist activities in Afghanistan. The mission, led by ISAF—the International Security Assistance Force—was put together on 20 December 2001 by United Nations resolution 1386 and has been operating under subsequent US mandates since. Coalition troops in Afghanistan now number over 130,000: there are over 120,000 ISAF troops from over 40 nations and a number of troops, up to 20,000, under Operation Enduring Freedom. ISAF has grown in membership and troop contributions over the last year in line with the revised ISAF strategy. Between November 2009 and August 2010 the US increased their commitment to ISAF through the much documented surge to over 100,000, with President Obama of course recently announcing that 10,000 of those will withdraw by Christmas this year and that a further 20,000 will withdraw by Christmas next year, bringing the US troop component down to 68,000. Australia still maintains 1,550 combat soldiers, sailors and airmen fighting within Afghanistan, with a wider number within the Middle East Area of Operations.

Let us also not forget that for 10 years Australia has been involved in the conflict. Australia's support commenced in October 2001, and the level and types of activities and equipment have varied during that time. From 2001 to 2002 was the initial, post 9-11 force deployment to support the US's Operation Enduring Freedom as well as the initial ISAF operation. Yet, from January 2003 to July 2005, Australia's focus shifted to the wider Middle East, leaving only two uniformed officers—and in many cases one officer—in Afghanistan. From August 2005 to June 2006 Australia once again ramped up its deployment to Afghanistan with special forces to support the US operation. From 2006 to 2007 a reconstruction task force was deployed to Afghanistan and commenced reconstruction and population protection tasks. Special forces remain to engage with and destroy terrorist operations.

Following the election of the Rudd government, Australia's strategy and operational disposition changed again. From February 2008 to July 2010 a mentoring and reconstruction task force commenced. The mission has changed substantially, with mentoring the Afghan National Army and Afghan National Police while continuing reconstruction and population protection now becoming the order of the day. From February 2010, the Mentoring and Reconstruction Task Force changed to the Mentoring Task Force, focusing solely on mentoring the Afghan National Army. The next change, from August 2010 to today, was post the Dutch withdrawal. ISAF changed the operational disposition within our area of operations towards the Combined Team Uruzgan, or CTU, approach, which has had the Mentoring Task Force and a civilian led Provincial Reconstruction Team focus on reconstruction. MTF1, under 6RAR, was replaced by MTF2, based on 5RAR. MTF3 is currently in place, based on 2RAR, and will be followed by MTF4, based on 8/9RAR, and MTF5, based on 3RAR.

Australia's mission has therefore undergone a range of changes since 9-11 ushered in a new phase in the war against terrorism. The reality is that the strategy in Afghanistan is much bigger than destroying al-Qaeda. As President Bush outlined in his 20 September speech to the joint sitting of congress, it is the destruction of the terrorist apparatus and organisations within the country. The insurgency across Afghanistan is now made up of multiple organisations, including the Haqqani network, the Quetta Shura network, Tajikistan rebels coming down from the north and a range of independence-seeking, anti-West and pro-hardline Islamic organisations. The strategy is to ensure that this insurgency body does not once again wrest control of Afghanistan and allow that country to be used for training, resourcing, financing and assisting terrorism. Let us not forget that, as the Leader of the Opposition outlined, 108 Australian lives have been lost in a number of terrorist attacks, all of which can be linked back to the training, indoctrination, resourcing and basing of terrorist elements within Afghanistan.

Whilst discussions within the Karzai government continue about forming later governments that would include elements of the insurgency, including the Taliban, the fact remains that many of these insurgency groups need to lay down their weapons or they will be destroyed. In war, as we know, perceptions always lag behind reality. Whilst our TV screens are sometimes filled with the horror of suicide bombings as desperate insurgency forces reach out to the only weapon they have left in their arsenal—the destruction of young lives as they force people to strap weapons to their bodies, detonate themselves and enact mass violence—the perception indeed lags behind the reality. The reality is that considerable progress is being made.

The counterinsurgency strategy is working. As I have said a number of times this year in response to the Minister for Defence's statements, I remain cautiously optimistic. The strategy is more than just hearts and minds in terms of what our soldiers, sailors and airmen are doing in theatre. Not only are we reaching out, closing with and destroying the Taliban leadership, supply chains, information and communications and intelligence and surveillance networks; we are also seeking to build infrastructure. The Prime Minister made note of the road from Tarin Kowt through to Chora Valley. Within a week of that bitumen road going in, the price of palm oil, which in Chora had been seven times the price it was in Tarin Kowt, dropped to two times the price. It is that degree of economic activity that starts to reach out to the local people. When Australian troops reinforce roads, build aqueducts, bridges, mosques and schools and engage with and listen to the population, it makes a difference.

I have noted before in the House that six months ago—my last time in Afghanistan—the Commander CTU and I flew out to the first of the patrol bases in the Mirabad Valley, where, for an hour and a half, we sat down with the local leaders, many of them former mujaheddin fighters. As we sat in shura and talked, not once was the issue of security raised. That was how effectively our forces on the ground had achieved security within the upper parts of the Mirabad Valley close to Oruzgan. I had been to that place before, six months prior to that visit, standing in Tarin Kowt with the Leader of the Opposition whilst a massive battle was taking place on the very ridge line. As I walked, six months ago, stepping over the expended rounds and munitions, so indicative of modern battle, I paused to think about what the future would have been if the coalition of the willing had not been there. We talked with the locals for 90 minutes and all they talked about was their need for economic independence. 'When's the school coming?' 'When's the clinic coming?' 'What are we doing about this?' 'How's the road into the Mirabad Valley up to the greater reaches going?' Those are the questions they asked, not questions such as 'When's security coming to the region.' It is telling.

It is one thing for the Prime Minister to stand in parliament and say, 'All is well'; it is another thing for the wise and old mujaheddin warlords, who have spent their entire life fighting in the area, to sit down and say: 'For the upper parts of the Mirabad Valley, security is not our problem. Economic activity is our issue, the livelihoods of our children is our issue, education is our issue, medical clinics is our issue, roads are our issue, sanitation is our issue and replacing the poppy crop with a self-sustaining agricultural lifestyle is our issue.' That is the most telling aspect of what our combat operations and our Provincial Reconstruction Team are doing.

Indeed, what is even more telling is that, when I sat down with the Commander CTU, with the shurah there in the upper reaches of the Mirabad Valley, I looked around for the head of the Provincial Reconstruction Team—an Australian—and he was not there. He had legged it off to look at a bridge with some of the locals to work out what the PRT could do in terms of building greater access across streams and into roads. The fact that a civilian head of the PRT can spend an hour and a half, out there with the community, looking at how to build and engage while we talked about economic prosperity, says a lot more than any words can indeed say in parliament.

We have had some setbacks in terms of the Afghan National Army. There is an investigation into what drove the issues recently where three Australians were tragically killed by one of the soldiers whom they were mentoring. But if you ask our men and women out there in the dast right now about the motives behind the attack upon our soldiers, they would say that conjecture and discussion are counterproductive. It is imperative we continue to have a close working relationship with the Afghan National Army. They are starting to take over responsibility. Of our 30-odd patrol bases and forward operating bases, we literally only have troops in 11, using mobile mentoring patrols within the rest of them. Seven provinces have now been handed over, with a wide range of provinces being handed over to the Karzai government. The ANA is on track to reach its goal of 171,000 personnel trained this year and 260,000 by 2014. The security situation is improving. Progress is being made. Only nine per cent of Afghans had access to basic medical care. Today it is 85 per cent. And the statistics go on and on. Now is the time for our nation to stand behind what is being done in Afghanistan and join the parliament in expressing cautious optimism, as we seek to move towards the end.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I stand here before the parliament to make a statement on Afghanistan, it would be remiss of me not to reflect on what has been a very challenging time. Sadly, this year, on three separate occasions, shooting incidents have resulted in the death of four Australian soldiers and the wounding of 10 others at the hands of Afghan National Army soldiers.

These attacks, which claimed the lives of Captain Bryce Duffy, Corporal Ashley Birt, Lance Corporal Luke Gavin and Lance Corporal Andrew Jones, have been extremely difficult to comprehend and to overcome. But, as the Prime Minister reflected today, it is right that in hard moments our hearts ache for all that is lost and all there is still to lose. But, as we know, Australians are reasonable and realistic people. We have always known that sending our men and women in uniform to war brings days of sorrow and sadness, as well as days of progress. While the losses in Afghanistan are a tragedy, it is in our nature that we do all that we can, with all that we have, to defend Australia and its national interests. That is what we have done; that is what we will continue to do. Australian forces remain committed to their mission, recognising that the actions of these assailants are not reflective of the Afghan National Security Forces as a whole and should not diminish the great successes our mission continues to achieve.

It is in our national interest for us to be in Afghanistan. We must ensure it is no safe haven for terrorists. We must stand firmly by our ally, the United States. As the Prime Minister reaffirmed in parliament today, the international strategy in which we take our part is sound. It is focused on counterinsurgency and designed to deliver transition. We are protecting the Afghan people, training the Afghan security forces and building the government's capacity. It is aligned with our enduring commitment to the United States under the ANZUS treaty.

Our military contribution to the International Security Assistance Force, ISAF, includes an average of around 1,550 ADF personnel deployed within Afghanistan. We are, as has been said on numerous occasions, the largest non-NATO troop contribution country to the ISAF. In Oruzgan province, where the majority of Australian forces are based, we are working to train the Afghan National Army's 4th Brigade. More broadly, our Special Forces contribute to the ISAF campaign across southern Afghanistan. We are also contributing to institutional training as the lead partner nation for the combined arms artillery school in Kabul. In Oruzgan, our forces are focused on achieving their mission, which is to put the ANSF in a position to take lead responsibility for security matters in the province by the end of 2014. Our mission of training and transition has not changed, and progress is being made, despite the awful events we have experienced recently.

As a government we are asking a lot of our service men and women in Afghanistan and as a nation we need to contemplate precisely what we do ask. It is right that my highest priority as a minister is to look after our forces and their families, both during and after their service. It is something I am personally committed to and which I care deeply about because we intuitively know that working in the ADF is a tough and very dangerous job. Our people are exposed to difficult situations in Afghanistan and, as I have mentioned, recent weeks have been especially tough.

In recognition of this, Defence has temporarily increased its support to deployed personnel, with the arrival of two further psychologists to Afghanistan to support the troops affected by these tragic events. This is in addition to the already deployed team that is dedicated to providing quality mental, pastoral and welfare care to our troops in the Middle East. An Army psychologist was also deployed to Germany to assist our wounded soldiers who were evacuated there for emergency treatment. The government takes the mental health and wellbeing of our serving men and women very seriously.

In 2008, I was involved with initiating the commissioning of an independent review by Professor David Dunt to look at the effectiveness of the ADF's mental health strategy, mental health services and programs. Professor Dunt made 52 recommendations to reform and enhance the delivery of ADF mental health programs and Defence and Veterans' Affairs transition services. As a direct result of this review, Defence is implementing a comprehensive mental health reform program. A total of more than $93 million has been invested by this government in new initiatives supporting the mental health of our service men and women and veterans.

Recently, we launched world-leading research into the prevalence of mental health disorders in the Australian Defence Force. The 2010 ADF mental health prevalence and wellbeing study is the first comprehensive assessment of the overall mental health of the ADF's serving population. It surveyed about half of the ADF workforce between April of last year and July of this year. The research has been described by independent experts, most specifically Professor Ian Hickie of the Brain and Mind Research Institute, as 'world's best practice'. Professor Hickie said that defence will set the national standard for mental health reform and that, through its leadership and this type of research, defence has shown that it is serious about addressing major challenges and has chosen gutsy, smart, collective and informed strategies to address them. He also said that defence leads the world in emphasising prevention, early intervention, use of e-health strategies, easy access to care, peer and family support and, most importantly, collective action.

The study has already helped the ADF tailor its mental health support to suit the needs of its service men and women. The study provided the foundations for the development of the 2011 Mental Health and Wellbeing Strategy. This strategy focuses on both strengthening resilience and enabling recovery. It is specifically aimed at providing a solid foundation for good health and well-being within the ADF and ensuring that services targeting mental heath care are promoted and available. With the strategy, defence is developing the 2012-15 Mental Health and Wellbeing Action Plan.

Findings of the 2010 ADF Mental Health Prevalence and Wellbeing Study have highlighted some initiatives that warrant our immediate attention. These eight priorities include: a communication strategy to address stigma and barriers to care; enhanced service delivery; delivery of e-mental health tools; mental health upskilling for health providers; improving pathways to care; strengthening the mental health screening continuum; and implementation of a comprehensive Keep Your Mates Safe peer network.

Defence is also committed to providing comprehensive health care to serving members from enlistment to discharge. The priority of this health care system is to maintain ADF capacity by ensuring its personnel are fit to deploy and by providing high quality rehabilitation services for those that should require it. The ADF is committed to ensuring that personnel who are wounded, injured or ill have access to high quality health care and that their recovery, rehabilitation and return to work is the focus of our health practitioners—and this is a first priority of mine. High quality medical and specialist treatment and rehabilitation services are available from garrison health services and programs such as the ADF Rehabilitation Program.

We have an obligation to support not only our troops but also their families, and we want to do this because we think it is important. Being a spouse or family member of one of our service men or women is a tough job, particularly for those who are deployed. Deployment, postings and long absences from home combine to disrupt partners' careers and children's education and sever families' community support networks. For this reason, we are committed to supporting the families of ADF members and helping them to make the most of the challenges and opportunities provided by the military way of life. Ann we are there to support them.

The Defence Community Organisation is integral to this process. It offers a broad range of programs and services to support defence families. The Defence Community Organisation's local teams include social workers, military support officers, regional education liaison officers, community development officers, family liaison officers and administrative staff. DCO's programs have a very real and positive impact on the lives of ADF families.

I recently launched a suite of training programs called FamilySMART, which aim to empower defence families to build their wellbeing and psychological health. This program aims to foster resilience amongst defence families and will help them manage the challenges of the ADF lifestyle. FamilySMART is part of defence's overarching strategy of supporting the mental and physical wellbeing of ADF members and their families through prevention-based training. FamilySMART will help defence families to further develop their resilience, providing them with the psychological resources to manage stressful situations such as deployment, parental absence from home, moving houses or a partner returning from a long time overseas. I want to mention Defence Families of Australia, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year. It was originally set up by the then responsible minister, and now Australian Ambassador to the United States, Kim Beazley, and is a very important organisation.

Finally, let me refer briefly to DSTO and its role in supporting operations in Afghanistan. In outlining the support provided to our military personnel, it is right that I acknowledge the considerable efforts of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation. DSTO's highest priority is supporting ADF operations in Afghanistan, providing direct technical advice, technology insertion and operational analysis support to our personnel in theatre. DSTO analysts are deployed in Afghanistan providing direct support to military operations. DSTO has established a science and technology fly-away team capability that Australian commanders can call on. This technology insertion capability is deployed strategically on operationally urgent issues. As part of this capability, DSTO scientists provide ADF personnel with expert advice and assistance in the introduction of new technology. DSTO is a very important element of our support for our personnel in so many different ways.

As the Prime Minister noted today in parliament, we are asking much of our deployed personnel in Afghanistan—often maybe too much. We are proud of the courageous work our soldiers are carrying out in very difficult circumstances, and they are extremely difficult. Because of their bravery and their service, we are making progress in our mission. But it is a difficult mission. There will continue to be challenges and no doubt we will need to think about the way in which we support our Defence Force personnel on an ongoing basis. But we must applaud their service and they need to know that they continue to receive our full support, and providing this support is an absolute priority of this government. I commend the motion to the House.

Malcolm Turnbull (Wentworth, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Communications and Broadband) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The war in Afghanistan is long, arduous and extremely dangerous. It is a war in which we are asking our soldiers, and our allies are asking the soldiers that they have sent there—100,000 or more in all, as the Prime Minister said earlier today—to undertake an extraordinary task of counterinsurgency. The military arm, our armed forces, are asked to hold up the martial shield to kill, to isolate and to disarm the enemy, the Taliban in this case, in order to give a breathing space for the host government, the Karzai government in this case, to put down its roots and grow, develop and build its capacity in such a way that it can ultimately, as the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition said today, take over the task of governing and defending that country and maintaining internal security without foreign assistance.

This is a profoundly difficult task because the tactical success, for example, of the American surge in killing Taliban units, in picking off their leaders and in preventing them from doing their work will be of no long-term effect unless the host government is able to build its capacity and its credibility with the Afghan people to take over the task. As the US ambassador to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, said at the time in his opposition to the surge, if the Karzai government in this case is unable to develop that capacity and confidence, then all of those tactical successes will turn out to bear little fruit and may indeed prove thoroughly counterproductive. So we are asking our soldiers not simply to be warriors. Yes, there is plenty of fighting to do, as we have seen from the many deaths and injuries that were discussed in the House earlier today, but we are asking them also to be nation builders in the most difficult to imagine environment.

Much has been said about this very difficult war in Afghanistan, and we should debate it more often in this place. One of our omissions as a parliament has been that we have committed Australian troops to this long war for a long time but have given relatively little attention to debating why they went there in the first place, why they are staying there and what the strategy is for them to leave and finally come home. We owe our troops much more attention. Loyalty, devotion and gratitude are a given, but we owe them our responsibility, our intellect, our care and our consideration in determining whether and to what extent the mission remains warranted. It should always be a matter of constant justification to the Australian people and our serving men and women as to why they remain in harm's way.

Today, however, I want to speak directly to the Australians serving us in Afghanistan, to the Australians who will serve us there in the future and to the families who support them when they are there fighting on our behalf. It is not only soldiers fighting for us in Afghanistan. The Australian Federal Police fight against narcotics networks and organised crime syndicates. They fight to train the police in a country that has known neither policing nor justice for many, many years. Specialists from AusAID fight to improve access to education for skills and to the basic amenities of life that all of us here take for granted. Diplomats fight to carve out a space in which democratic government can function in a country which has known neither democracy nor, in most places, government for hundreds of years.

I say to all those Australians: your task is not an easy one. It is hard for Australians at home to understand the work you do in that distant nation. We do not know what it means to mentor an Afghan soldier, to teach an Afghan carpenter or to explain the rule of law to police who have never known it. We cannot envisage the magnitude of your task in a province where travel takes days and deadly bombs are hidden under the roads, maiming children and killing you, your colleagues, the soldiers you are working with and the people whom you are seeking to help. We try to compare your work in Afghanistan with the wars we think we know about or have read about—Vietnam, World War I, perhaps, or smaller engagements such as that in East Timor. But you know that each war is different, and our task in Afghanistan—your task—is more complex than many of us realise here at home. Explaining your work is not easy, and we have often struggled both to thank you for doing it and, more importantly, cogently and persuasively justifying why we have sent you there.

But for you, as for the soldiers of many years passed and many wars passed, there will come a time when you return home. We do not get to determine that date now, for your war is being fought in a place where the tide of progress ebbs and flows daily and the enemy can still shape your environment. But you will return soon and we should envisage what that return will look like. When you return we will not declare victory. Afghanistan will look much like it does today. There will still be violence and grief, peril and passion, corruption and crime, but there will be the promise, thanks to you, of what is possible. The work you have done has shown Afghans that progress is indeed possible, that women can be educated rather than shunned and that disputes can be resolved with wisdom and justice rather than with wounds and violence. You will leave a province where families can speak across valleys on mobile phones, where new roads lead to new markets and where Afghan soldiers know how to conduct a security operation. You know that you will not have eradicated the Taliban or corruption, but you will have made a difference. You will have lit a spark of progress in Oruzgan province that may take many years; it may even take a generation to grow beyond a flicker, but grow surely it will, and it would never have been lit without you and your sacrifice. At some point you will pack away your tools and weapons, you will say goodbye to the Afghans with whom you have worked and sweated and shivered for months and you will get on planes to return to our shores. What will returning with honour look like for you in Australia? When you return we must all learn from your experience. We must ensure that your hard-won lessons are recorded, that your knowledge of Afghanistan and her people do not go to waste. But we must also learn more about how and why we get into and out of wars—notoriously easier to get into than to get out of. We must examine our military strategy in Afghanistan and our foreign policy goals and honestly judge and examine, unclouded by patriotic sentiment and the desire to support the efforts and courage of our troops, in a hard-headed way how effective we have been in our efforts in Afghanistan, both in the conduct of operations and in our decision making to commit and ultimately to depart. We must think deeply and debate honestly about how and where we are willing to use military force in the future.

We honour our dead and we respect and care for our living in the ADF best when we are honest and open and use our keenest intellects to assess the merits of commitment, the manner of engagement and ask always whether we, in putting you into harm's way, are doing so in a manner that serves our national interest. We honour you, we respect you, your service, by ensuring that at all times we can say, 'Yes, we are not committed to this conflict simply because we made a decision years ago and we have not reviewed it.' We respect and honour you by examining that commitment and justifying it anew in the light of the present circumstances.

When you return we must ensure that we protect those Afghans who protected you. As we did in Iraq, we must do all we can to protect our Afghan interpreters and their families from recrimination. We must remind the leadership in Oruzgan that we can still provide advice, even if we will no longer provide a permanent presence. When you return we must never take our eyes off Afghanistan and Pakistan again. We must maintain the ability with our allies to know if terrorist groups are developing sanctuaries and to assist our allies in striking at those sanctuaries and destroying them. When you return we must establish long-term sustainable methods of supporting the fledgling, fractured democracy of Afghanistan. Where we can help in developing democratic mechanisms and supporting the infrastructure of that nation, we should. We Australians are a nation with long experience in educating children across remote areas and vast distances and we should seek to bring that expertise to Afghanistan's growing education system. We must help to maintain the access the Afghans are having to knowledge today, thanks to your work, so that the Taliban cannot return their country, Afghanistan, and the people of that country, to darkness. When you return we must not forget you. We must make sure that we treat your invisible wounds as well as the visible ones. We must not repeat the mistakes of past wars and forgotten soldiers. We should be at the cutting edge of research into post-traumatic stress, into mild traumatic brain injury, and into methods to reintegrate you into your families and communities. We must remember that these invisible wounds affect diplomats, police and aid workers as well as soldiers. Only recently, I was at the Randwick Barracks and met with two of your comrades who are suffering from mild traumatic brain injury—a mysterious illness that crept up on them. After an incident, one of these soldiers led his company for several weeks until finally, bit by bit, it became apparent that he was suffering from a very serious injury, an injury that he struggles to understand. Regrettably, the bureaucrats who should be caring for him struggle to understand it too. We have to lift our game there enormously. We are simply not coping. We as a nation, as a government, are not coping well enough with the challenges of the injuries you have suffered. We have to do much better. When you return we must support your families who have supported you for so long, and without whom you would not be able to do your job in the stressful and dangerous circumstances you found in Afghanistan for months on end.

Returning with honour, and you will return with the greatest honour, will not, however, be easy. Transition from war, from Afghanistan, will be hard. But we must, as a nation, prepare for it now and support you in what will be a difficult process so that you always know that you do not simply have our support in the 'rah rah' sense of 'we're with you boys'; you will have the support of our intellect, our judgment and, above all, our commitment to ensure that the values you fought for are defended in the future and that the injuries that you have suffered, no matter how new to medical science they may be today, are dealt with compassionately and comprehensively. (Time expired)

Jason Clare (Blaxland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence Materiel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Since the House debated our military commitment in Afghanistan last year, I like many members have visited Afghanistan. It has given me a better understanding of the scale of our mission and the challenges that we face. This is a long and difficult war—2,812 ISAF personnel have been killed in action in Afghanistan since those planes hit the towers in New York just over 10 years ago; 32 of those personnel are Australian, and 11 of them have died in the last 12 months. Many more Afghan troops and Afghan civilians have been killed. Australia has spent more than $4 billion on operations and force protection in Afghanistan and the Middle East. The United States spends that much each fortnight. Progress has been hard won. It has taken a long time to get to where we are now, with preparations underway for a nationwide transition of security led responsibility to the Afghan national security forces by the end of 2014. Every loss of an Australian life tests our resolve, especially when the circumstances in which they lose their lives are so incomprehensible. But this is a just cause and the strategy is finally the right one.

We are not in Afghanistan alone; we are there with 47 other countries—one-quarter of the nations of the world. We are there at the request of the government of Afghanistan and under the mandate of the United Nations. We are there like the other 47 countries in ISAF because it is in our national interest to be there. The threat posed by an unstable Afghanistan reaches beyond its own borders. A decade ago it took the lives of more than 3,000 people in New York, Washington DC and Pennsylvania. A year after that it took the lives of 88 Australians in Bali and injured 202 more. That is why we are in Afghanistan: to ensure that it never again becomes a breeding ground for terrorists to plan and train for attacks on innocent people.

This is not a conventional war, one sovereign state against another, and it will not be won by conventional means. We cannot kill our way to victory. Preventing a repeat of the events of the past requires the establishment of a competent and capable army and police force in Afghanistan. This is the only way to ensure that the Taliban and other extremist groups cannot just wait us out. They cannot just wait us out, because we will leave behind an Afghan National Army and an Afghan National Police Force capable of providing security and stability. This is no easy task as the events of the last few weeks remind us, but it is the right one and we are making measurable progress.

When I was in Afghanistan in July, I spoke with soldiers who had been deployed there on more than one occasion and I asked them what progress they had seen. They told me that in places where they were fighting a few years ago, things are now relatively stable and we have expanded our operations into new areas. Several years ago, they were leading all patrols; now many patrols are being led by the Afghan National Army with Australian assistance.

Some sections of the 4th Brigade are developing faster than others. As the Prime Minister advised the House in her report to parliament today, one of the brigades' kandaks, or battalions, is now close to being able to conduct fully-independent operations with Australian advisers. The others are making steady progress with more expected to be capable of conducting independent operations next year. Australian forces have now handed over 11 forward operating bases to the ANA under Afghan control. Places taken by the Afghan National Army and ISAF over the last summer have been held through the fighting season. The insurgents have not been able to take those places back. When they fight in the field, they lose. This is why they have adopted a hit-and-run strategy using IEDs and high-profile suicide bombings.

I arrived in Afghanistan the day after one of these high-profile attacks in July this year. Insurgents launched an attack aimed at killing the Governor of Oruzgan, Mohammed Omer Shirzad, and a number of other important Afghan officials in the province. The attack failed. None of the insurgents' targets were killed but a lot of innocent civilians were, including many children at a school next door to the governor's compound. The incident proved the progress the Afghan National Army units are making. Our commanders in Afghanistan told me that the ANA performed very well that day, responding to the attack with a well-managed security response. There is a little more work to do, but the strategy we have is the right one and we are on track to transfer responsibility for security in Oruzgan to the Afghan National Security Forces by or before the end of 2014.

My job is to make sure our soldiers have the equipment they need to do this job, and it is a responsibility that I take very seriously. A lot of work has been done in the last 12 months. As a consequence, the equipment our soldiers are wearing and using in Afghanistan has changed significantly since the Prime Minister reported to parliament a little over 12 months ago. In the last 12 months we have rolled out new combat body armour, new combat uniforms, and longer-range machine guns to our troops in Afghanistan. We have also upgraded our Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicles in Afghanistan to make them even safer. This upgrade includes the installation of protected weapon stations to reduce the exposure of crew operating vehicle-fitted weapons, internal spall liners that provide vehicle occupants with better protection from direct fire and side blasts, and new seating and flooring that give troops in the vehicle better protection against spinal and lower-limb injuries from the blast effects of improvised explosive devices. Earlier this year we also installed a counter-rocket system at Tarin Kowt and at a number of our forward operating bases to warn troops of rocket attacks. To date they have provided advanced warning of 23 rocket attacks, giving precious seconds for troops to hit the deck or find cover. All up we are spending more than $1.6 billion on new equipment to better protect our troops in Afghanistan. It is a lot of money, but I am sure all members of this House would agree that it is money well spent. It is money that is saving Australian lives.

No-one knows what a soldier needs in Afghanistan better than someone who has actually been there. That is why this year we set up a group called Diggerworks. It is a team made up of scientists, engineers and soldiers who have recently returned from Afghanistan. Their job is to fix the problems that are identified by our troops. It is led by Colonel Jason Blain, who commanded our soldiers in Afghanistan last year.

Twelve months ago the biggest concern our soldiers had with equipment in Afghanistan was the MCBAS body armour. It is very heavy and it is designed for patrolling in vehicles in Iraq, not for patrolling on foot in Afghanistan. It is also very bulky, with a lot of soft body armour that makes it very difficult for soldiers to get in a firing position to use their rifles. The team at Diggerworks worked with Australian industry and have fixed this. They developed new lighter combat body armour called TBAS. I can report to the House that our soldiers are now wearing it in Afghanistan. I have spoken to our soldiers in Afghanistan and the feedback on the new body armour is incredibly positive. Two weeks ago with the shadow minister for defence personnel I visited our troops in Queensland who are training to deploy to Afghanistan and the feedback on the new body armour was the same.

Diggerworks have also done a great job in improving the helmets worn by our troops. An upgrade to 2,000 helmets was completed last month and that included fitting new padding and harnesses inside the helmets to increase comfort and functionality. Next year 1,500 more helmets will be upgraded for troops who are due to deploy in the future.

None of this means that everything is perfect. There is a lot more to do, particularly to counter the threat posed by IEDs.

A division having been called in the House of Representatives—

Sitting suspended from 18:17 to 18:33

Kirsten Livermore (Capricornia, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It being past 6:30 pm, in accordance with standing order 192 the debate is interrupted. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.