Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] I am pleased to speak on this motion today. At the outset, Labor commends the 39,000 dedicated members of the Australian Defence Force, along with officers in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australian Federal Police and other agencies, for their service in Afghanistan, often in difficult and dangerous conditions. In particular, we honour the supreme sacrifice of 41 ADF personnel who lost their lives in the conflict during the past 20 years and we thank their families also for their ongoing sacrifice. We know it's a very difficult time for ADF members and veterans who served there. There are also those ADF personnel involved in evacuation operations now. Some of them have been involved in working at RAAF bases and Army bases around the country, including Amberley in my electorate. The situation in Afghanistan is fraught and fluid, and those people who are getting people out today and over the last few days, and who will be until the end of August, are doing a fantastic job—extraordinary—in very difficult conditions. We thank them for it.

But many veterans are horrified to see the Taliban sweeping across the country, seizing ground for which they fought, scaring communities and making individuals afraid—people who they sought to help when their service was being executed in Afghanistan on our behalf. Speaking to veterans in my community and from around the country over this past week, I know that many are frustrated, disappointed and heartbroken. Our veterans need to know that they're not alone and that Australia is proud of their service. That is why Labor has called on the government to provide extra support for veterans who may be questioning the value of their service and sacrifice.

I telephoned the Minister for Veterans' Affairs last Monday and told him that the government needed to be proactive in providing assistance for ADF personnel and veterans who may be struggling at this time. I am pleased—and I want to thank the Minister for Veterans' Affairs—for the fact that the Department of Veterans' Affairs has been contacting families of ADF members who were killed in Afghanistan, as well as veterans the department is aware of who may be affected by what's happening. I thank the government for that and I thank the minister personally for responding in such a way.

I encourage ADF members and veterans to look after their mates, to make use of the support available through counselling services like Open Arms and ex-service organisations like local RSL sub-branches, Mates4Mates, Wounded Heroes and Soldier On. I know many of these people are angry. Many feel that the government has abandoned them, that it has betrayed the local interpreters and staff—their brothers in arms they call them—who helped keep them safe in Afghanistan.

For many months Labor, along with veterans, retired senior ADF officers and former prime ministers, have been calling for urgent action from the government to honour our moral responsibility and obligation to those who risked everything to support our mission, even if that means processing their visa applications in third countries. I spoke in parliament on this issue back in June and urged the government to act immediately. My voice was just one of many, many voices urging the government to act. Around that time veterans like Glenn Kolomeitz, Jason Scanes and Heston Russell were warning the government that they only had a narrow window of opportunity get people out. From veterans like these there have been numerous reports of hundreds of interpreters being killed by the Taliban in recent years and months.

By July other nations, like the United States of America, were airlifting their Afghan supporters before the Taliban took control of most of the country by early August, but stubbornly the government refused to participate in evacuating our Afghan friends and participating in this mission offered to the government. The government dithered and delayed right up until Kabul itself fell, and so they were left scrambling to send our first evacuation flight on 16 August. Just to show how the government were caught short: they withdrew a motion on Afghanistan from the member for Fisher yesterday. It was due to be debated yesterday, but some of the contents of that motion could have caused embarrassment to the government and they had to withdraw the motion.

The reality is that for many months the government have been sitting on their hands, quibbling about individuals' eligibility for visas. Some have justified the delays by even suggesting the threat of a small number of individuals being linked to the Taliban. The comments by some spokespeople from the government are simply a disgrace. It is not good enough for the government to be treating people in this way. They were suggesting, for example, that some of these people would have shifted alliances and so would be a threat to our national security. No-one is suggesting that identity and security checks shouldn't be carried out in these circumstances. But, make no mistake, our global reputation is at stake here. It's not just a moral obligation. It's in our national interest to get these people out and honour our word. If we neglect these people now we'll only compromise our ability to recruit local staff in future conflicts and peacekeeping operations.

Thanks to the government's red tape and bureaucratic delays, we're now hearing reports of Afghans being overwhelmed by paperwork and process while their safety becomes increasingly precarious. There are Australians today desperate and anxious about their family in Afghanistan. They have been waiting months, and in some cases years, to get partner visas or family reunification visas issued and get their families out. Now there is the prospect of people not being able to get to Kabul airport and having to run the gauntlet of Taliban fighters there.

Like many MPs, my office has received numerous requests from citizens, defence personnel, veterans and Afghan Australians on behalf of family and friends stranded in the country. Many of them are heartfelt, desperate requests and heartbreaking stories. The government's attempts to provide guidance and support to a community that has faced an incredibly difficult time have been woefully inadequate. The shambolic way in which the government has treated Afghan security guards who protected our embassy in Kabul is a case in point. First, years after some had first sought asylum, the guards and their family members were shocked to receive mass-produced form letters from DFAT on Friday saying they had been rejected for the locally engaged employee visa scheme because they were not direct employees of our embassy—not that the Taliban would ever make that distinction. They were told they needed to apply for one of 3,000 general humanitarian places and were encouraged to find a migration agent. Then, late on Sunday, it appears the government backflipped and tried to spin that the guards had been approved for visas in another unspecified humanitarian category, but their lawyer has said that the guards themselves have not been told this and that there is still no clarity as to what specific visa category they're eligible for. Now we're hearing reports this morning that the guards and their families had been directed by DFAT to go to Kabul airport yesterday, only to have been turned away by ADF personnel because they didn't have visas in their passports. Talk about red tape. This is a disgrace. It's utterly chaotic. The government needs to fix this and fix this now. Peoples' lives are at stake.

One ADF member who has been assisting in my office tellingly said last week that he has a very different view of the government he serves and the government in general. He simply couldn't believe that they had no plan to get these people out and was disgusted by the way his former interpreter and his former interpreter's family were being treated. I can assure the House that, on the Labor side, we'll do everything we can to support people in their pleas to have their families evacuated to safety. We understand that every case has to be considered on its merits, including security considerations, but peoples' lives are at stake. The government has been wasting precious time, yet, instead of taking responsibility for its failures, all we get is excuse after excuse. The Prime Minister had to admit last week that events had overtaken us and that Australia won't be able to get out all the Afghans who helped us. He says he wishes things were different. I say to the Prime Minister: that's simply not good enough.

The reality is that, like in so many other areas, whether it be the vaccine rollout, the bushfire response, robodebt or veteran suicide, the government's done too little, too late. TheSydney Morning Herald political and international editor Peter Hartcher wrote on the weekend:

There is no crisis so big or so urgent that the Morrison government cannot find a rationalisation for avoiding it.

I agree with him. The government has been incompetent and out of touch. The Prime Minister and the government have been characterised by inertia. I say to the Prime Minister and the government: please do better for all of us and for our Afghan friends.

Vince Connelly (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As I begin some comments on our drawdown in Afghanistan, I want to acknowledge all of the veterans serving in this place. We've got a few in the room and on the television screen—the member for Braddon, the member for Herbert, and the minister at the table, Stuart Robert, who is also an ADF veteran. In fact, we're approaching something like a platoon strength now between this House and the other, which is wonderful to see.

It's important to start with what is most important, and right now our absolute focus is on the evacuation of Australian citizens, permanent residents and visa holders, including those who have helped us in Afghanistan. That is absolutely our focus. As we speak, approximately 700 Australian personnel—ADF personnel, members from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Home Affairs, and others—are there, alongside our coalition forces, helping with those evacuations. In fact, just last night 650 people were evacuated, with 1,700 during the last week. They are in addition to more than 8½ thousand Afghan nationals who have been resettled in Australia since 2013. This includes 1,900 locally employed Afghan members and their families. This is a mission we have been on for quite some time, albeit that it is certainly ramping up at the moment. We've been committed to doing the right thing and we remain committed to doing the right thing for those who have stood by us. It's also been announced by the Prime Minister that there will be at least 3,000 further Afghans settled as part of our humanitarian program. That is a floor not a ceiling. I would like to commend at this time the relevant ministers in Defence, Home Affairs and Immigration as well as electorate offices right around the country. In my own, Lachlan Parish has been tireless in engaging with our constituents who have families who are also part of those we are seeking to evacuate. So that's the first thing we're focused on.

It is also, though, an opportunity to reflect on our involvement in Afghanistan. We do this just briefly, because we are focused on the evacuation operation and there will be further time for reflection subsequently. But it is worth noting that, back in 2001, our aim was to assist the US, NATO and the international community in Afghanistan to find Osama bin Laden and those responsible for the September 11 attacks. We achieved that and, in doing so, also eliminated and degraded al-Qaeda's opportunities and capacity to use Afghanistan as a staging area for additional mass terror attacks.

Next month will mark 20 years since the September 11 attacks. Al-Qaeda, using the safe haven provided by the Taliban, attacked our very way of life. I'm sure that everybody here and those listening can vividly remember where they were that day. It was a moment in time for this entire generation as we saw the vivid images of the World Trade Center towers exploding, burning and then collapsing. We saw people jumping from windows and falling to their death. We saw the smoke and the debris. We heard the sirens. I'm sure many of us have had the sombre experience of revisiting New York and seeing the very moving memorial there. I remember being a young platoon commander stationed up in Darwin. I hadn't yet been on my first military operation. I was dressed in my PT kit ready to head into the base and get the day started, and I saw some of those images. And, of course, as things unfolded that day, all of us started to recognise and realise that our way of life had been deeply impacted and would remain touched by this event, as it has for the past 20 years. So, in 2001, we went into Afghanistan, along with allies, to root out those who had challenged our freedoms and to degrade the capacity for more attacks to be staged out of Afghanistan. Indeed, the ability to stage these attacks has been hampered, interrupted and curtailed on many occasions, and those mass casualty attacks have absolutely been prevented. This is testament to all those who have served in the various theatres, including Afghanistan.

We also saw, over the last 20 years, Australians alongside allies working hard to try and improve the status of those living in Afghanistan. We saw some great improvements in terms of education, particularly for young girls, and in terms of health care, power generation and much more. What we had been able to do for the last 20 years was to make a huge difference to a whole generation of those living in Afghanistan. Hope is never wasted. We've absolutely made a difference in those peoples' lives and, for anyone who may question whether our involvement has been worth it, in terms of protecting freedoms—both our own here in Australia and those of the people with whom we share this planet—and the hope that we give, that effort is absolutely never wasted.

Australia today is safer because of those who have served, and today we honour the sacrifice of the 41 Australians who died in Afghanistan. Along with everybody else in this House, we especially extend our condolences and ongoing heartfelt wishes to those families who, of course, continue to suffer those losses. We also acknowledge the role of the 39,000 Australian men and women of the Australian Defence Force who have served in Afghanistan as well as those Defence officials and civilians who have served in Afghanistan over 20 years in the cause of fighting terrorism, promoting freedom and seeking to support the people of Afghanistan.

War is a sobering reminder to us all that freedoms are hard won and easily lost. We see the Australian spirit, more than anything, having been channelled through all of those who have been involved in Afghanistan. I made comments in my first speech that I had come to this place seeking to simply do as much good as I can, and that was certainly what drove me to sign up at the ripe old age of 17 to the Australian Defence Force and to give, as I was discussing with the member for Braddon, the very best 20 years of my life across full-time and then part-time service. It's a thing that I know all veterans reflect on. It is absolutely a sacrifice. But I want to make some comments here on behalf of many veterans. I don't seek to comment on behalf of all veterans, because there are different sentiments, but the last thing I think we need in this place is to try and paint veterans as victims. I want to say on my own behalf that I'm extremely proud of the operations I participated in in my career, and I know my wife, also as a defence veteran, is extremely proud of what she has been able to achieve. I just want to reinforce, here in this House and for those listening: please don't feel sorry for our veterans. Whilst some of them absolutely need our help from time to time, they also bring back to society a range of skills, experiences and attitudes that are of massive value to our society, to our businesses, to our families, to our community groups and to our nation.

Today, not only do we honour the sacrifices of those who have served, those who have fought and those who have died in Afghanistan, but I say to all veterans and to all partners and families of veterans: thank you deeply for your service, for protecting the freedoms that we are all so very passionate about. With that, I commend this motion to the House.

Tony Smith (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I call the honourable member for Lingiari.

Warren Snowdon (Lingiari, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for External Territories) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] Thank you, Mr Speaker. It's great to see you behind those petitions. I'm sorry I'm not close to you. But it is what it is. Can I acknowledge the previous speaker for his contribution and say to him and to all veterans: thank you for what you've done for this country and continue to do. I also want to acknowledge contributions made by others in this debate. It provides me with an opportunity to reinforce the statements of support we've just seen of our defence personnel who were engaged on our behalf for over 20 years in Afghanistan. Of course, I particularly want to express my sorrow at the loss of 41 brave Australians who gave their lives for us in Afghanistan. We should honour them, and will honour them, forever.

Over the last day or so, I've reflected on our decision to support the international effort in Afghanistan post 9/11. Of course, as others have said, it was the right thing to do, it was a mission we should have been involved in, and I'm glad we were. It is important that, despite the chaotic and depressing events evolving currently, we see that our contribution in Afghanistan has actually made a material difference and had a significant impact, despite what we now see. Because of the length of time I've been in the parliament, I've been involved in debates about war and Australians going overseas in uniform, but it's worth pointing out, I think, that we were distracted from our mission in Afghanistan by the Howard government's folly in supporting the Bush presidency's invasion of Iraq in 2003.

As I observed in a speech to this parliament in August 2006—and at this stage, of course, things were progressing:

Things may well be different in Afghanistan now had the commitment the Australian government had shown to putting troops in in the first place been retained and if we had pressured the United States government not to enter the folly of Iraq but to maintain the focus on Afghanistan, rooting out those terrorist elements working with al-Qaeda and others involved in the region.

There is a valid discussion to be had about whether the outcome in Afghanistan would be different had we not been diverted in our mission by misguided support, devoting our scarce resources in the quagmire of regime change in Iraq, based as it was on the lie of weapons of mass destruction. It's worth having that discussion, but not today.

We know that our defence personnel, whether it was in Afghanistan or Iraq, were required to go to war on our behalf, and we in this country need to fully comprehend what that means. When ADF personnel sign up, they are agreeing to fight for this country and possibly die for this country. So, when we reflect on Afghanistan, on the sacrifices made, we need to acknowledge that our ADF personnel were doing precisely as they were required to do as a result of decisions taken by governments, by us, by the politicians. But they made a huge difference. In October 2010 I said in this chamber, in relation to Afghanistan:

We are creating a situation where the ordinary Afghan citizen can be confident that the International Security Assistance Force and the Afghan national security forces are making headway. We know that the Taliban suppressed free speech. There are now 400 print media publications, 150 radio stations and 26 television stations in Afghanistan. In the past nine years we have seen more than two million girls enrolled in schools. We have seen basic health care being extended from 10 per cent to 85 per cent of the population.

Our sadness today is that these gains have now been undermined by the Taliban takeover.

We must feel for the Afghan community here in Australia, for all those wonderful people who took advantage of the gains which were made as a result of our presence to better themselves and get an education—particularly young women. But it points to our obligation to do all that is humanly possible now to get our Australian citizens and any visa holders out of Kabul as well as our Afghan friends who worked with us in a variety of roles, whether they were interpreters, security guards or the like. I cannot imagine the despair, the sorrow and the hurt being felt by so many Afghan Australians. I know that so many of our veterans are frustrated and concerned, even angry, at what they are seeing unfold.

I want to reinforce the message given yesterday in this chamber by the shadow minister for defence, the member for Gorton:

If you want to do more to support the veterans' community in this hour, get our friends out of Afghanistan now.

Australians know the sacrifices that have been made for them by their ADF members. We must do all that we possibly can to get this done. I want to again express my gratitude to and admiration for our ADF personnel and our veterans who are no longer in uniform but who have in the past given so much.

I had the privilege, as the Minister for Defence Science and Personnel, of visiting the Middle East area of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan on a number of occasions. I can personally testify to the professionalism, the dedication and the loyalty of so many Australians. I want to thank them for what they achieved and for their service to this country. We need to record our sincere appreciation, as the member for Gorton said yesterday:

… for the efforts and sacrifices of our defence personnel, our aid workers, our Federal Police and our embassy staff. Right now we need to help those who helped us. We need the government to focus on doing what it can …

Therefore, I really want to reinforce the message from the member for Blair in his speech about the obligation that this government has to make sure we get those people who helped us out of Afghanistan and to support those who need to leave that country because of the situation they find themselves in. I say to the Afghan community in Australia: we are with you in this. We are glad you are here. We want to see more of you.

Gavin Pearce (Braddon, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm very proud of my job, in representing the good electorate of Braddon, but I'm also very proud of my service as a digger, and it's from that perspective, the digger's perspective, that I want to speak today. Having spoken to the digger veteran community that I have close contact with, I know they're frustrated with the way in which certain spheres of our media and our politics are turning the current operation into something that is beyond belief. The way this is being whipped up, when we still have boots on the ground, disgusts me, and I know it disgusts my fellow veterans.

I'm a former radio operator. The call sign 'Contact! Wait out' is an important one for us. When we hear that on a radio net, our concentration goes to what is happening. It means that a particular team has engaged the enemy. From that point on, only the commander on the ground or the supporting elements will talk on the radio net. That's for a very good reason. It's to allow the focus to be where it needs to be—that is, on the boots on the ground in the firefight. It's to allow the commander on the ground to have his head to manoeuvre his troops and to call for support when necessary. It's absolutely vital. It's life and death. As far as I'm concerned, the stage we're at at the moment is: 'Contact! Wait out.' We have boots on the ground.

When I talk about 'the ground', I don't mean just any old ground. This ground is the most dangerous on the planet. The dangers that those soldiers, air crew and former field personnel face is second to none. The threat is ever present with every step they take. As we close in towards the final stages of this mission, the threat increases commensurately. I encourage everybody in the place, the media and all those who are forming their opinions from the comfort of their lounge chairs to consider the ones on the ground, the ones in the firefight, the ones extracting valuable personnel from the most dangerous part of the earth.

On 11 September 2001, at 22.46 kilo, I was called into the operations room at 7th Signal Regiment, electronic warfare. Two aircraft had just hit a building in New York. The subsequent 2,996 deaths sent that operations room into turmoil. I would ask all those out there today who are considering the current position to cast their minds back to that time 20 years ago. I remember it very distinctly. I remember the looks on the faces of the diggers in that operating environment. I remember them with their cans on—their headphones on—listening to the traffic that was coming in. We didn't know whether it was World War III or whether it was an isolated incident. We were looking for intelligence everywhere to try to support the mission and tell our commanders where they were situationally, tactically—to do our job. I still remember the look in the eyes of those diggers, the state of confusion, disbelief and shock. But as those diggers maintained that look they immediately fell into their job, their mission. That is exactly what they were trained to do and that's what diggers do—they do their job.

The job that we have at the moment in Afghanistan, at Kabul, is one of the most important missions we've seen for some time. I can guarantee you that every single one of the soldiers involved in that operation is not thinking of politics. I can guarantee you that they're not thinking of the next headline in the paper. I can guarantee you that they're not thinking about social media, in relation to sensationalising the mission that they're on. They're thinking about their mission: what they have to do, keeping their mates on their left and their right alive and protecting the life of the asset that they're exfiltrating—protecting the people that they're charged with protecting. That's what their job is. And I'll tell you what, Mr Speaker: the families of those soldiers involved don't think about politics either. They don't think about headlines. They don't think about social media. They think about their loved ones.

When I hear the term '41 brave Australian soldiers', it has a different connotation for me. I see each and every one of them. I see them as a fellow brother. I see their families. I see their wives. I see their kids, who will never see their fathers again. I see mothers. I see fathers. I see human life. So, to me, it has a very different connotation.

It's also time for our nation to reflect on the sacrifice that our defence families make in supporting their loved ones. They didn't sign up for this; they never raised their hand, but they're along for the ride anyway and they bear a lot of the burden that our defence personnel incur during their service. Often, when the discharge happens and that particular digger gets out, the families are the ones who suffer. So today I think it behoves us all to think of the loved ones—the families, the kids, the mothers, the fathers—because, in some cases, all those loved ones have is a flag. I've been on the wrong side of delivering that to a particular mother, and it'll never leave me—the look in her eyes when we gave her that flag to replace her son. I know that the tears that fell on her flag were real, and I know that she would treasure that flag because that is the only connection that she has. Families do it tough, as well as our veterans.

When our veterans consider and contemplate, when they do get time to consider what they've done, what has occurred and what they've had to do as part of executing their mission, then that becomes confronting as well. Sometimes—particularly given the situation with the current exfiltration at Kabul in Afghanistan—veterans may become bewildered and disappointed: 'Why were we there? Why did we bother?' But, for us as a parliament and a country, I, as a bloke, want to talk to every single last veteran out there today and tell you very sincerely, very honestly, to raise your head high, because of the difference that you made in defending your country, in maintaining and carrying out your mission and in looking after your mates. You have protected a complete generation of Afghanis. You've given them hope. And that's what the Australian flag gives, when locals that we're protecting in-country look up and see that. They see a very special soldier—they see a digger. An Australian digger is renowned for being not only one of the most lethal, deadly soldiers on the planet but also, as lethal as they are, one who can turn around and pick a little kid out of a piece of razor wire, or take a lolly out of their basic pouch, or give a little child a drink or help it with its first day. That's what diggers are renowned for. They've got compassion. They've got the care. They've got a heart. So these conflicting qualities of lethality and care are, I think, very much something to be proud of. I, together with all my colleagues here and with the nation, want to assure all our veterans and all our veterans' families, and all those who have suffered and continue to suffer, that we're immensely proud of you. Lest we forget.

Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I join with the Prime Minister, the Labor leader, the deputy leaders, the defence and shadow defence ministers and all speakers so far in speaking about the situation in Afghanistan. I want to acknowledge all the speakers and, in particular, those who have served in that country.

I won't be going back into history and offering my judgements on our time there. This isn't a time for that. We all know why we went there; we all remember September 11. I want to pay tribute to all the Australians who worked or served in Afghanistan, whether that was with the ADF, the AFP, other agencies, diplomatic corps, NGOs or in any other organisation or capacity that was there in that country to do good. And I want to pay tribute to their families.

To the families of the 41 fallen: I send my love to you. It was right of the defence minister to read out a roll call yesterday of the 41. There's just one thing to follow-up—I know mistakes happen: it's Robbie, not Richard, Poate. I acknowledge that it has now been fixed in Hansard, but he should give Hugh and Jenny Poate a quick call to see how they're travelling.

To the families of those who fell when their loved ones returned home: I send my love to you as well. To those struggling today I send my solidarity. The feelings of pain will pass, but please, please reach out to a mate. Talk to your loved ones. Open Arms is there and ex-service organisations are there. Hold your head up high and know that we made a difference over there—those who were there doing good.

I pay tribute to all those working to evacuate Australians and those Afghans who we're rescuing right now—those ADF members, those aviators and those soldiers. I pay tribute to them—godspeed to you all. And to the Afghan people enduring this upheaval and to the Australian Afghan community in distress I say that we're here with you. I want to assure Australians that we're getting Aussies out of Kabul. Efforts are underway, belatedly, to rescue some former interpreters and embassy staff, and also families, orphan girls and women, including those who have been human rights advocates, journalists and lawmakers. It's difficult work, but it is happening. It's dangerous work, but it is happening.

I worked in Afghanistan a few times—not in ADF uniform, but in security roles as a contracted adviser to provide security. I worked in Kandahar in southern Afghanistan and in Kabul. I worked with Afghan elders and I worked with the UN mission, NGOs and the coalition forces. So I think I can be most helpful in giving Australians an idea of part of the current situation in relation to the evacuation of loyal Afghan staff who served Australia.

On 28 May, the Australian embassy in Kabul was closed. Over two months later the embassy was sanitised by Australian embassy staff—and other agencies, obviously. Two weeks later, Kabul fell to the Taliban. The Australian government had a duty of care to its former staff. They were about to be plunged into immense risk and there was time to be able to extend that duty of care. Why did the Australian government not brief the embassy contractors? It could have enabled them time to get themselves and their families to safety—the paperwork done and the evacuations conducted in safety, rather than this belated rush of evacuation that we're seeing now. That is a question for the federal government to answer.

Let me provide some context of the embassy staff—contracted security guards, for example. They're on the bottom of the pack, the most poorly paid. I note that some commentators are doing the work of the government by suggesting that these guards got hundreds of dollars a day and therefore should just have accepted the risk of the danger that would befall them when the Taliban took Afghanistan. But this is untrue. They weren't on hundreds of US dollars a day. They're the ones who were on the front lines, like our ADF soldiers were, checking vehicles and people for bombs. We know that some of them took bullets in defence of Australia. They've been subject to harassing fire while doing their job. They stopped suicide bombers. They have taken the hit and they've been visible to the public, including the Taliban, so they're obviously now in great danger. When all the prime ministers—the current one, Malcolm Turnbull, Tony Abbott, Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd, John Howard—visited Kabul, it was the ADF personnel and these people that kept our prime ministers safe.

We want to have a foreign presence and influence in the world, so we need to have a physical presence, and that requires security. From my observations on the ground in Kandahar and Kabul over the years and from talking to Australians who have worked for these organisations, I understand that some of the security companies have been actively engaged in supporting these staff, and that is good. They are mostly ex-military people; they know those guards well. They often said the guards believe in Australia, but they've been screwed over on this occasion. The situation in Kabul, as difficult as it has been, has seen these guards learn a bit of the Aussie Anzac spirit. That is what veterans who have worked for the companies say.

Now, how are they treated? After Kabul fell, they received a letter saying, 'Sorry, you're not getting a visa.' Then, 24 hours later, they were told, 'You are getting a visa,' and they were told to go to the airport. Then they went to the airport with their families, but they weren't allowed through. So my question to the Prime Minister and to the government is: what the hell is going on here? Confusion reigns as tens of thousands of Taliban fighters own the city of Kabul, placing our ADF personnel in danger. The Minister for Home Affairs says that the government moved quickly to get the embassy staff visas. No—quickly would have been June; quickly would have been July or even early August. To honour those Afghans who protected Australians, this must be said. The government were much too slow and neglected their responsibilities and, as a result, they will also have made us less safe the next time we deploy to a country and want to work with the local population.

I want to acknowledge the dedicated work of all the advocates out there, including the veterans who are trying to get their interpreters to safety. I want to acknowledge the work of Kay and Kerry Danes, and Patrick Ryan and the GAP legal team for all their tireless work in supporting the Australian embassy staff. They've been at it for so long and continue, through sleepless nights, to provide support to the people who obviously, because of the service they provided Australia—at the Australian embassy and the DFAT accommodation compounds—are known and are in danger, and they are trying to protect their loved ones. The world is watching; the veterans community is watching. Let it be known that we are a good people and we don't abandon our mates.

I want to join with the Labor leader, as a member of the alternative executive, to call on the Taliban to live up to their commitments. More broadly, there needs to be an in-depth conversation in our nation about Australia's place in the world and the challenges we face in the future, particularly in the Indo-Pacific. We do great work in the world, and that reputation has taken a hit. I urge the ministers to coordinate our response to keep our people safe, get all the Australians out that want to go and as many loyal Afghans as possible.

Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] I want to start by acknowledging everyone who's contributed to this debate yesterday and today, but, more so, I want to acknowledge the many soldiers and their families who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service of this nation in Afghanistan, who, no doubt, have been doing it extremely tough today and through these past few weeks. I reach out to and acknowledge all the veterans and communities around the country, the many that have been wounded, injured or become ill from their service, and those many who have succumbed to their war within after their service in Afghanistan. And I acknowledge their families, who, rightly so, will be doing it tough.

Afghanistan has been a complex place for such a long time. I, myself, served there in 2009. I was injured there by an improvised explosive device that detonated. I was 21. It blew my eardrum. I still can't hear out of my ear. It was a traumatic injury, and I was then diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. It was a really rough time. That's my story, but there are thousands and thousands more like it. What we're seeing now in Afghanistan is heart-breaking. It does feel like a kick in the guts to see places where we have fought, where we've spilt blood, where we've had soldiers wounded, killed and taken by the Taliban. To then see the Taliban sitting in the presidential palace brings up a lot of mixed feelings. I want to say to the veteran community, the people that have been there and their families: reach out to each other and talk to your mates.

Your service is honourable. What we did there was fantastic and it helped a nation. We built schools for girls and wells for communities. We fought the Taliban. We fought bad people in a nation so we didn't have to fight them here. We kept these people on the run and hiding in the mountains. We saved locals and children from standing on IEDs and becoming injured or dying. It's a very tough space that we find ourselves in right now. But I want to echo what the member for Braddon said. We have troops on the ground in Afghanistan. We have Australian soldiers in Kabul, who are doing this nation's work and who are trying to help as many people as they can, and they're doing such a great job. We don't want to be putting them in danger. We don't want to be exposing them to any more undue risk, and I think that the communication, whether it's in this place or throughout the media, needs to remember that. Because whilst we take our political pot shots at each other we have the potential to put our people in more risk, and we should not be doing that. We have many soldiers from 1st Battalion, based here in Townsville, on the ground right now. These are friends of mine, people who come to my house for a barbecue, people who I call mates, people who I've served with and, now, people who I represent in federal parliament. Their communication back to me from on the ground is that they don't like seeing the headlines saying that Australian soldiers should be doing more. They're doing everything they can to help the people of Afghanistan and to help people get out of harm's way.

There are many veterans who have asked or may be asking themselves: was it worth it? We've seen this on TV or in the papers: journalists wanting to ask people, 'Do you think it was worth it?' The answer is yes. I'll read something that Curtis McGrath said in the newspaper. He was asked if it was worth it. Curtis McGrath lost both of his legs in Afghanistan, and he is now a gold medallist Paralympian. He said:

I thought of the man that exposed himself to the Taliban to tell us where the insurgents had buried IEDs. With insurgents watching on, he walked from his village and to our checkpoint to help us. It was his courage that allowed us to remove a series of IEDs. And I am sure by doing that we saved lives. So I am not ashamed. I know what we achieved personally. I saw the terrors of insurgency on the ground. Witnessed first-hand the cruelty of the Taliban. We went there and tried to make it a better place. We had to.

As for the IED that took Curtis's legs, he said:

It could have been a school bus that drove over it if I hadn't stepped on it.

So I wouldn't change a thing. And that is why I can justify my sacrifice. Regardless of what happens now, I know I made a difference.

Still my thoughts are with both the people of Afghanistan and the veterans who may be struggling to deal with what has happened.

That is from Curtis McGrath, a great Australian, who lost both of his legs. He states that his contribution to Afghanistan was important and he wouldn't change a thing.

I can't imagine what he must go through every day, putting on his prosthetic legs to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom or to walk down the road. To do all the things that he used to do before must now be so much more challenging. The many soldiers, veterans, who have been wounded from an IED or in Afghanistan have to change their lives and their family element. There are many people who have had severe mental health issues post their service. These are all challenges that our people face on a day-to-day basis. But their service in Afghanistan was remarkable. We went to a place and we did great work. We helped so many people. Just like Curtis said: 'We went there to do the right thing.' And the people there now are there to do the right thing.

I know we that will do everything we can to bring more people back to Australia. Those Afghans who helped us through times of great despair, who fought alongside us and who interpreted for us, now fight against terror. I truly believe that we as a parliament should work together to ensure that we are helping not just the Afghans and their families coming to Australia but also the many veterans who are sitting back watching us squabble. We shouldn't be doing that. There is a time when we will be reporting on and debating what's happening or what's happened in Afghanistan, but it's not the time now. We have troops on the ground. Don't put them at risk. Let's look after them. Look after your mates and, if you're doing it tough, reach out to each other. Thanks so much. God bless.

Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It's clearly been heartbreaking to watch the distressing scenes coming out of Afghanistan, not only for the Afghan people but also for the international community as a whole. We must reflect on what this means for Australians who are stranded in Afghanistan; Australians who have relatives in their homeland; Afghans who have worked with the Australian and allied military personnel during the conflict; the officials who have been caught up through, for example, humanitarian agencies; and, most of all, our veterans, who are no doubt feeling the absolute brutal cost of this 20-year-long mission.

While this is not how we envisaged that the conflict would end, we must now come to terms with the reality and the urgency of the humanitarian disaster now unfolding. Although many veterans will, no doubt, be questioning whether the Afghan war was worth it, on behalf of our community and certainly I think on behalf of all Australians, I want to reaffirm our gratitude for the service that they have given for their country in a fight against terrorism to secure freedom and a better future for Afghans and particularly for women and girls. This was not for nothing. Clearly this conflict will raise many emotions within the community, but we must also think of the gains that have been made through the efforts of our participation in the Afghan conflict, particularly through education, health, human rights, trade and, to an extent, the opening up of diplomatic connections throughout the region.

While there is no doubt that miscalculations and misgivings were made throughout this mission, as I gather would occur in any tense situation of conflict, let us recall the reason why the allied intervention occurred in Afghanistan in the first place: it was a fight against terrorism, terrorism espoused by extremist groups, including al-Qaeda, who were responsible for the tragic September 11 attack and who colluded with the Taliban to attack our very way of life. To our veterans, our service men and women, we are indeed in your debt for your service. As a nation we are safer today from the threat of terrorism because of your courage and your sacrifice.

While these have been certainly testing times with the situation in Kabul and across Afghanistan rapidly evolving our priority must be to ensure the safety and orderly departure of Australian citizens, permanent residents, visa holders and those in Afghanistan who have supported Australia and our allies on the ground. This is not just a moral obligation; it's certainly a matter of some considerable importance when it comes to our national security. I believe the government could have, and should have, done more as soon as it had decided to announce its intention to leave Afghanistan nearly three months ago.

I know many members have been contacted by constituents concerned about the plight of relatives in Afghanistan, but I would like to refer to one. I was recently contacted by a constituent expressing grave concern with regard to his father and brother in Afghanistan due to the support that they had provided to allied forces throughout the conflict. The situation is so grave that I'm informed a formal directive has been issued by the Taliban ordering the death of these men and their families. While they have documentation that substantiates the nature of their work with allied forces, they don't have a visa. The consequence is that they cannot enter the airport because they don't have their visas. They risk being caught by the Taliban with the incriminating documents which define the work they were doing with allied forces throughout the conflict. This is but one example of the real and pressing dangers facing many individuals in Afghanistan who have supported our mission, and we must be prepared to take further action to secure the safety of these people and these families.

We must not forget the humanitarian obligations to the Afghan people, with the United Nations estimating 250,000 internally displaced Afghan people since May of this year. Just in my electorate alone, I've received over 200 emails from concerned family members about the current plight of Afghanistan. Constituents from a vast range of backgrounds, professions and ages are coming to advocate for the protection of the human rights, the security and the dignity of all Afghans, and this is something occurring within our communities that we should be proud of. We are talking about the women, the children, the human rights activists and the many members of the various minority groups in Afghanistan. While we welcome the government's announcement of 3,000 places for Afghan resettlement in the year 2021-22, more can be done to resettle Afghans throughout our humanitarian program.

The sheer desperation of Afghan people has been captured in a very moving way in the images that we have seen over the past week. There was the image of the teenage boy gripping to the undercarriage of a moving aircraft and tragically falling from the plane after take-off and the image of a parent offering up their child to a military officer over a fence at Kabul airport. You've got to wonder, Deputy Speaker, what was going through the mind of that boy or that parent taking such drastic action. That can only be described as sheer desperation and fear of what is to come under the Taliban leadership.

With that said, we must take an active role as part of the international community to secure the safety of Afghanistan and its people and to restore hope of a better life for those who suffered and endured so long under the harsh leadership of the Taliban. We owe it to the Australian Afghan community and to our veterans to ensure that this hope becomes a reality.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last Monday, like many Australians, I woke to the news that Kabul had fallen to the Taliban. Whilst many of us weren't shocked that Kabul had fallen, most of us were surprised at the speed at which the Taliban had advanced across the country and the speed at which they took control of the capital, without firing a shot, in essence. After 20 years of conflict, the war in Afghanistan was over. No matter how you spin it, the Taliban had won.

Like the many invading forces that had come before them, like the Russians and the Brits, the Western forces were defeated in what has become known as the graveyard of empires. The West—the US, NATO, Australia and New Zealand, among many other countries—and their forces, with all of their modern military might, having spent billions and billions of dollars, had lost to a much less resourced and capable fighting force. Western forces were not vanquished by some single major military loss but through a war of attrition and of patience. The Taliban simply waited us out. They waited until the resolve of the West had declined to such a point that the West and indeed the Afghan National Army had simply lost the political will to fight. That is the sad reality. But, like in most wars, it was the civilian population which bore the brunt of this war's pain and suffering. Whilst we don't have any true exact figures, it's reported that around 40,000 civilian lives were lost and countless others were wounded.

This was a war which cost the lives of 41 Australian service personnel. Many more were wounded physically, emotionally and mentally. We must never, ever forget their sacrifice and that of their families, and the sacrifices their comrades and their families continue to make in our name in many parts of the world, both here and abroad. As a nation, we throw our collective arms around our diggers and our ADF personnel and their families. We are proud of you. We thank you for your service.

I've never served in the ADF, but over the past five years in this job I've worked closely with many that have and still do. I've been to Afghanistan twice, most recently almost two years ago to the day. In my dealings with members of the ADF, particularly those on deployment in Afghanistan and in Iraq, they had an immense pride in the work that they were doing. They felt that they were making a difference, not just in the lives of the Afghan soldiers that they were training over the past eight years or so but in the lives of all the civilians that they touched on deployment.

We must never fall into the trap of joining the popular commentators' chorus in extolling that the cost did not justify the end. That cost is measured in both blood and billions of dollars, but to suggest that the end did not justify the means does not accurately reflect the impact Australians had on the local Afghan population. I can just hear certain segments of the media yelling: 'What about the war crimes?' How can you talk of the good works that were done when the IGADF report held that there was credible evidence of the existence of war crimes having been committed by Australian special forces whilst on deployment in Afghanistan?' We must never join in that chorus, because it belittles the work of the 39,000 ADF members who deployed to Afghanistan and the outstanding contributions that they made in combat, in reconstruction and in training the ANA. In any event, the allegations made against a very small number of special forces operators are just that: they are allegations. Just like every other Australian, they deserve the right to the presumption of innocence.

Like many Australians, my heart is breaking for the civilian population of Afghanistan, who are now left to the mercy of the Taliban. We've seen over the past week the spin doctors of the Taliban trying to convince the world that the Taliban 2.0 is not like the murderous regime of the late nineties and early-2000s. They have changed, we've been assured. Well, time will tell. But, if recent reports of the murder and torture of those connected with the West can be trusted, I fear for those left behind, especially the women, children, minorities and civil servants. Even artists are apparently the subject of brutal reprisals. Much of the world's media is confined to Kabul airport, not able to venture out beyond the confines of its high concrete walls. I've received reports that the Taliban 2.0 are acting just like the Taliban of old in provincial Afghanistan, away from the glare of the world's media. I fear that that will be repeated and in fact amplified when the last door of the last mercy flight leaves Hamid Karzai International Airport.

It would be remiss of me not to recognise our hardworking diplomatic corps in Afghanistan over the past 20 years in particular. They've worked in extremely difficult conditions, under constant threat of attack. Away from friends and family for months on end, just like our ADF personnel, they went at the request of their government to further the interests of the Australian people. I want to acknowledge their professionalism under the leadership of Geoff Tooth, who was the ambassador I stayed with in Kabul just two years ago. I also want to acknowledge the work of the most recent Australian ambassador, Paul Wojciechowski, and his team, who, in what now seems like a stroke of genius, withdrew from Kabul in May of this year, enabling them to concentrate on getting Australians out of Afghanistan without having to deal with the immediacy of having to leave their post in emergency conditions, as many other countries' diplomats have had to do.

There are so many learnings to be gleaned from our military involvement in Afghanistan, not just for us but for the entire West. Now is not the time for reprisals or finger-pointing between us and any other nation. Now is the time to get as many people out of Afghanistan that want to and are able to leave as possible. We have all seen those harrowing pictures, and we are seeing them today, of people and of families queuing up, of babies being lifted over razor wire. Now is not the time for reprisals; now is the time for pulling together as a nation and the West working together to get as many souls out of Afghanistan as possible.

But make no mistake: difficult discussions should be had between friends about what went wrong. As a sovereign nation, we should not repeat the mistakes that have been made in Afghanistan. A friend is not someone who just blindly does whatever is asked of them. A true friend will ask questions and pressure test ideas, and a true friend will listen to those questions and concerns, and a true friend will respect the other for having asked them.

Andrew Leigh (Fenner, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

About once a decade this parliament debates questions around Australia's international engagement. We did so in 1991, in 2002, in 2010 and now again in 2021. Such debates are important not only for what they say about a particular international engagement but also for what they say about when Australia makes that decision of committing troops to an international engagement. This is symbolic of the positioning of the Australian War Memorial, designed to be along the parliamentary axis so when considering whether or not to send troops to war the parliamentarians would look out and see the cost of war embodied in the War Memorial. It has been argued by some that parliamentary approval should be required before committing troops. I believe that at least we should have a parliamentary debate.

I participated in such a parliamentary debate on 26 October 2010, discussing Australia's continued engagement in Afghanistan. In doing so, I noted that, when Bob Hawke spoke to parliament about committing Australian troops to Iraq, he reminded this House of Neville Chamberlain's words of 1938: 'Why should we be concerned with a faraway country of which we know little?' As Hawke reminded the parliament, the answer to Chamberlain's words came only too swiftly, and, as Hawke said, the great lesson of the 20th century was that 'peace is bought at too high a price if that price is the appeasement of aggression'. I'm not an isolationist, but just because it is right to intervene in some circumstances it doesn't follow that all international engagements are justified. We stayed in Vietnam for too long. We didn't get into Rwanda quickly enough. Australia's engagements in the Solomons and East Timor are engagements of which we should be proud. Every engagement needs to be measured based on the costs and benefits going forward. We can't be blinded by past costs; we have to make a decision anew and sometimes that will involve saying that we were wrong in the past.

There are no clear lessons from the past, and I disagree with those who point to the lessons of the British and the Russians in Afghanistan and say, 'See, there you go: that answers it.' We also need to make sure we're not blinded by technology. I was looking over my own 2010 remarks and I noticed I referred to the ability of us to engage 'with rocket systems that are accurate to within a metre'. That might have been so, but it didn't ensure that we built up the capacity of the Afghan military forces.

I argued back in 2010 that there were four reasons why we should have stayed in Afghanistan, and I want to submit my own reasoning back then to a little scrutiny now. I said that we should do so because of our alliance commitments, and I think that holds. I said we should do so because of international law, pointing to UN Security Council Resolution 1386. I think that is important. I argued that we should do so because it would reduce the threat of terrorism, pointing out that, as Anthony Bubalo and Michael Fullilove have written, Afghanistan helped form the mind of Noordin Top, a terrorist who masterminded a string of bombings directed towards Australians in Indonesia. And it is true that the West's 20-year engagement in Afghanistan did stop that country from becoming the breeding ground of terrorists that it had been beforehand.

But I think I was wrong to argue that we could make an ongoing difference to the humanitarian position of the Afghan people. We did so temporarily: millions of Afghans got an education they would not otherwise have gotten, particularly millions of girls. In 2010 there were 68 women in the parliament of Afghanistan—unthinkable under the Taliban and probably now unthinkable in the future. But we failed to do what David Kilcullen has referred to as 'armed social work'—a counterinsurgency which won the hearts and minds, and transformed the country.

I believe that Australia would be well served if we engaged in the kind of deep reflection that many in Britain have called for in urging a full inquiry into Britain's involvement in Afghanistan. It hasn't just been Labour members who have criticised the British involvement in Afghanistan but it has included Conservatives, such as Tom Tugendhat and the former British Prime Minister, Theresa May—who dubbed Britain's involvement as being a 'major setback' in their foreign policy and asked, rhetorically, 'Where is global Britain on the streets of Kabul?' We need to engage in this sort of analysis, not only because of what it will say about the future for Afghanistan but also for how it will inform this House's decision to send Australian troops to war in the future. Only by reflecting on the lessons of Afghanistan can Australia ensure that when the next question comes upon us we don't have a sudden rush of blood to the head—that we have clear eyed principles to guide our decision.

As with other speakers, I want to emphasise that those who have served Australia should be proud of their involvement in this conflict. I spoke in parliament about Private Robert Poate, a graduate of Canberra Grammar School, described by the principal of that school as, 'an open and purposeful young man, and an all-rounder in the academic, sporting and co-curricular life of the school'. His service in Afghanistan and his death as one of 41 Australians to have died in Afghanistan is a reminder of the tragic costs that we ask young men and women to take on when they don the Australian uniform. Pericles put it best 2,500 years ago when he said:

… for the Athens that I have celebrated is only what the heroism of these and their like have made her, …

…   …   …

… none of these allowed either wealth with its prospect of future enjoyment to unnerve his spirit, or poverty with its hope of a day of freedom and riches to tempt him to shrink from danger.

He said:

So died these men as became Athenians. You, their survivors, must determine to have as unfaltering a resolution in the field, though you may pray that it may have a happier issue.

The issues which we are discussing today matter to Australia but, of course, they matter most to those in Afghanistan—to the 33 million men, women and children in Afghanistan. And now the question is: what can we do to help?

Labor has called for more humanitarian places to be made available, noting the decisions of Prime Minister Hawke to allow 42,000 Chinese nationals to stay in Australia after the Tiananmen Square massacre and Prime Minister Abbott's decision to take in 12,000 refugees from Syria and Iraq. Australia didn't fill our quota of humanitarian places last year. The government cut the humanitarian intake in the last budget, in contradiction to the policy they took to the previous election. Humanitarian places are being squeezed down at a time in which Australia should be more generous. The shadow home affairs minister, Senator Kristina Kenneally, has written to the government, proposing a program being established between the UNHCR and international partners to support those who don't fit within Australia's humanitarian program. She has asked for an urgent briefing to refugee legal organisations and for funding to support these legal organisations and their work. I have just come from a Zoom hook-up with members of the Afghan Hazara community here in Canberra. They have been speaking to their friends and family members in Afghanistan, and they have apprised me of the desperate situation for so many of those people: members of the special forces, those in the air force and those who have helped Australian work on the ground. I recognise the work that they are doing, and I say to those in the Australian Afghan community: we will do everything we can to help you.

Labor believes that those who have come from Afghanistan who have only temporary visa status should be granted permanency. We would never send back a Hazara refugee to Afghanistan, so why not give them permanent residency and the path to citizenship that they so deserve? I spoke yesterday in the House about Zaki Haidari, but he's just one of the many temporary visa holders who, if granted the opportunity, would make great Australian citizens.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] I remember the feeling of horror and sadness. I'd just finished dinner with friends, washed up and turned on the television, hoping to catch The West Wing, but instead a different drama in America was on my television screen. The north tower of the World Trade Center, which I'd visited only nine months earlier, had been pierced by a hijacked passenger plane. Footage of a burning World Trade Center tower was on my television screen, and minutes later I watched in horror as a second plane was driven into the south tower.

When the World Trade Center opened it was the world's tallest building. A symbol of American confidence and the triumph of Western values and global free trade was now in rubble and ruins. I stayed up and saw both towers collapse. A plane was flown into the Pentagon, and another, heroically diverted by passengers who took on the hijackers, crashed into a field. I sent messages to friends in New York and Washington to see if they were safe. I kept watching until about 4.30 in the morning. As Tony Blair has written:

We forget this now, but the world was spinning on its axis. We feared further attacks, possibly worse.

Nearly 3,000 people, including 10 Australians, died that day. Prime Minister Howard was in the United States. He invoked the ANZUS Treaty and Australia stood shoulder to shoulder with America.

The terrorist group al-Qaeda and their leader Osama bin Laden eventually admitted responsibility for the attacks. al-Qaeda had been given support and a safe haven by the Taliban in Afghanistan. Australia was part of the international coalition which helped liberate Afghanistan in 2001. We went in to stop Afghanistan being a haven for terrorist attacks on the West. We also liberated the Afghan people from a regime that oppressed women and girls. Since 2001, more than 39,000 members of the Australian Defence Force have served in Afghanistan, and 41 made the supreme sacrifice.

Today, I want to speak about Trooper Jason Brown from my electorate. Jason Brown, or Browny, was five when he decided he wanted to be a soldier. His dad, Graham, was a Vietnam vet, and he remembers playing drills with Jason in their backyard at Westleigh. Service runs in the family. Jason's sister is a police officer. Jason went to Oakhill College, graduating in 1999. His classmates, including the comedian Daniel Ilic, remembered him as something of a prankster. He played 14 seasons for the Penno Stags rugby league club, where he played centre and wing. He played five grand finals, winning two of them. His coach Ross Ruhan said he never saw him take a backwards step, and he played with a steely determination, uncompromising yet with a spirit of fairness and respect for the opposition. Former club president Darryl Beitsch remembers he gave a hundred per cent on the field. At footy, his coaches remember him as being a well-liked, quiet, polite and respectful boy, and his mates recalled his sense of humour. He was a South Sydney Rabbitohs fan. He loved a cold Coopers pale ale on a hot day. His mum remembered that he was always smiling like the sun.

Jason only ever wanted to be a soldier. His work experience in Year 10 was with the Army. Before he joined the Army his dad asked what corps he wanted to join, and when he said infantry his dad said he should try for one of the corps where he could get a trade so when he came out of the Army he'd have something to turn back to. But Jason told him: 'I don't intend on coming out of the Army. I'm in for good.'

Jason signed up to the Army as soon as he finished school. Like his dad, he became an infantryman. Like his dad, he joined the 1st Battalion and did three tours of East Timor in 2001, 2003 and 2006. After his second tour of Timor, he decided to join special forces. In 2004, Jason passed the initial entry course and was posted to the 4th Battalion, RAR (Commando). Over the next year, he was kept busy with courses to qualify as a commando. Jason was promoted to lance corporal during his final deployment to East Timor. In 2007, Jason passed the gruelling SAS selection course and was trained to fight on land and water and in the air.

Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The debate must be interrupted in accordance with standing order 43. The debate may be resumed at a later hour.