Tanya Plibersek (Sydney, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak today about reports that a former Afghan army officer has been executed in Afghanistan. While his name is being withheld to protect his family, this officer previously worked as an interpreter for the ADF. He had been living in fear of exactly this reprisal, and his wife and three children are still in hiding. After the fall of Kabul, the family were trying to secure a visa to Australia to join his sister here. I want to honour this man for the work he did on behalf of his nation and ours. I want to send my deepest condolences to his family in Afghanistan, who must be terrified for their own safety, and to his sister and any relatives here, whose worst nightmare has come true.

We honour this man's memory, but we should have done more to protect his life. While we have taken some steps to accept Afghan refugees into Australia, this process has lacked urgency and began well after it should have—too little, too late. We have a moral obligation to help people who risked their lives side by side with Australian troops. Veterans of the Afghan conflict tell me they are suffering moral injury every day, feeling powerless to help the Afghan mates they relied on.

But we also have a strong strategic reason to offer this protection now. At some point in the future our soldiers will be again be involved in conflict, and when that happens they will need to work with local security, local interpreters, local intelligence. If we fail our allies today, who will be our allies tomorrow?