David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—I move:

That the Senate take note of the statement.

I congratulate the Minister for Defence and acknowledge the report, the first formal report that I am aware of, as to progress in Afghanistan. I want to also comment on the content and tone of the report and say that our engagement, our involvement and our commitment to Afghanistan and the commitment of the government is wholeheartedly supported by the opposition. We are earnestly supportive of all of the efforts to make sure that Afghanistan does not fall back to become a haven for terrorists.

On a recent visit to Tarin Kowt and Kandahar—I want to thank the ADF and the minister for permission to visit our front line troops into Tarin Kowt—I met our commanding officer, Major General Mark Kelly. He is simply an outstanding leader. I spent two days with the general. He is presiding over a force that is highly trained, that is very high in morale and he is quite simply an outstanding leader of men and women. It is a difficult and complex task in dealing with an insurgency in this particular country. He imparts great confidence that the Australian Defence Force produces outstanding leaders. May I say the same of Lieutenant Colonel Peter Connolly, who is in command of our reconstruction task force in Tarin Kowt. May I also compliment our special forces commander, whose name I will not use for obvious operational reasons. It was indeed an honour and privilege for me, for Malcolm Turnbull and for Julie Bishop to have met these fine men in their place of work, and we acknowledge the very good work that they are doing in the name of right with respect to this issue in Afghanistan. We are all collectively very proud of them and all of the men and women who are engaged in the Middle East on our behalf.

The enemy are very clearly resourceful; they are very brutal and ruthless. Our engineers are engaged in rebuilding schools so that a basic necessity of life—that is, education—can be enjoyed by Afghan children. Our engineers, our sappers and our troops are putting their lives on the line so that these children may simply attend school in the face of a very ruthless enemy that seeks to prevent them doing so. In closing, I again thank the minister for his statement. I look forward to a continuing update, and I thank him for the tone and content of that statement.

Question agreed to.