Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I begin by reiterating the ongoing support that the Greens also have for our Australian Defence Force personnel in Afghanistan and to also send the message of best wishes and hope for a speedy recovery to those who have been injured. This includes the five personnel who were injured in the last couple of days, two of whom remain critically injured but all of whom, it sounds, mercifully, will survive the war activity that brought them to grief.

That said, I also reiterate that the Australian Greens, consistent with the majority opinion of the Australian populace at large, believe our troops should be brought home and should not be in Afghanistan. I reiterate that they are in Afghanistan because George W Bush, having gained control of Afghanistan, invaded Iraq and with former Australian Prime Minister John Howard went to war in Iraq, took the troops from Afghanistan and allowed the Taliban to regroup. It is a consequence of that action by the Bush administration that Australian troops are in danger, that there is such an extraordinary expense on the nations who are involved in Afghanistan and that the death toll of civilians in Afghanistan itself is mounting. We hope that Afghanistan will come out of all this as a nation that can find peace once again and have the ability for all of its citizens to prosper. We think the best way for that to happen is for Australia to replace its troop involvement with greater civilian aid and for there to be greater effort internationally, to give the Afghani people the increase in standard of living that will enable their nation to prosper into the future.

This parliament has never debated this issue. We have occasions like this and I thank Senator Faulkner, the Minister for Defence. Bringing to the parliament these statements on the progress in Afghanistan on a regular basis is a very worthy thing. But it is, nevertheless, a presentation of the government’s position with a response from one or two speakers and that is it. It is not a debate. It does not legislate. It does not give the opportunity for all members of parliament, as they should have, to be involved in the commitment, in whichever way, to this deployment in war of the Australian defence forces. This parliament is selling short the Australian defence forces by not having a full-ranging debate. As we see here, there are less than five per cent of members of parliament involved. That is simply not good enough and, I think, dishonest. Those Australians who put their lives on the line have to show commitment because not parliament but the executive has determined that they will be in Afghanistan in the service of this country.

I come to the withdrawal of the Dutch troops from Oruzgan province, which will leave the Australians there without the greater force and the more experienced force and the terrific work that the Dutch have done. This is because a vote in the Dutch parliament has insisted that the Dutch troops be withdrawn in August. In turn, that has led to the fall of the Dutch government. This is the first time a government outside Afghanistan has fallen over the Afghan war that we are engaged in. But a full parliamentary debate in Holland has led to a reiteration of the parliament’s determination that the Dutch do withdraw. There will now be elections in June which will see a new government form, but one would be speculating against the tide of events in Holland to believe that the Dutch populace will vote to change the decision made by the last Dutch parliament.

Where does this leave the Australian defence forces? It leaves them very exposed indeed and without the experienced and greater force of the Dutch. The Minister for Defence said that there will a replacement force. Who? The speculation is that it will be troops from the United States. That leads us to these questions. How experienced will they be? Will they be a complement of the 30,000 extra troops that President Obama has sent to Afghanistan? If so, they will be much less experienced than the Dutch defence force personnel and certainly much less experienced than the Australian Defence Force personnel.

It does raise the questions: what of the hospital that the Dutch have been maintaining? What of the infrastructure and the growth of NGOs and social services that the Dutch have been fostering? Is that what the replacement forces will be doing? I doubt it. What of the fact that the Dutch have been taking alleged Taliban detainees and, indeed, taking those that have been detained by the Australians? How are we going to replace the Dutch? Will the Australians have to receive the detainees? Will they be transferred somewhere else or will a replacement American force take over the detention of prisoners of war in these circumstances? These are extraordinarily important questions because they go to the wellbeing of the Australian Defence Force personnel in Afghanistan. The relationship with the populace itself is very, very important to the maintenance of the wellbeing of the Australian personnel there. One must fear on the basis of the facts that the extraordinary job the Dutch have done in maintaining and building the relationship with the Afghani people in Uruzgan province will not be emulated by a replacement force. Therefore, any relationship fostered by the Australians would not be as strong as the one fostered by the Dutch, and that would not be in the interests of the Australian forces themselves.

I again say to the government and opposition that, where our Defence Force personnel are engaged in a war, this parliament should be engaged in a full-on debate. While I commend the Minister for Defence for again reporting to the parliament, that is no substitute for a debate which engages everybody in this parliament, which comes to a vote and which provides alternatives. We have not had that because the executive has taken it upon itself to supplant the parliament in that responsibility, and we disagree with that process.

I end by again extending to the Australian Defence Force personnel who are in Afghanistan the total and complete support of the Australian Greens, even though we disagree with the executive’s decision to have them there. We thank them for serving Australia, we honour the commitment they give to this country and we wish them all—every single one of them—a safe return to this country at the earliest possible time.

Question agreed to.