Louise Pratt (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to take note of this ministerial statement on Australia’s commitment in Afghanistan. I recognise that this is a very significant debate. It is not an easy debate. The war in Afghanistan, and Australia’s participation in it, is an issue that weighs on my conscience—as it should; and as I know it weighs on the consciences of all members of this parliament. So, as a member of this parliament, I welcome this valuable opportunity to discuss this issue. We have a collective responsibility to ensure that Australians are only placed in harm’s way for the most worthy of causes. The deaths of 21 Australian Defence Force personnel and the taking of the lives of more than 100 Australians who have been killed in terrorist attacks overseas all underscore the significance of this responsibility.

Our responsibility is also underscored by the plight of the Afghan population, a population that has become vulnerable to the exploitation and manipulation of extremists because of the grinding poverty, oppression and human rights abuses the Afghan people face everyday. This is especially the case for women and children. Is it any wonder that Afghanistan provided the breeding ground for terrorists when it ranks 181st out of 182 countries in the UN’s human development index? Only 30 per cent of people there can access safe drinking water, and Afghanistan is the most food-insecure place on earth.

The 2010 report from the Canadian government to the Canadian parliament on that country’s engagement in Afghanistan highlights:

Thirty years of conflict, political instability and economic hardship have decimated Afghanistan’s infrastructure and institutions, and diminished the confidence of the Afghan people in their government.

The report goes on to say:

Rebuilding this confidence is largely dependent on increasing the capacity of the Afghan government to deliver basic, essential services such as education, health care, roads, job creation, irrigation, clean water and electricity.

I commend the Canadian parliament for its reporting process. I think this is something that the Australian government should be looking at in order to give greater transparency to our own participation in Afghanistan.

You can see from this that our military efforts in Afghanistan are part of some much broader goals. One of those goals is to improve conditions for women and children, and to advance human rights more broadly. Afghanistan’s long-term stability is important for us. The population must be protected and Afghanistan’s civil society and institutions must be strengthened so that the country’s government can properly serve its people. While military engagement is part and parcel of achieving the security conditions needed for sustainable civil institutions and services, I have to say that it does not always engender trust and it can even serve to undermine these broader goals for Afghan civil society. So, in my opinion, we must be mindful of this, as we strive to get the balance right between our military engagement and reconstruction and support for building civil society and services. This is something Australia already recognise, because we do have a significant aid program which, in contrast to many other countries active in Afghanistan, can be seen to be broad and comprehensive. But we must do more to get this balance right and to insist that other nations participating in Afghanistan also work to get this balance right. Success in Afghanistan does not simply depend on our military engagement but also, and more importantly, on the way our aid program builds and supports civil society.

The Australian Council for International Development has expressed concern that, as military engagement has intensified in Afghanistan, aid programs in the region have become militarised. I share these concerns. As the peak organisation of non-government aid agencies in Australia, ACFID asserts that increased militarisation has meant that the role of many aid agencies has become increasingly marginalised and fragile. ACFID has suggested that Australia’s aid and defence operations should be disaggregated to mitigate this problem. It is important to make clear the distinctions between the provision of military operations and the provision of civilian aid and reconstruction efforts because, as ACFID suggests, the direct relationship between military operations and the provision of aid leads to a perception of the militarisation of that aid. This in turn reduces the effectiveness of that aid and the trust of the Afghan people.

ACFID has also expressed concern that the delivering of aid to those places in which there is increased military activity at the expense of those regions that are considered ‘more secure’ effectively destabilises and ‘penalises’ more secure regions. I believe that this is an effect that deserves further investigation, because we need to be sure that we have, and we continue to have, the balance right between military engagement and reconstruction and civil aid. Nevertheless, I do believe that Australia’s aid program is making important differences to the lives of Afghan people. We know that for many years women and girls have been excluded from education by the Taliban. Australia’s aid commitment has contributed to the provision of primary education programs that promote the education of girls in remote communities. Our contribution through the World Food Program encourages the attendance of girls at school through the provision of take-home rations. These are real on-the-ground programs that are providing for the basic needs of young women and girls so that they have, for the first time, the chance to get an education—an opportunity that we here in Australia take for granted.

We also know that Afghanistan’s maternal and infant morality rates are amongst the highest in the world. Australia’s aid program is assisting to bring down these rates, which are unacceptable. We are doing this by providing antenatal, postnatal and children’s health programs. These are just a few examples of the positive effects that Australia’s civilian aid program is having in Afghanistan; there are many, many more. We are going to ensure that these important contributions continue, and in order to ensure that they have their intended effects we must continue to evaluate our role and these contributions.

In conclusion I would like to say I do understand that, in order to achieve the goal of building a stronger civil society in Afghanistan, security is of paramount importance. Afghanistan cannot become a successful state in an environment where Afghan people, and NGOs and others on the ground, face extreme risks every day. The role of the Australian defence forces in training and supporting Afghan security forces is vital. But we must always ensure that this role supports the building of a stronger, more sustainable civil society in Afghanistan, with social services that truly meet the needs of the Afghan people. It is only through building a peaceful and stable Afghanistan that the globe, and Australia, will also become a more peaceful place. An Afghanistan where people have basic human rights, food security, water sanitation, education: these are the things that will support peace in Afghanistan and across the globe.