John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Before I commence my remarks, as discussed with senators in the chamber, I seek leave to speak for longer than 20 minutes in this contribution, if that is required.

Leave granted.

In today’s world Australia’s national security interests extend well beyond our borders and well beyond our region. As a result, the events of the world demand our response, our involvement and our engagement. Security threats are global and they are real. We cannot make ourselves safe through isolation. We cannot ignore the threats or the responsibilities that come with the modern interdependent, international community.

The situation in Afghanistan highlights this challenge. More than 100 Australians have been killed in terrorist attacks in recent years, including in the Bali bombings, attacks on our embassy in Jakarta in 2004 and the 2009 attacks on international hotels, also in Jakarta. These attacks were planned and perpetrated by terrorists with links to Afghanistan. These attacks brought new horror to Australia and to our region. We should reflect on how we felt when we heard the news that 202 people were killed in the first Bali attack, when we saw the faces of the 88 Australians who died on the front pages of our newspapers. Together with other countries, Australia also felt the horror of the attacks on the United States on 11 September. It was following that world-changing event that the Australian government agreed, under the ANZUS Treaty, article 4, to commit military forces to coalition operations in Afghanistan.

It is sometimes said that we fail to acknowledge the importance of our alliance with the United States as a reason for our involvement in Afghanistan. Not by me. Our commitment in Afghanistan falls under the ANZUS Treaty and has always reflected our alliance obligations with the United States of America. Our deployment was approved by the Australian parliament on 17 December 2001. Today, the Australian Defence Force is providing a significant contribution to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force operation in Afghanistan. It is also important to remember that there is no dispute about the legality or international basis of the mission. ISAF operations are conducted under a United Nations mandate, at the request of the government of Afghanistan. And that UN mandate has been renewed annually.

Australian personnel currently provide military support to mentoring, security and reconstruction activities in Afghanistan. However, our commitment and the work we are doing there has evolved over time in response to changing operational circumstances and changes in ISAF strategy. Australia’s military contribution to the conflict in Afghanistan commenced in October 2001, when the first contingent of special forces troops deployed to southern Afghanistan as part of Operation Slipper. This commitment to military operations in Afghanistan lasted until the end of 2002, when the focus of US operations moved towards supporting reconstruction activities as a result of the establishment of an interim Afghan government under Hamid Karzai.

At that time, ADF special forces elements in Afghanistan were withdrawn. It was not until 2005, that the then government agreed that Australia would re-enter the Afghanistan conflict. In July that year Australia deployed a force of approximately 150 special forces for 12 months. This deployment came at the request of the United States and Afghanistan governments, as the government in Afghanistan had come under pressure from the Taliban and some elements of al-Qaeda. A year later Australia’s first reconstruction task force deployed to Oruzgan province in southern Afghanistan.

The reconstruction task force worked in partnership with Dutch military forces and civilian personnel within the provincial reconstruction team. The task force supported ISAF’s security and reconstruction efforts, and worked on community based projects to assist the government and people of Afghanistan. Today, Australia’s military contribution is around 1,550 personnel. Our efforts in Afghanistan fall primarily within the area of Regional Command (South). This is a dangerous part of the country. Twenty-one Australian troops have been killed in action in Afghanistan, and 156 Australians have been wounded. ISAF is working to counter insurgent influence over the population, protect the population in threatened and key areas, create time and space for governance to improve, and create conditions for development. And Australian troops are working with them to achieve these goals.

Some commentators have argued that Australia’s contribution should be larger than that currently provided. I believe that our current commitment is appropriate. Australia is the largest non-NATO contributor to the ISAF mission and the 11th-largest contributor overall. Well, why are we in Afghanistan? Why do we continue to believe that the conflict is worth the heavy price we have paid in Australian lives? We are there to protect our own security—because our own security depends on security in Afghanistan. We are there to contribute to the stabilisation of Oruzgan province, because there will be no long-term security in Afghanistan without self-determination, justice or governance.

Our primary role in Afghanistan today is to train the 4th Brigade of the Afghan National Army so that the Afghan people can protect themselves and their country from those who would destroy every safeguard of civil life. Our objective is to be able to safely transfer responsibility to the ANA and for them to prevent Afghanistan again becoming a training ground, staging point, and operating base for global terrorism.

As defence minister I delivered four ministerial statements on progress in Afghanistan. Since my last statement, the Dutch have ceased operations in Oruzgan and responsibility for the province has been transferred to Combined Team Uruzgan, a multinational framework including the United States, Australia, Singapore, Slovakia and New Zealand. Our mentoring and training role is progressing steadily. By the end of 2010, the Mentoring Task Force will be providing operational mentoring and liaison teams to train the entire ANA 4th Brigade, including all five kandaks and the brigade headquarters.

But our efforts in Afghanistan also extend beyond the training mission. Australia’s Special Operations Task Group continues to disrupt insurgent networks by targeting key Taliban leaders and improvised explosive device facilitators in Oruzgan and surrounding areas. We have other troops providing key enabling support in Afghanistan, including the Rotary Wing Group, our Intelligence Surveillance and Reconnaissance Task Group, strategic airlift, an artillery detachment working with UK forces, and support elements. And we should not forget that Australia also has around 150 embedded officers inside Headquarters ISAF and Headquarters Regional Command South. These personnel fill key roles within these organisations and make a highly valued contribution. The ADF currently provides 10—soon to be increased to 20—embedded staff in Kabul to develop artillery training for the ANA. The school is a key ISAF initiative and Australia will be designated as the lead nation. The ADF also continues to directly support other Australian government agencies operating as part of the Uruzgan Provincial Reconstruction Team through the provision of life support, including protected accommodation and force protection.

The job we are doing in Afghanistan is not yet complete. Abandoning it half-finished would be abandoning the Afghan people after giving them the promise of a secure and a stable future but with no way to achieve it. This is not my idea of working for, to quote a man who led Labor through both war and peace, the ‘betterment of mankind not only here but anywhere we may give a helping hand.’ We must continue to engage with the world. It was this fundamental Labor value that drove the efforts of Doc Evatt at the founding conference of the United Nations, to shape that organisation into one where the civil, political, economic and social rights of people around the world were seen as fundamental to a fair and a just world order.

To my Labor colleagues I say: Labor governments in Australia have had a proud tradition of engagement with the United Nations and international coalitions and a proud tradition of working to better the lives of those within and without our borders. And, in my view, it is in this tradition that Australia are playing our part in the international effort to build a better future for the people of Afghanistan.

We know how difficult and dangerous this task is. Nearly every speaker in this debate has said that 21 Australian soldiers have lost their lives in Afghanistan. From 2002 to 2009, 11 Australian Defence Force personnel deployed to Afghanistan were killed in action: Sergeant Andrew Russell, Trooper David Pearce, Sergeant Matthew Locke, Private Luke Worsley, Lance Corporal Jason Marks, Signaller Sean McCarthy, Lieutenant Michael Fussell, Private Gregory Sher, Corporal Matthew Hopkins, Sergeant Brett Till and Private Benjamin Renaudo.

The last few months, of course, have been particularly difficult. Since early June, 10 soldiers have died in the course of duty in Afghanistan: Sapper Jacob Moerland and Sapper Darren Smith, who died as a result of an IED strike on 7 June in Mirabad Valley; Privates Timothy Aplin, Scott Palmer and Benjamin Chuck, who were tragically killed in a helicopter crash in northern Kandahar on 21 June; Private Nathan Bewes, who died from an IED strike in the Chora Valley on 9 July; Trooper Jason Brown, who died in the course of duty from small-arms fire while on operations in northern Kandahar on 14 August; Privates Tomas Dale and Grant Kirby, who died from an IED strike while on operations in Baluchi Valley on 20 August; and Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney who died from small-arms fire while on operations in Deh Rawud on 24 August.

We must remember all these fine young men, and in reflecting on those losses we must acknowledge that the men and women of the ADF carry out their work with courage and professionalism in conditions of real hardship and very real danger. As Minister for Defence, I discussed our operations on a very regular basis with the Chief of the Defence Force, Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, and the Secretary to the Department of Defence, Dr Ian Watt. It would be no surprise to anyone that I engaged closely with defence as to why we were suffering increased casualties. Defence confirmed that violence across the country was increasing, which was to be expected as ISAF and Afghan forces entered areas strongly contested by insurgents. The fight is being taken into areas where the coalition and the Afghan National Army have not been before, contesting areas that have been dominated by the Taliban.

This is also the traditional fighting season, which normally sees a rise in operational tempo. The Taliban are fighting back, and we are seeing a lot more violence and a lot more activity. With the surge of additional US and NATO forces almost complete, increased coalition forces as well as Afghan National Security Forces are being committed to the fight. We can expect that in this period ADF operations in Afghanistan will continue at a high tempo and continue to be challenging. We must never resile from our commitment to protect our troops in every way we can at this dangerous time. Force protection must remain our highest priority. There is no-one in this parliament who hopes more than I do that there are no more casualties in Afghanistan.

The time it will take to train the ANA 4th brigade is becoming clearer. Defence has undertaken a professional and thorough assessment with input from our ISAF partners on that time frame. CDF has advised that, on the basis of our progress to date, defence estimates that within two to four years we will be able to transition the main security responsibility to the Afghan National Army in Oruzgan province. While that remains a decision to be made in the future, I expect we will then be able to move from a training mission to an overwatch role, as occurred in Iraq.

This transition must be based on conditions on the ground, and—let me be frank—the task will not be easy. Afghanistan faces a complex insurgency consisting of multiple factions motivated by historic grievances and ideologies at both the local and the national level. Key problems facing Afghanistan include lack of security, poor physical and social infrastructure, illiteracy and corruption. These problems are particularly bad in southern Afghanistan. To combat them, ISAF’s revised counterinsurgency strategy focuses on an integrated civilian-military approach to delivering improved security, governance and development with an emphasis on protecting the local Afghan population. The revised strategy has the support of the 47 nations that currently comprise ISAF.

As defence minister, I met regularly with Australian troops deployed to Afghanistan who were enduring long separations from their families. They have endured hardship and faced real, daily, deadly danger. I saw the work that they were doing there, and I have seen the difference they are making. I do not take the risks they run or the burden they bear lightly, and I never will. I have said before and I repeat today that I do not want to see the men and women of the ADF stay in Afghanistan one day longer than necessary; nor do I want their efforts and their sacrifices to be wasted. Our task in Afghanistan is not an easy one; nor is it one we can shirk. We cannot ignore the strategic reality: less security in Afghanistan means less security globally and for Australians. To allow terrorist organisations unimpeded operations in Afghanistan would be to put Australian lives at risk, and to turn our back on an international effort shared by 46 other countries and operating under a United Nations mandate would be to ignore our responsibilities to our allies, our partners, the international community, the Afghan people and to the people here at home.

I will never forget the hardships and dangers faced by the men and women of the Australian Defence Force and the sacrifices they make. Nor will I ever forget those soldiers who have been killed in Afghanistan, those wounded in action or those who have fought or are still fighting in Afghanistan. Our involvement in Afghanistan is a cause worth those efforts and worth those sacrifices. It is a task our country, along with many others, has taken on. It is a task we should complete.