Don Farrell (SA, Australian Labor Party, Parliamentary Secretary for Sustainability and Urban Water) Share this | Hansard source

In recent months, the tragic deaths and injuries suffered by 10 Australian Defence Force members led me to reacquaint myself with the heartbreaking history of Afghanistan. It is a history of conflict, economic struggle, corruption, division, progress, unity, interference, intervention and self-interest, all subject to ever-shifting tides of national and international loyalties, allegiances and alliances.

Afghanistan has been mired in conflict since civil war was declared in 1978. Since then, Afghanistan has been torn apart by power struggles between monarchical and parliamentary leaders and by the Soviets in conflict with the Islamist Mujaheddin resistance, which then had the support of the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and other Muslim nations. Of course, now there is the Taliban, fighting a bitter war for supremacy, for the abolition of democracy and for the subjugation of the Afghan spirit to its own warped and extreme account of Islam, one of the great world religions and one which we all know is predicated on peace and understanding.

To this unholy mix we add the diabolical ingredient of terrorism. In this far-flung and inhospitable corner of the world, international terrorism has set up training institutions, production lines and warehouses and it is from here that it exports mindless hatred and indiscriminate death to the world at large.

It is in this context that Australia maintains a commitment of approximately 1,500 ADF personnel to serve in Afghanistan as part of the NATO led International Security Assistance Force. Known as Operation Slipper, this Australian commitment is an important and visible component of the Australian government’s commitment to working with the international community to help prevent acts of terrorism around the world. In Afghanistan, the ADF deployment makes significant contributions to mentoring and reconstruction, international security, helicopter uplift capability, unmanned aerial surveillance, liaison, logistics, assets and artillery. In addition there are Australian Federal Police and Australian Secret Intelligence Service personnel in Afghanistan.

After the Vietnam War, the ADF was largely a non-operational force for many years. Now the ADF is distinctly operational and, as well as in Afghanistan, the ADF has deployments in East Timor, Iraq and the Solomon Islands and in a couple of peacekeeping missions in the Middle East and Africa.

As is to be expected when Australia puts the men and women of the ADF into harm’s way, opinions as to the appropriateness of Australia’s involvement are many and varied, expressed with varying degrees of vehemence and volume. Of course, this is how it should be. The right of ordinary Australians to hold and express opinions in confidence and freedom has been fought for and paid for over the years by successive generations of Australian servicemen and women. We forget this at our peril. We also forget that, sometimes, there is a sacred obligation to exercise this right to speak out when our conscience demands it of us. Australia would be diminished considerably if governments of either persuasion could commit the ADF to military adventurism in our name without being held to account by the people. However, in contrast to the war in Iraq, it is of note that there is only some—and certainly not overwhelming—public opposition to Australia’s contribution to these overseas deployments, especially Afghanistan.

I am the father of three girls of whom I am very proud. As an ordinary father, I am mindful of the terrible pain endured by the families and friends of the 21 Australian soldiers—just recently mentioned by Senator Faulkner—who have lost their lives in our name in Afghanistan. I can scarcely imagine the heartache of losing a husband, father, brother or close friend to the conflict in Afghanistan or indeed any conflict. These losses are not merely headlines or radio and television news reports to be forgotten in a day or two; these losses are real. They are small children who will never be tossed, laughing, into the air by their fathers, they are empty seats around the Christmas table, they are photographs in the front room of ordinary suburban houses around the country to be wept over on birthdays and anniversaries, they are empty seats at school plays, sports nights, graduations, weddings, christenings, anniversaries.

These are real sacrifices, enduring and painful, made by those who have lost their lives in Afghanistan and by their families. And let us not overlook those who have returned to us alive but with their lives permanently compromised by physical or psychological injury. Their sacrifice—and that of their families—is no less real and no less painful. In some cases, it might be said that their sacrifice is more painful because it is to be endured every waking moment.

When people wonder, as they will do and are entitled to do, why Australia maintains its presence in Afghanistan, perhaps the answer is this: we stay to honour the sacrifice of those who have died or been injured pursuing a world in which terrorism has no place to hide, a world in which ordinary Afghani men, women and children can go about their days free of fear, hatred and mindless religious extremism, a world in which all of us can live in peace, security and harmony.

Australia will not stay in Afghanistan forever—nor can we or should we. Our job is to assist the Afghani military to get to the point where they can guarantee the security of their own country. But for those brave men and women who have fought and died, or have been injured physically or psychologically—and for their families—we stay in Afghanistan to finish the job they started, to say to them that this is a fight worth having and that the dream remains undimmed. For now, we stay to honour their sacrifice and to complete the job they started. We should do no less.