Anne McEwen (SA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I will continue my remarks from where I left off before the debate was interrupted. As Prime Minister Gillard said last week, there are two vital reasons for our ongoing involvement in Afghanistan. The first is to make sure that Afghanistan is never again a safe haven for terrorists and the second is to stand by our incredibly valuable alliance with the United States. As the Prime Minister also said, like other counterinsurgency operations, Afghanistan is proving to be a protracted and intensive process. Success in Afghanistan will be dependent on ensuring that the local population is protected and separated from the insurgence, that economic and social reconstruction occurs, that indigenous security capacity is strengthened, that insurgence networks are disrupted and the prospects for a long-term political solution are enhanced.

Australia’s commitment to assisting Afghanistan to become a more stable, independent and successful nation is demonstrated not just by our military operations but also by our commitments to development assistance. Our military personnel are mainly based in the province of Oruzgan. Oruzgan is a province of immense development needs. It is one of the least developed provinces in Afghanistan, with a literacy rate of zero per cent for women, and just 10 per cent for men. The national literacy rate in Afghanistan is 12.6 per cent for women, and 43 per cent for men. It is a country in need of a lot of help.

As we know, poverty and lack of opportunity provide the ideal breeding ground for terrorism, and we in Australia are focused on addressing those factors. Since 2001, Australia has committed over $740 million in development assistance to the whole of Afghanistan. We are committed to ensuring that once the coalition forces leave the country, the government of Afghanistan will be able to take full responsibility for its own nation. In January this year, we contributed further funds to the nation to assist Afghanistan’s road to stability. Those funds included: $50 million over three years for the Afghan Reconstruction Trust Fund, $25 million for the Peace and Reintegration Trust Fund, $20 million for mine clearance activity, $4 million for capacity building in the agriculture sector, and $1 million for the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission in the Oruzgan province.

As I said, Afghanistan is facing immense developmental challenges, particularly in the area where our troops are based. Our development assistance to the Oruzgan province alone is expected to reach almost $20 million in 2010-11. The development assistance that we have provided so far is already having an impact in the region, including: providing 1,780 primary school students with basic health and hygiene education; clearing over 132,000 square metres of land contaminated by mines, and educating 100 local people in how to do that important task; and improving food security through the distribution of wheat, including take-home rations for female students. Australia is working to rebuild capacity within the administration of the province while encouraging stronger links with the central government. Key elements, including supporting the reach of the central government programs into Oruzgan, delivering basic services, and supporting the legitimacy of the Afghan government, are the focus of the development assistance in the province.

Australia’s efforts in Afghanistan remain difficult and dangerous, but we do not want to see a repeat of any terrorist attacks such as the 9/11 attacks, the Bali bombings or the London bombings. In each of those events, Australians were murdered or injured. We have a responsibility to Afghanistan, to our allies and partners, and ultimately to Australians to remain committed to the task. We have an obligation as a wealthy, stable country to do what we can to assist impoverished nations like Afghanistan to become stable and economically self-sufficient. That is the only way, in the long term, to defeat terrorism.

I welcomed the opportunity to speak in this debate today and it would be remiss of me not to conclude by joining with other senators in acknowledging the 21 people who have lost their lives in the war in Afghanistan so far. My condolences go to their families and their friends. I would also like to acknowledge the willingness of the Prime Minister to allow both chambers of the parliament to engage in this important debate and I look forward to contributing on an ongoing basis to the parliamentary debate about why Australia’s defence forces are deployed where they are and what we are doing with our deployment and the success or otherwise of that deployment. The Australian people deserve that information, they deserve to have their elected representatives engage in this debate.