Christopher Back (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise this evening to advise the Senate of the Australian Defence Force Parliamentary Program, which I had the pleasure of participating in recently in Timor-Leste during July. As my colleague Senator Adams knows, I recommend to all members and senators that they should participate in this program. It gives us an opportunity to observe and engage with our troops both in Australia and overseas, to observe firsthand what the Australian Defence Force is doing and where our expenditure is being used, to meet ADF personnel in the field in their comfort areas rather than ours and to experience what they live with. I will mention ration packs in a few moments. I also reflect on being in the Middle East this time last year and wearing that terribly heavy body armour only to find that, as a result of the aged people there last year and as a result of our visits, lighter personal armour has been allocated in Afghanistan!

I saw a tremendous combination of our people in East Timor—New Zealanders alongside Australians, Army alongside Navy alongside Air Force, regulars working alongside reservists, men alongside women, military alongside diplomatic personnel. We saw the very best of the best. To work with those young people, to see their enthusiasm and to observe their competence, the reality of their work and the way in which they accepted my parliamentary colleague and I was absolutely something to rejoice in.

What roles are we playing? The Australian Defence Force in East Timor still has a security role, but increasingly, as conditions improve, it also has a sustainability role. Goodwill is of critical importance. The medical and surgical function that we perform came home to me very strongly when we were in the intensive care facility in which President Ramos Horta was treated following the assassination attempt. He went from that facility in Dili down to Darwin. As they said to us with a high degree of pride, because it was Australian blood that saved him when he was losing so much blood, he said, 'The blood of Australians courses within and through my veins.' I think that spoke very strongly of that close link. I know Janelle Saffin in the other place has worked closely with President Ramos Horta and I look forward to the opportunity at some time to actually discuss that with him. More than anything else our role is to support the government and the people of Timor-Leste. We certainly had the opportunity to be involved in that.

The highlight for me was being conveyed by Black Hawk helicopter south of Dili into the mountains where we joined a patrol for two days, a patrol representative of all those groups I just spoke of—New Zealanders and Australians, reservists and others. We had to live the life of those out on patrol. Should anyone have any views or thoughts about ration packs, I suggest that for 24 hours everybody in this place actually try to survive on ration packs. If they are able to then they are better than me because they certainly are a product that causes you to lose weight. I also have to say to you that you are given no privileges in this role, as Senator Adams indeed knows. It was quite cold in the mountains in the night. There we were in tents and fairly rough conditions. Of course, being of the age we are, it was not quite as comfortable as it might have been in our 30s; needless to say, you do not ever want to appear to not be doing what the others are doing. In my sleep I heard this bell which of course I took to be the reveille; it actually turned out to be a Balinese cow with a bell on it. This caused me to leap out of the cot, put my boots on and immediately present myself ready for the next day, only to find one of the officers going on a call of nature. He said to me, 'Senator Back, what are you actually doing wandering around at three in the morning with your boots on?' I said, 'What's this three in the morning?' He said, 'It's only three o'clock.' So I can assure you I had great difficulty in then getting back to sleep.

I do want to share with you the wonder of that experience. An intelligence briefing was given to us at the beginning of our tour and then we joined those people in the mountains to reflect on the work of Operation Sparrow, the first commandoes in the early 1940s. A very small group of them—I think fewer than 300—held up some 10,000 Japanese, as I recall, from moving further down the islands into Papua New Guinea, where they inevitably would have moved down in the direction of Australia. Whilst it is not the time to be reflecting on the excellence and the bravery of those people, we did see as part of the intelligence briefing footage that I assure you is now in the public domain—that of the famous war photographer Damian Parer. He had been placed in East Timor I think by submarine. He spent some time with the Sparrow Force group and took the most wonderful footage, including, I say through the chair to Senator Adams, of a couple of Western Australians who I know are quite famous because of their background as kangaroo shooters prior to them going to Timor-Leste.

The important thing for me, apart from spending that time with the young people, was to observe them in the goodwill visit. To give you an idea of conditions, particularly in the rural areas, covering a distance of 13 kilometres took us over an hour and a quarter; the roads were very rough. We got to the village and saw young Australians and New Zealanders pour out—I was about to say onto the soccer oval, but that would be giving it a title well beyond what it was; it was a cow paddock—and roll on the ground, with kids picking them up and playing soccer with them, all the time thinking, 'This is absolutely wonderful.' Others of us were talking with the elders of that community; others were trying to get a handle on the health status of the children and the adults. When we debriefed the next day under the direction of a young corporal, it was amazing just how much information had been gleaned during that tour in the couple of hours we were there. It gave us the opportunity to see how welcomed Australians and New Zealanders were as we went through the villages. Of course, we gained the impres­sion very strongly that they are very welcoming of us being there.

The excellence of the command was there to be seen—the discipline, in a sense the low-key attitude and the freedom and the ease with which we communicated with everybody at all levels, be they from the colonel through to privates in the military. They ate with us, chatted with us and wanted to know what we were doing there. Those who were reservists were proudly telling us that their bosses were coming up to Timor-Leste to spend some time there so that they in their term would have an understanding of the contribution that is made.

What was very interesting for me was to try to form some view as to where that country is going. There was critically poor infrastructure; it was very ordinary. What opportunity is there for them to actually stand on their own feet? I think we Australians feel a sort of moral obligation to the East Timorese largely because of the protection that they afforded those Sparrow Force troops, often at huge cost to themselves. I get the impression that next year's general election is going to be critical. It is all low-key. They are moving to the presidential election and then the general election. The aftermath of that general election is important, because unlike here there are not two or three defined major parties. I think that process will define Australia's future in East Timor. If that election is conducted safely and quietly and calmly, it will be an indicator that East Timor is moving towards a level of democratic maturity, and that I am sure will change Australia's role. Australia's and New Zealand's presence and that of our troops are welcomed a little more warmly now than is the United Nations generally. I think, from the people we spoke to, there is a perception that the UN may have largely done its job and is now in the twilight, but people certainly do not want to see Australia diminish its role. Whether they want it to continue as an overt military role—to see our troops there in military attire with weapons, albeit unloaded—or whether they can move to a civilian role will be an interesting question. The big thing of all is not aid; it is employment opportunities for young men and women. I cannot help but think that Australia has a role to play in doing that.

In my final few seconds I will refer to the presence of China and the investment made by the Chinese. This has got to be watched in our future relationship with that country. I highly recommend the ADF Parliamentary Program.

Senate adjourned at 22 :11