Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Let me acknowledge that this is newly inaugurated Senator Jim Molan's first question in the Senate. I thank Senator Molan very much for his question. My New South Wales confrere, a decorated senior military officer, is very welcome here on the government side of the Senate chamber.

Almost all of the territory in Iraq seized by Daesh and their terrorist network has been liberated by the Iraqi security forces, and that is very important progress. On 9 December last year, Iraq's Prime Minister al-Abadi declared the collapse of Daesh in Iraq. Although small pockets of influence in rural and desert areas remain to be cleared—we are very cognisant of that—any claim to Daesh's so-called caliphate no longer holds. Given the progress against Daesh, on 22 December last year the Turnbull government announced the decision to cease the F/A-18 air strike operations in the Middle East as part of Operation OKRA. Australia's strike aircraft flew their final mission as part of the operation on 14 January, and with the Prime Minister I was proud to welcome home to Australia the strike aircraft and their crews at RAAF Base Amberley last month on 24 January.

In the period of the ADF's air strike operations from 8 October 2014 to 14 January 2018, almost 3½ years, the Air Task Group's six F/A-18F Super Hornets flew over 21,200 hours on combat operations and conducted 2,799 air strike sorties over Iraq and Syria. This was a significant and sustained operational effort that was highly regarded by both our Iraqi and US partners. It provided a direct and tangible contribution to the collective self-defence of Iraq again Daesh. I note the courage and determination of those Iraqi security forces in their stand against Daesh and their efforts in destroying the myth of Daesh's so-called invincibility. (Time expired)