Jacqui Lambie (Tasmania, Jacqui Lambie Network) Share this | Hansard source

My question is for the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Payne. Three weeks ago you stated you were seized of the matter of urgently processing visas for Afghan civilians who put their lives at risk working for the Australian government, including the Defence Force, Foreign Affairs and AusAID, during Australia's longest war, in Afghanistan. Since the ADF's departure from southern Afghanistan in 2013, at least nine of the local civilians who worked for AusAID's flagship stability and development project in that province have been murdered by the Taliban. Australian civilians were targeted for working on it and Afghan civilians are being murdered for it. Will the government approve visas and conduct emergency evacuation for Afghan contractors and their families whose lives are in terrible danger from Taliban reprisals?