Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to contribute to this debate on the motion moved by Senator Payne today. In doing so I extend my sympathies and my heart to everybody who is being impacted by the horror that we've seen unfold over the last couple of weeks in Afghanistan—those who are there fleeing for their lives and those who are here, desperate to know whether their families are safe and what the future will hold.

For 20 years we have been engaged in Afghanistan—Australia's longest war. Of course, we went in following the United States. Australia, again not having an independent foreign policy, was led by John Howard into a war that, arguably, we could never win. Let's remember that the purpose of this military action, right at the beginning, was to hunt down Osama Bin Laden and to attack terrorism. It wasn't initially about freeing women or children or bringing democracy to Afghanistan. It wasn't about rebuilding civil society. And the biggest problem right there is that you can't beat terrorism purely with military response—it requires political, civil society, and humanitarian strategies. None of these were at the core of the approach of the United States and coalition forces at the beginning. Some would argue that, in fact, over the last decade things in Afghanistan have become more unsafe and less free for those who had such great hopes for a reborn nation.

To that point, I acknowledge that the Greens have serious reservations about some of the elements of this motion. We think that it takes a rose-coloured-glasses view of Australia's role in Afghanistan. We can't discount the failures that have occurred over the last 20 years, and the toll on Australia has been great. Forty-one lives have been lost in combat, 260 have been wounded and over 500 veterans have, tragically, taken their own lives. Thousands and thousands more still suffer the effects of PTSD. But the toll has been largest for and hardest felt on the people of Afghanistan. It has been enormous, long lasting and tragic—tens of thousands of innocent lives lost, hundreds of thousands of people displaced and families torn apart. And, of course, like always in war and combat, it is women, children and minorities that are the hardest hit. Australia's longest war has had a long, tragic and harrowing impact on the people of Afghanistan. Hundreds of thousands have fled across borders to escape oppression and violence, in search of freedom from military actions, death and torture. For 20 years, Australia has played a role in this bloody war.

I was remembering last week that, after the 2010 election, one of the things that the Greens negotiated with the Gillard government was a commitment to debate the Afghan war in the parliament every year—a commitment to not forgetting the real impact of this conflict, to debating the merits of our actions, to not forgetting the sacrifice of Australians and others involved in this action and to not forgetting the very people whose lives this war was impacting the most. That debate happened in October 2010, in November 2011 and again in October 2012. But then that was it. When the Abbott government came to power, this parliament stopped debating this important war. This parliament stopped debating the merits of why we were there. It wasn't at the forefront in our minds, as members of parliament, and that is a shame, because without debate we cannot consider the best ways forward.

Over the last two weeks we have seen the horror unfolding in Afghanistan and thousands and thousands of people fleeing for their lives, and we've asked the question: should Australia have done more? What was the exit strategy? How were we going to get people out? What was the evacuation plan? This parliament should have been debating those issues regularly, passionately, honestly, and we just haven't been, and that's not good enough. Our veterans, our diplomats and our Afghan friends in Afghanistan and here on Australian soil deserve better from this parliament. They deserve better from this government in relation to planning, talking and being honest about our involvement.

It's been 20 years of Australian involvement in Afghanistan. And this week marks 20 years since the Tampa, that famous Norwegian boat that was stopped by former prime minister John Howard and that was holding over 400 refugees and asylum seekers, mostly Afghan nationals. That, of course, was the beginning of a huge diplomatic and political row in this country over how we treated people when they were fleeing horrible regimes like the Taliban's, and it set a marker for how we respond to those in need. I put it to you, Madam Acting Deputy President Polley, that's it's been a pretty shameful history ever since.

And it is not lost on me, as we stand here and debate this issue and what should be done to help those who are left fearing for their lives in Afghanistan, that 20 years ago our government turned its back on the very same people fleeing the very same regime. We need to do better. And that is why the Prime Minister's commitment of 3,000 humanitarian places within our existing program is simply not enough. It is why this slow drip, drip, drip of getting people out of Afghanistan who have worked alongside us, and their families, is not good enough. And it is why the Prime Minister's refusal to grant permanent protection to the 4½ thousand Afghans who are here in Australia already, giving them an opportunity to get on with their lives, to be free of the constant threat of having to face the Taliban again, is an unnecessary cruelty—that limbo hanging over people's heads when there is absolutely no need to. It is unnecessary and it is mean-spirited. And if we have not learnt anything for the last 20 years—my gosh, what on earth have we been doing? I don't buy for one second—and I'm sure that not one person in this chamber buys it either—the spin from the Taliban this week that they have changed their approach, that they will treat women and girls properly, that Hazaras will be able to live free from oppression and persecution. I don't believe it and I'm sure you don't either, Madam Acting Deputy President Polley.

So what are we going to do about it? We at least have to take on board our moral obligation and commit to taking and helping those who stood alongside us and helped us, and their families. We have to allow those already in Australia to bring their families here. We have to play our role in the international community by acknowledging that this is a humanitarian crisis and we need to do more.

Minister Payne and Senator Wong both acknowledged that, as members of parliament, our offices have been inundated with heartbreaking stories of people who are living in fear right now, of people who are worried about the fact that they haven't had a phone call or a text message returned in the last 12 hours and they don't know if their family is still alive. As the situation outside the airport deteriorates even further, that fear is only growing.

There are moments like this that happen in a Prime Minister's leadership where a Prime Minister can decide to do the right thing. I plead with Mr Morrison: don't be stubborn about this. This is a humanitarian crisis. These are people's lives—people we owe an obligation to, people we should help because it's the right thing to do. Don't be pigheaded about this. Show some leadership and show the compassion that the Defence Force, our diplomats and our humanitarian workers have all been showing and committed to for the last 20 years. It doesn't take much to do the right thing. You just have to show a bit of compassion and have a little bit of heart, and I urge the Prime Minister to do that today.