Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] Australia has been working closely with partner countries such as those Senator Wong has mentioned to be able to try to access and provide assistance beyond the airport perimeter to individuals where that is possible. But nobody should underestimate the difficulty in relation to the perimeter at the airport and the challenging circumstances that not just Australian troops and personnel and individuals face but also, of course, all of those seeking to ensure an orderly process that enables flights to be able to move at such speed in and out of the international airport at Kabul. That does require security into the airport. It does require checks and processes. Australian officials are not in charge of every one of those checks and processes as to who gets entry into the airport, but we continue to work closely with those partner countries to try to ensure that anybody, Australian citizen, Australian visa holder, Australian permanent resident or those with a connection to any of the aforementioned are able to get access and to get support to leave. (Time expired)