Robert McClelland (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

In the time available, I would like to ask the minister about a few issues in respect of the budget allocation, in the order of $340 million, for our ongoing commitment in Iraq. The minister announced in a media release on 31 May the commencement of new training roles for our troops in Iraq. The first one is at a basic training centre and another will be at a counterinsurgency academy. The first issue I wanted to ask is: roughly, how many of our troops will be involved in those training tasks?

The second question is: what will then happen to the bulk of our troops in Iraq in terms of a security overwatch? Is the minister able to explain a little more as to what will be involved in that security overwatch? In particular, where will our troops primarily be allocated, how many roughly will be involved, who will we be with and what backup resources, importantly, will be provided to our troops in that role? In particular, there was a controversy regarding the provision of helicopter support in the Al Muthanna province. Will that similar sort of support be available and will it be in the context of the British retaining an involvement, presumably in an area in southern Iraq, or will it be in the context of the British actually scaling down their contribution?

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