Bob Baldwin (Paterson, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence Science and Personnel) Share this | Hansard source

As the minister pointed out, much has been made recently of the question of committing more Australian troops to the war in Afghanistan. The speculation has not been helped by the government’s failure to articulate a clear and coherent policy on the issue of Afghanistan. Having previously denied that Australia would commit additional troops, today the minister has told the House that the government are committed to the Afghanistan project and will consider a request from the US to increase our deployment to Afghanistan—despite having said, according to the statement in the Weekend Australian on 21 February:

‘At no stage did he indicate he—

speaking about Robert Gates—

would be looking to Australia to do more’

He is further quoted in that article:

‘I’m sure that the US will be looking to NATO partners … to do more rather than turn to non-NATO partners like Australia.’

The government have had well over a year in government and more than six years in opposition to develop an understanding of and a policy on the conflict in Afghanistan, yet it would seem that they have failed to achieve either. The minister has been overseas numerous times in his 15 months in office, with little or no evidence of positive outcomes for Australia’s disposition in Afghanistan. He has met with NATO chiefs on a number of occasions, the most recent occasion being just last week, to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. It seems that he lectured the International Stabilisation Assistance Force partners on their need to increase their commitment.

Our 1,100 personnel in Oruzgan province are doing a tremendous job in very difficult circumstances. However, our overall contribution equates to 1.5 per cent of the 70,000 coalition troops. What does it say when the minister calls on the NATO partners to do more yet has never once made a commitment to increase Australia’s contribution to Afghanistan? The words ‘empty rhetoric’ readily spring to mind. Despite not being asked to do anything, the minister has laid out the government’s four-point criteria for considering an increased troop deployment to Afghanistan. He talked about making a strategic difference and about a new, broader plan for greater success and faster progress as though these were easy and readily available. Further to this, the government will consider a request in the context of commitments by other partner countries. And then, almost as an afterthought, the minister added, ‘Of course, the government would also need to be convinced that the risk to the safety of our troops in any additional role is an acceptable one.’

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