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

Mr Deputy Speaker, for expedience, I will withdraw. As an afterthought, the government said, ‘Of course, the government also needs to be convinced that the risk to the safety of our troops in any additional role is an acceptable one.’ While the coalition does not necessarily object in principle to these criteria of consideration, we do take issue with the government’s order of priority. In fact, the government has it backwards. The level of security for ongoing deployment of our troops must always be the first priority of government. This consideration is not an afterthought to be tacked on at the end of a wish list. By providing this superficial narrative on our current circumstance in Afghanistan—

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