Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Mackellar, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Seniors) Share this | Hansard source

I have had the great honour to represent on more than one occasion the Leader of the Opposition at a ramp ceremony to receive home the body of one of our soldiers who served our nation and paid the ultimate price. On those occasions it is a time one feels a sense of ceremony, respect, the family’s heartache and the pride of the family in the soldier who has died serving his nation. I think the camaraderie of the soldiers who were present on those occasions mirrors the strong Australian tradition of mateship; the Anzac tradition passes to this day to our serving forces and remains a strong and binding force. To see parents, brothers and sisters, wives and girlfriends mourn the loss of a soldier and yet have enormous pride in the fact that he felt he was doing what he believed was right for his country and carried out his duties to the best of his ability is something that pierces you to the very core. Every Anzac Day we commemorate and praise the spirit of Anzac, but to see it alive in the hearts of those who have lost someone so recently is truly awesome.

This debate has been brought about because there are some who hold the view—and we have just heard one—that we should withdraw from Afghanistan. I am not one of those. I am one who believes that the role we are playing in Afghanistan is important and that our soldiers who serve there deserve to hear from their members of parliament that they are supported in the endeavours they are undertaking.

I intend to trace the steps that we went through to play our part in Afghanistan, because I think that in this sort of debate it is important to place it on the record. President Bush launched Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan following the New York September 11 attacks in 2001. The aim of the mission was to destroy terrorist training camps and infrastructure within Afghanistan, capture al-Qaeda leaders and stop terrorist activities in Afghanistan. I well remember those planes flying into the towers in New York. I was in Tasmania, speaking at a Meals on Wheels conference, and I came back to my room at the end of the dinner and saw the images on the screen. I thought it had to be a movie; I could not believe it was real. It was not until the second plane flew into the tower, about 20 minutes after the first plane, that the enormity of it really struck me. Later, in early 2002, when I visited New York and went to that scene of destruction and devastation, and indeed I attended the President’s prayer breakfast where heroes who had lost their lives during their endeavours were being remembered—firemen and others who had assisted in rescuing people—the enormity really sank in for me. It was when the United States made its case to the NATO Secretary General and the NATO Council said that compelling and conclusive evidence was that the attacks on 11 September 2001 were the work of al-Qaeda, who were being protected by the Taliban, that our commitment began.

The United Nations Security Council resolution 1386 on 20 December 2001 allowed for the establishment of the International Security Assistance Force—ISAF—as a NATO-led security mission in Afghanistan. It is reaffirmed by the United Nations each year. By 2002, 136 countries had offered a range of assistance, including 55 countries providing military assistance. Australia invoked the ANZUS treaty and joined coalition forces in military action in Afghanistan from the very beginning. This was the first time since 1952 that the treaty’s clauses on acting to meet a common danger had been invoked. The coalition government’s decision to join a military action was made with the bipartisan support of the Australian Labor Party, under the leadership of Kim Beazley.

Progress in Afghanistan’s development over the past nine years is really quite impressive, and I think it needs to be on the record, because there is some—shall we say—war-weariness in the public and I think the public deserves to hear what is being achieved. Firstly, there has been a dramatic increase in school enrolments, from around one million in 2001, none of whom were girls, to over six million today, of which one-third, or over two million, are girls. We have seen a significant increase in the availability of basic health services, which were available to less than 10 per cent of the population under the former Taliban regime but are now extended to around 85 per cent of people; the identification and management of over 39,000 community based infrastructure projects, such as wells, clinics and roads, in over 22,000 communities throughout Afghanistan through the Afghan-led National Solidarity Program; and the rehabilitation of almost 10,000 kilometres of rural roads, supporting the employment of hundreds of thousands of local workers through the National Rural Access Program. The telecommunications industry has created about 100,000 jobs since 2001. Ten million Afghans today have access to telecommunications, compared to 20,000 in 2001. Afghanistan’s national economic growth has been strong, from a low base. It has averaged 11 per cent since 2002 and was 22 per cent in 2009-10—off the back of a strong harvest, according to the World Bank.

There have been two elections for the lower house of parliament since 2001. Around 27 per cent of seats in the lower house and one-sixth of the seats in the upper house are reserved for female members. The lower house has significant powers, including the right to reject or approve draft laws, to hold votes of no confidence in government ministers and to reject cabinet nominees. The Taliban suppresses free speech. Afghan people now have access to over 400 print media publications, 150 FM radio stations and 26 television channels. These give Afghans an outlet to discuss publicly issues that were previously off limits—most importantly, issues such as human rights abuses and women’s rights. Under the Taliban, women were indeed slaves by any definition.

Australia’s military contribution to the ISAF in Afghanistan is deployed under Operation Slipper. Australia’s military contribution includes around 1,500 Australian Defence Force personnel who are deployed within Afghanistan, of whom 1,241 are deployed in Oruzgan province and around 300 in Kabul, Kandahar and elsewhere in Afghanistan. These numbers vary depending on operational requirements and shifting seasonal conditions. Eight hundred and thirty personnel provide support from locations within the broader Middle East Area of Operations including our maritime commitment. In keeping with the ISAF strategy to strengthen civilian engagement in Afghanistan and to better integrate civilian and military efforts, in April 2010 the Australian government announced a 50 per cent increase in Australia’s civilian contribution to Afghanistan. We now have around 50 civilians working in Afghanistan in addition to around 10 defence civilian personnel.

Our substantial military, civilian and developmental assistance focuses on training and monitoring the Afghan National Army 4th Brigade in Oruzgan province to assume responsibility for the province’s security, building the capacity of the Afghan National Police to assist with civil policing functions, helping to improve the Afghan government’s capacity to deliver core services and generate income-earning opportunities for its people, and operations to disrupt insurgent operations and supply routes utilising the Special Operations Task Force. This is a catalogue of strategic work carried out by Australians, always with their lives at risk but always with the courage that we have come to know, admire and respect in our Australian soldiers. Both men and women who are serving in Afghanistan do us proud. If we look back over the history of battles and wars in which Australia has been involved, we see that when we, the political body, have the courage to back the courage of our Australian troops we are successful. When we lose courage we let them down. So it is of absolutely pivotal importance with this debate that we are having in this parliament that our troops know that they have our confidence, that we believe that what they are doing is the right thing and that we believe in them carrying it out with integrity and bravery and in accordance with the rules of engagement but, overall, knowing that the Australian people admire and respect them.

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