Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I want to join the members for Lingiari and Aston in remembering Corporal Atkinson, at 22 a very brave and a very young man. He was a member of Darwin’s 1st Combat Engineer Regiment and he died when our enemies exploded an improvised device last Wednesday week.

Our thoughts are with Corporal Atkinson’s family and his fiancee, Dannielle. I am very pleased to hear that the Minister for Defence is ordering even more devices that can be used to combat these weapons used by the Taliban which have caused most of the casualties against our Australian service people who are fighting there. I will say something about that fighting in a minute and the justice of the cause, despite the difficulties, in Afghanistan. First of all, I want to associate myself with the comments of the Prime Minister about Corporal Atkinson’s fiancee. She said:

Her pain—

that is, Dannielle’s pain—

I believe, is almost beyond our imagining and we should not pretend that the uttering of words of condolence in this chamber today will ease that pain. But today we honour her sacrifice and we are united in wishing her the courage and the strength she will need for the future.

I was asked by the former defence minister, the member for Hunter, to be involved in a ramp ceremony for Private Greg Sher, one of our 22 heroes who have been killed in action in Afghanistan, and I have stayed in contact with the family since. In speaking in this chamber about his demise I said that as a member of parliament I do not think I had done anything as difficult as participating in the ramp ceremony, with the family standing opposite and the coffin holding his body coming off the plane that had arrived from Afghanistan. I will never forget seeing the faces of his parents standing opposite me. It makes all of us understand the true seriousness of our involvement in a war of any kind. The fact that we sit here in this Australian parliament, in the bubble in Canberra, and ask people to be involved in these very difficult circumstances on our behalf is really brought home to us by the honest representation that I think the leadership of this country on both sides undertakes when they participate in these very difficult funerals and ramp ceremonies, and the many ordinary members of parliament too who go along and do their best to assist the families. I think it really makes us understand the true seriousness of our involvement in Afghanistan.

Corporal Atkinson was a very dedicated soldier with long career aspirations. His major, Major French, said, ‘Akka was never happier than when he was on the job and he was bloody good at it.’ Corporal Atkinson is one of many thousands of heroic young Australians who have served with valour and skill in Afghanistan. A member of his family said: ‘Rich was the funny man, always putting a smile on people’s faces. He was hoping to start a family this year with Dannielle. He was a dedicated soldier with long career aspirations.’ Again, I think that is something that is important for us to understand. Although Corporal Atkinson was on his first deployment to Afghanistan, many of our people in the full-time military services have been on several deployments, including in East Timor, Iraq and particularly now in Afghanistan.

In my view, Corporal Atkinson is the real face of the Australian soldier. Both his regiment, the commando regiment formerly 4RAR, and the Special Air Service Regiment are doing magnificent work on this country’s behalf in Afghanistan. From a purely military point of view, if one is to read all of the current literature on the success of our forces in Afghanistan, it is clear that Corporal Atkinson and his mates are continuing to achieve the high standard of military professionalism that we have come to expect of our forces.

Indeed, it was interesting to read recently that Australian service personnel are finding these deployments more and more effective. They are being more militarily effective against the Taliban than they were in the past, and after all that is the reason we asked them to be involved. They are not simply involved in nation building. When I get emails from people questioning foreign aid to Afghanistan, I think of the important role that those young men and women out there in Afghanistan are fulfilling for this nation. They are preventing the kind of murderous activity we saw in Bali from coming here. It was wonderful to see our VC recipient, who I will be speaking about later, say that so clearly when he was interviewed about this. He knew exactly what he was doing and it is my experience that our young professionals in the armed services know exactly what they are doing there on behalf of Australia.

Corporal Atkinson’s contribution was for Australia’s sake and not simply for our good neighbourly intention of helping to reconstruct Afghanistan. He was there to make sure that the kinds of attacks that have occurred against Australians in Mumbai and in Bali do not come to mainstream Australia. Until Australia has an understanding and an assurance like all other countries represented in ISAF that the previous Taliban regime will not host al-Qaeda, which we all remember was the situation prior to the murder of 3,000 people on 11 September, we will be there. However difficult it is, the Taliban and their evil associates in al-Qaeda should understand that. Australians understand what they are about and, until we can be assured that these people will not be able to use that area to generate activity in our part of the world, Australia will be involved—and very effectively. I say this because I want the Atkinson family to understand that people across this country appreciate their sacrifice. As the Prime Minister said, we cannot pretend to understand the deep desperation that the family feels. But our service personnel are working in a just cause. They are working with full understanding and they are working with the backing of the overwhelming majority of the Australian people, even though we would prefer not to be there, not to be spending our blood and treasure in Afghanistan.

It was mentioned last weekend that the Taliban insurgents are losing their stranglehold over key southern provinces. Corporal Atkinson was killed by Taliban forces desperate to claw back control of the Tangi Valley in Afghanistan’s Deh Rawud region in the wake of a successful coalition effort to drive them into the mountains. This is helping to achieve security for people in the towns, villages and cities there. Corporal Atkinson made an incredibly valuable contribution, as do all our young men and women there.

I want to join with the minister, the member for Lingiari and the member for Aston and associate myself with our deep condolences to the family and our pride in the effort of Corporal Atkinson and his colleagues in the 1st Combat Engineer Regiment, our pride with the fellows in the 1st Commando Regiment, formerly 4RAR, and, of course, our pride in our people in the SAS, who are over there fulfilling the nation’s best intentions to assist the people of Afghanistan, but above all to prevent murderous attacks on civilians from coming here. I commend this motion and I honour the contribution of Corporal Atkinson.

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