Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I wish to take up the great honour of speaking on this condolence motion and paying tribute to Sergeant Brett Mathew Wood MG. He is the 24th soldier to have lost his life and paid the supreme sacrifice for our nation in Afghanistan. I honour Sergeant Wood and I honour his family for the sacrifices they have made and for their struggles in the time of great sadness that they are enduring at the moment.

There are some things in this world that are worth fighting for. There are some things where there cannot be any other way apart from picking up a weapon and fighting. It is tragic, but that is the sad reality. The other part of that reality is that when people fight someone ends up dying, and that is what we are here to talk about today. Sergeant Wood, an exemplary soldier with impeccable credentials and years of dedication to the service and interests of his nation, has given his life in combat in Afghanistan. That is a tragedy, and we are here to pay tribute to his life and to his contribution to our nation.

Sergeant Wood was a veteran of Bougainville, of East Timor, of Iraq and of Afghanistan. He had been pretty much everywhere on behalf of his country; when the nation called him to all those spots he answered. Above all that, on 17 July 2006, he was awarded one of the highest bravery decorations that this country can bestow on anybody. On that day he was incredibly important in assisting an infantry company of the United States Army, the 10th Mountain Division, to regain their momentum. Despite being wounded early in the battle, he fought throughout the entire afternoon, providing leadership, determination and outrageous courage and bravery to see the enemy defeated and the momentum of the advance resumed. We are not talking about just any complicated battlefield. We are talking here about difficult visibility. We are talking about the enemy firing from compounds which in many ways are akin to small forts—a very difficult situation indeed. Sergeant Wood was the sort of highly professional soldier that we know Australians are capable of being. He was the one who, despite his own injuries, his own wounds and his own concerns was able to continue to fight and turn the tide of the battle on that day, 17 July 2006. And so it was, as a result of his efforts on that day, that he was awarded the Medal for Gallantry.

Unfortunately, on 23 May this year, Sergeant Wood MG was killed by an improvised explosive device. When you consider what this man had been through throughout his career, his overseas service and the events of 2006, I suspect he was the sort of person who could not be killed by the enemy directly. The only way the enemy could take him out was by this tragic incident involving an improvised explosive device. It is a tragedy that this great man, this great Australian, lost his life.

When we think about those sacrifices that Australians have made, about the soldiers who have died and the families who have lost their loved ones it is normal for some Australians to think: what is the point? There is no doubt that there have been advancements. Ground has been taken and provinces within Afghanistan are much safer now than they used to be. Military objectives have been achieved. We are proud of that and we absolutely support that. But there is more to it than just that. There is a societal return for the sacrifices that our soldiers are making. Our soldiers have turned the path and have made life for the Taliban and the terrorists extremely difficult in Afghanistan. But they have also made great advancements for society in Afghanistan.

Whilst we may not ever see the sort of democracy that we know and love here in Australia implemented in Afghanistan—although I certainly hope for that—we have seen a different attitude, as was reported last year, in that 70 per cent of Afghan people believe that the future for their children will be a safer and better one. There is a lot to be said for that. So many young girls are now allowed to go to school. That is a good thing and worth fighting for. Literacy levels are up and the total number of children who are going to school is up. These are good things and they have been achieved by the Australians, the Americans, the Dutch, the Macedonians and others. Those people have been fighting there and have been prepared to say: 'It is a good thing to be here; it is a good thing to be prepared to fight for a better world and a better Afghanistan—an Afghanistan where the future will be moderate and where, as much as possible, the future will be democratic and where terrorism will never again be allowed to reign in Afghanistan.'

When we look back on the sacrifices of Sergeant Wood MG and others and on the tragic loss of the latest two soldiers, we should be very certain that what they died for was a good cause. As I said at the start, there are good things in this world and sometimes we have just got to fight for them.

I pay tribute to Sergeant Wood, to his service to our great country and I extend my condolences to his family for the loss they have suffered. We in this place share a bipartisan approach to Afghanistan: we will be there until the job is done. I applaud all those who fight for our country and we honour them as great Australians. On this occasion we honour the very great and most excellent soldier Sergeant Brett Matthew Wood MG.

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