Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I join with the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, the Minister for Defence and all those members who have made a contribution to this important condolence motion in honour of Sergeant Todd Langley. Another great Australian has given his life in Afghanistan for his country. Indeed, Sergeant Langley is the 28th Australian to do so—and that is 28 too many. We mourn his loss and today we are here to express our sympathy to his family, his wife and his children and to his broader family and, of course, to his comrades in the Australian Defence Force. It is really very difficult to comprehend the idea that one might do five tours as a special forces soldier in Afghanistan. It is a challenging place—hot, dusty, certainly with none of the comforts of home. It is difficult to comprehend what goes through the mind each time they go out through the front gate of Camp Holland into theatre with very little knowledge of what might come next and indeed not knowing whether they might return. I know they do not dwell on that very much, but you wonder what goes through the mind of a special forces soldier on a fifth deployment. Goodness knows how many times Sergeant Langley had gone out through that front gate. As typical of a sergeant, Sergeant Langley was 35 years old. Special forces soldiers tend to be a little bit older than many of our infantrymen. It is fairly obvious why: they are mature and very experienced soldiers. They are our best, our finest. So I take the opportunity to pay tribute to all of them.

I am never sure whether to say this, because it is a strange thing in some ways to say, but I do take some comfort from the fact that Sergeant Langley lost his life in a firefight, rather than at the hands of those who are creating, constructing and manufacturing improvised explosive devices in Afghanistan. There is something most critically unfair about the indiscriminate use of IEDs. As strange as it is to say, I know that Sergeant Langley was engaging in something that he knew well—and there is something fair about a firefight; at least it is fairer than an IED, given the way that they are used in Afghanistan. He leaves us a hero who lost, and gave, his life in combat.

He and his fellow members of the ADF are doing very important work in Afghanistan. It is work we must continue to do. It is work that goes right to the interests of Australia and Australians. It is work that goes to the safety and security of Australians, whether they be travelling the globe or here on their own soil. We cannot allow Afghanistan to once again descend into a breeding ground and a launching pad for those prepared to perpetuate their acts of terror on innocent people around the globe. That is why we are there. That is why we must continue to be there. We do have an exit strategy, of course. When we train the Afghan National Army and the Afghan National Police to a level at which they are capable of taking care of their own security, then our people can come home. In the meantime, the training will continue. Special Forces will continue to disrupt the Taliban leadership and those who work under them, and that is obviously critically important work.

Sergeant Langley was a volunteer. I am not sure that I knew him, but I do know that he would have been more than willing to deploy for that fifth time. I know that he would have been fully committed and would have absolutely believed in what he was doing and what we were seeking to achieve. I am also confident, without knowing his family, that he would have had their full support in his determination to continue to do what he was doing. That, of course, does not make it any easier for them. I am sure they are going through the most horrendous time, a period impossible for us to comprehend. Today, I hope we help in a small way by paying tribute to Sergeant Langley and what he did for his country over a long period of time, with two tours in East Timor in addition to his commitment to Afghanistan. Our thoughts are with his family, and we thank them again for the great sacrifice he made and for the great sacrifice they have made in allowing him to do what he felt he needed to do and what he wanted to do in Afghanistan for his country.

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