Trevor Evans (Brisbane, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on this motion by the member for Kingston. I want to pay tribute to Australia's peacekeeping efforts around the world over the past seventy years. We should be very proud of the efforts of the men and women who've done such strong work on behalf of Australia to promote peace, stability and freedom in an often troubled world. It's important to comprehend the real difference that Australia's international peacekeeping efforts have made by contributing to a better world. The peace and stability that we support in so many areas has assisted some of the most vulnerable people on our planet to lead better lives, including people from developing economies and developing democracies. We have also contributed to efforts to support prosperity, trade, and people impacted by natural disasters. A few months ago, I moved a motion in this House paying tribute to the great work of the Australian Federal Police, who've contributed to Australia's peacekeeping efforts for many years alongside some of our closest friends and neighbours in the Pacific, such as the Solomon Islands and Papua New Guinea. That's just one example. Australia has played a strong role in supporting peacekeeping efforts right around the world, and we continue to do so.

A few weeks ago, I had the huge honour and privilege of visiting Iraq and the Middle East, where I saw the contribution that Australia and the Australian Defence Force is making to end conflict and bring about peace in the Middle East. The visit was part of the ADF Parliamentary Program, which has provided many members of parliament before me with a unique insight into the day-to-day workings of our Defence Force, both at home and abroad, over the past 15 years. I wanted to say how humbling I found the experience, and how proud I am to be Australian when I reflect on the efforts of our Defence Force. I didn't just get to witness the diverse capabilities of our Defence Force in action; I was able to freely engage with serving men and women across all levels of our Defence Force, and I got to experience some of the challenges and the rewards of service life. I dined in the same mess halls, I bunked in the cabins, I sweated in my camos, and I participated in some of the same training, including some very confronting medical emergency training, with tourniquets and wound dressing, as well as training for chemical, bio and nuclear attacks, with gas masks and other equipment.

The Australian troops currently serving in the Middle East are working with our other coalition partners on land, at sea and in the air to contribute to better stability in the Middle East region. We're contributing to international efforts to defeat ISIS in Iraq and Syria, and as part of the NATO-led team that's training, advising and assisting in Afghanistan. We're also contributing to the maritime security and stability in the waters around the Middle East.

I want to take a moment to inform the House of some recent progress that I witnessed in Iraq. As has been well publicised since the Iraqi government and its army reclaimed the city of Mosul some months ago in fairly impressive style, ISIS is now on the back foot. Put frankly, the Iraqi government is winning, with the assistance of coalition forces, and it's winning much faster than was predicted. Other towns, cities and regions which ISIS had heavily fortified are being secured in mere days, and the main message, especially in the context of future peacekeeping efforts, is that ISIS may be defeated—in the military sense—in as little as the next six to 12 months. And that would be a notable success, both for the Middle East and right around the rest of the world, if it means that we get to expose and defeat the terrible ideology behind ISIS, and to reveal those insurgents to be the losers they are, in every sense of that word. The question of what happens next, after ISIS is defeated, is a live one, and the answer, I want to suggest, should be informed by our own successes over a long period of time in our international peacekeeping efforts. We don't want to suddenly disperse, and leave a power vacuum that allows other insurgents to arise. Sustaining peace doesn't necessarily come for free and it doesn't happen automatically. Yet when we start to consider the investments we've made in the Middle East over many generations, it reinforces the importance of what should happen next.

One senior ADF officer I spoke to in the Middle East told me that he doesn't want his children to have to go into Iraq and Afghanistan to redo what we've already sacrificed so much to achieve in this generation and previous generations. I found that argument especially compelling. As part of a broader effort around the world, I believe Australia should seriously consider making a contribution to help set up countries like Iraq to succeed into the future. I want to thank everyone I met in the Middle East for their frank, honest and revealing conversations about their experiences and the Iraqi commanders I got to meet for their feedback and appreciation for Australia's contribution. In closing, I pay tribute to the efforts of Australia's international peacekeeping forces over the past 70 years and I salute the sacrifices made by those who did not return. Lest we forget.

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