Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

This is not how Australia wanted it to end. The events in Afghanistan have been devastating for the Afghan people, dangerous for Australian nationals who remain in Afghanistan, traumatic for veterans of the conflict and terrifying for Australians who have relatives back in Afghanistan. It is also potentially lethal for the many Afghans who have worked with Australian troops and officials, over many years, and have not yet been given safe passage out. And it will have profound implications for the standing of democracy in the world, for global geopolitics and for our own national security which will reverberate for the decade to come. But, as Greg Sheridan wrote in the Weekend Australian:

No one has been hurt as much as the 39 million people of Afghanistan, especially women and girls, who will be forced to live under an Islamist terrorist theocracy with a history of extravagant and often depraved violence.

These have been testing times—times when genuine leadership matters most. While a full and dispassionate reflection on Australia's experience in Afghanistan will need to come, our focus now must be on the current crisis. Labor strongly supports the work of the Australian interagency team on the ground in Kabul. They must be given every form of support they need. They've been presented with an almost impossible task, one made all the harder because this effort was launched far too late. Providing support to those who supported Australians on the ground is more than just a moral obligation; it is a national security imperative.

I do not understand why a team of the kind that we only recently deployed was not in place in Kabul the day the government announced Australia's intention to leave nearly three months ago. As we evacuated our own personnel, why didn't we evacuate Australian nationals at the same time, as well as loyal Afghans who had worked for Australia and whose lives would be in jeopardy as a result? The confusion over the fate of the 200 embassy security guards who were told on Saturday to contact a migration agent—it is almost unbelievable in its sheer callousness. It contrasts starkly with the leadership being exemplified by veterans who served in Afghanistan, who have rallied behind their Afghan mates. It also contrasts with the appeals of community organisations, MPs from both sides and former prime ministers Howard and Rudd. The very real risk that some will not be able to be reached is something that could and should have been avoided. This is particularly difficult for the families of the fallen and those who served alongside them. Today I pay tribute to those 41 Australians who made the ultimate sacrifice. Today, once again, we honour you—those who are still wondering about the arbitrary lottery that determines which is the wrong place and the wrong time, the twist of fate that has left them here among the living while their mates now belong to memory. As the flame burning eternally across the lake reminds us, we cannot and will never forget them.

Let me say this: the debt we owe to our men and women in uniform who have served in Afghanistan is beyond measure. We are safer because of you. We honour those who went, those who never came home, those who never came home the same and those who are there now, trying to salvage some good out of the chaos of Kabul airport. However, there is no evading the fact that this is an occasion when gratitude and pride must stand alongside sorrow. As I said, this is not how Australia hoped it would end. It was never going to be easy. Afghanistan has long been a leveller of great powers. Ambitions have crumbled and giants humbled there. We saw early success in the mission to prevent Afghanistan being used as a base by al-Qaeda to launch acts of terrorism. But, as the mission turned to the long-term task of building an environment where terrorism could not find new opportunities, it was always going to be difficult, and government attention was quickly drawn to other events.

As the grim tide of the Taliban floods back in, we must try to draw some solace from the thought that the vast majority of Afghan lives touched by Australians were touched very much for the better. As they carried on with this mission, even during those times when they were dogged by misgivings, the men and women who served in Afghanistan in our name reminded us what courage and honour truly are. The ADF, our diplomats and aid workers made a positive difference in the lives of the Afghan people. They made a difference for all those women and girls who were released from the darkness in which the Taliban had kept them. We can be proud that Australians created the beginnings of what should have been a brighter future, and we hope we have helped in planting the seeds of what might still become that better time in the future.

Our veterans are not bronze sculptures on a cenotaph; they are flesh-and-blood human beings, left to shoulder superhuman burdens. Let us work to lighten their burdens. I say to our veterans: no-one who has served as you have can pretend to feel what you feel, to know what it is like to live back in this world, in this familial life, but to have part of yourself that still dwells in that one. You have the gratitude of the nation.

As a nation, we cannot turn our backs on the truth of what has happened here, no matter how hard. We will work our way through the findings of the Brereton report commissioned by this government and all the lessons to be learnt. If freedom, democracy and the defeat of terrorism have been our cause, then it is a vitally important way to honour those who have fallen in the prosecution of that cause by attending to these values, both at home and in the wider world.

And what of those brave Afghans who repaid our soldiers' courage with their own, putting their lives on the line to help us help their compatriots? They believed in the promise we held of a better future. So many Afghans have risked it all. They have struggled and sacrificed to create a better country for themselves. Now we are witnessing scenes where, for some, clinging to the outside of a departing aircraft somehow represents greater hope than staying to face the new reality.

There are many Australians today who are desperate and anxious about their family in Afghanistan, who have been waiting months and in some cases years to get their partner visas or family reunification visas issued and have their families join them. MPs have been besieged with hundreds of desperate requests and stories that just break your heart. We need to look beyond the current evacuation to ensure that Australia plays a role in the global and regional humanitarian and refugee response as well as the ongoing political challenge that has become necessary following the Taliban's return.

The Taliban have said that they have changed and will be more respectful of human rights, but the violence and chaos around Kabul airport does not augur well. We must continue to speak up for our values. For the Taliban leadership and as the alternative Prime Minister of this country I would say this: the Afghanistan you now claim to rule is radically different to the one you had enslaved 20 years ago. If you say there will be no retributions, you will be held to that by the international community. If you say that women and girls will not be treated as second-class citizens, you will be held to that too. If you say you are somehow different to the Taliban who provided safe haven to Osama bin Laden to conduct the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed Australians, then the international community will hold you to that as well. I also say this to the Taliban: If you are claiming to be different, then one simple, practical proof is to create a safe and orderly humanitarian corridor to Kabul airport right now for anybody who wants to leave, instead of threatening children with guns.

We in Australia should demand nothing less. Together with the international community, we must pay close attention to ensuring that Afghanistan does not again become a safe haven for terrorism. As other countries have done, let us step up and do the right thing by those who assisted us. Our international reputation is at stake—our national security demands nothing less—and so is the way that we see ourselves as a people, as a nation and as the bearers of values that we believe are worth looking up to. Let us be worthy of the hope that we gave.

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