Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

[by video link] Afghanistan really didn't need to end this way. It was simply not preordained that Afghanistan would fall back into the clutches of the Taliban. It was not preordained that we would see scenes, particularly over this last week or so, reminiscent of the evacuation of US forces from Saigon.

Yes, I'm the first to make the case that the military operation against Afghanistan in 2001 was warranted. Clearly, we needed to respond to the shocking al-Qaeda attacks in the United States. And, clearly, al-Qaeda was so interwoven with the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 that to remove al-Qaeda we needed to remove the Taliban regime. I don't dispute any of that. But what was required back then was a short, sharp military action, backed up by the strongest possible Western support and investment in nation rebuilding. But of course what happened, as early as the year after 2001—2002—was that the US and the UK in particular were pulling their troops out of Afghanistan to get ready to go and 'do' Iraq, if I can use that term. In fact, by 2004 there were some 100,000 US soldiers in Iraq and only about 15,000 soldiers in Afghanistan. In other words, where we are today was failure by design. In other words, the architects of that withdrawal or thinning out, and the distraction of the terrible Iraq war, were President George W Bush, Prime Minister Tony Blair and our own Prime Minister, John Howard.

But we are now where we are, and the question is: how do we help clean up the mess that we helped to create? Of course, there was much effort by the Australian Defence Force, and the British, US and other military, to get as many people out as they could in recent days. But of course so many people who are at grave risk are still in Afghanistan and somehow still need to get out of that country to safety. Somehow we have to have a channel of communication with the new regime, as does the United States, the UK and, ideally, the UNHCR. We need some sort of channel of communication to try to work with the new regime, to allow people at risk to get out of that country.

Of course that will amount to nothing unless fortunate countries like our own greatly increase their humanitarian intakes to allow those people somewhere to go and not just be stuck in countries of first asylum, like Pakistan or Iran. I note that the Australian government has announced an initial allocation of 3,000 in our humanitarian intake, and I note that the Prime Minister has signalled this won't be the end of it. But let's stop the uncertainty; let's get out there with big numbers. The US and the UK are talking about tens of thousands as a sure thing. Why don't we end the uncertainty and announce that, over the next year or so, we too will take tens of thousands of wonderful people from Afghanistan? There are doctors, engineers, nurses, social workers, poets, artists and all sorts of people there at risk. Let them come to Australia. Let them make our country all the richer.

At the same time, we need to acknowledge that a lot of Afghans will be fleeing across land to find some sort of safety in neighbouring countries, countries of first asylum—like I said, Pakistan and Iran. We really need to help those countries host those people, at least temporarily. We need to send humanitarian aid to Pakistan and Iran. We need to very quickly give certainty to Afghans in Australia. Give them permanent residency.

We also need to use the episodes of Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan as a prompt to revisit the whole issue of war powers. I asked a question of the Prime Minister on this the other day and he batted it away. He can't keep batting it away. We need the parliament to be more involved in the future in decisions of war and peace —not in emergency situations but when there's time to really think about an impending conflict, as was the case with Afghanistan, which was a matter of months ; and a s was the case with Iraq, which was almost a matter of years.

In closing, Speaker — and I thank your forbearance with the technology I've battled through down here in Hobart in recent times, but I'm online now — I make this point: we helped to make that mess. We need to do everything in our power to help clean it up.

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