Rob Mitchell (McEwen, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

This is a motion that I think all of us should be supportive of, and supportive without going through the faux patriotism and that. Let's be really honest and brutal about what this is about. Having spent time in Afghanistan along with the member for Riverina, who I hope got rid of those photos, we got to see firsthand what went on and what difficulties people faced. It's a very, very tense area. What we saw happen with the first airlift, and 1RAR and everyone involved, was something I don't think we've seen the likes of since the fall of Saigon, with photos of helicopters and aircraft removing people. It was chaotic, shambolic and badly organised, but what you do know is that when our defence personnel get given a job, they do it. They don't just do it; they do it well, they do it to their best ability, and they do this nation proud. That's why it's important that we have a look at these things. Today is the day that we had the ministerial statements on the Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans Suicide, something that most of us fought long and hard to get happening because we know the challenges. We know what people face.

If you've been to Kabul, it's not a great spot. I can remember travelling through Kabul, where there were families in the streets, just sitting in bomb craters, begging for food and money as we were going past. It's fair to say that our apprehensions were high that day when we went into the city. But, after seeing this happening in real life, you just know why those images of people scrambling onto planes happened: because they wanted to get out of there for their safety. I fought very hard and feel very disappointed that I've never been able to achieve the ability to get our interpreters out of Afghanistan. I think it's almost shameful that we as a nation haven't been able to get out these people who fought with our soldiers and probably saved hundreds of lives that we didn't know about because of the work that they did.

That's why I think it is important that we recognise the work of 1RAR and what they did, because what they put themselves through, what they did, was very extraordinary. I can recall my friend former senator Kimberley Kitching and what she did at a time when there were people calling from Afghanistan, trying to get out, and she went and arranged and did all this amazing stuff to help get people out at a time when it was chaotic. I remember at her funeral listening to the story of what she did with the girl in the yellow scarf. You could almost make a movie out of what Kimberley did and what she went through to help just get that one person safe, let alone the number of people we were able to transport out of there on all the different flights that we had.

I know the trauma that the men and women of the ADF are going to face with those moments, especially when we go back and look at that footage. It's a horrid thing to see people fleeing for their lives, desperate to do anything they can to get themselves and their families out. We can all put ourselves in those same shoes, because without a doubt, if we were living in an area or a situation like that, not one of us would not want to do everything possible to try to get out and risk their life for safety. It's the ADF personnel who are at the front of that. They're right at the coalface as people are scrambling through canals, climbing over fences and doing everything they can to try to give themselves a chance at a life that we take for granted.

We have a responsibility to those people when they come back, to make sure that we give them every opportunity. Last week I talked about MC Labour and the great work they're doing with giving veterans opportunities and jobs when they come back. Not all scars are physical. I think they're the ones that we don't see enough of and that we don't recognise enough—just the pain that people go though with what they see and do. My pain in Afghanistan was spending two weeks sharing a bunk with the member for Riverina, but that was about it. It was a small price to pay.

When it comes to looking at where we give decorations, we know there's a process. It's always been the same process, and it is a slow process, absolutely. But we should make sure that, when we give out citations, we give them out properly and appropriately and give every opportunity to make sure that people who put themselves in harm's way—people that we ask to go and do these things—are given the recognition they deserve. So I support this motion, and I think that all of us could take a moment and reflect on what those men and women went through and think about what they're going to go through in the coming months. (Time expired)

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