Peter Lindsay (Herbert, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Defence. Would the Minister advise the House of the government’s decision to deploy a reconstruction task force led by the Australian Defence Force to Afghanistan?

Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Herbert for his question. Last Tuesday the Prime Minister and I announced that the Australian government will be deploying another 200 troops to Afghanistan. This will be under the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force phase III. The Australian troops will be working in team with Dutch troops. The Dutch have advised that they will be making available up to 1,400 troops for this task. The Vice Chief of the Australian Defence Force has just returned from London and the Netherlands to commence the negotiations for the precise detail of the deployment.

About half of the 200 troops that we will send will be, specifically, engineers and tradespeople who will be working in the Oruzgan province of Afghanistan. This is a highly dangerous activity. About half of the deployment will be security forces and logistics support, and we envisage that the deployment will be for a two-year period. These will add to the 200 special forces troops that we already have in Afghanistan and the 110 currently being deployed along with two Chinook helicopters, into which has been invested an additional $25 million to improve their antiballistic capabilities. I know the member for Herbert, along with all Australians, will wish them every success in this.

The reason the government is committed to deploying these troops is that terrorism is a global activity. It is likely for the foreseeable future that free men and women in governments throughout the world will be fighting terrorism. It needs to be fought in distant parts of the world no less than it needs to be fought in our region or, indeed, within Australia.

On Saturday we welcomed home the special forces task operation group, which has returned from Afghanistan. In the presence of the Prime Minister, the representative of the Leader of the Opposition, Senator Chris Evans, and other MPs, including the member for Cowan, the troops were recognised and honoured for their action, their leadership and their bravery on our behalf. Two in particular, a sergeant and a warrant officer class 2, were awarded the Medal for Gallantry, which is the third highest honour that can be bestowed upon an Australian soldier for bravery. In honour of those men and their families, I table an edited precis of what they have achieved.