Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

About a fortnight ago the Leader of the Opposition and I travelled to Uruzgan province in Afghanistan to mark the imminent withdrawal of Australian military forces from that province. As I said in Afghanistan, Australia's longest war is ending not with victory, not with defeat, but with hope that Afghanistan will be a better country for our presence. We note the high price that has been paid by our military forces: 40 deaths; 161 very seriously wounded; and hundreds, perhaps thousands, of the 25,000 who served there carrying the unseen scars of war for the rest of their lives.

We have paid a high price for limited progress in Uruzgan province. Nevertheless, there has been progress, and perhaps the greatest progress has been the advancement of the life of the women of the province as a result of our presence. I can report to the House that there are now some 26 girls schools in Uruzgan province, which is a 20-fold increase since 2001. Up to 80 per cent of expectant mothers receive at least some prenatal care. This is an extraordinary change in what until very recently was almost a feudal society. It is the men and women of the Australian armed forces and the men and women of the Australian aid effort, uniformed and civilian, who have been largely responsible for this, working with our Afghan allies.

While the Leader of the Opposition and I were in Uruzgan, we were presented by the Governor of Uruzgan with some artefacts that he invited us to present to the Australian parliament as a token of gratitude for the work of the Australian teams, both military and civilian, in the province.

There is still a vast distance to be covered before that province, or indeed most places in Afghanistan, could even begin to resemble a pluralist democracy. But nevertheless progress has been made. Still there are some five male students for every female school student in that province. But Malalai High School, one of the high schools that has opened and flourished with Australian support, is about to graduate a class of girl students. The governor of the province presented the artefacts I am holding to the Leader of the Opposition and me in the hope that they would be laid before the Australian parliament as a token of the gratitude of the people of Uruzgan to the people of Australia, and of the respect of the people of Uruzgan to the people of Australia for the sacrifices that have been made by our country on their behalf.

With your indulgence, Madam Speaker, I will present these artefacts to the Clerk.

Bill Shorten (Maribyrnong, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On the first day of the 44th Parliament, it is a good day to say well done to the men and women of the Australian Defence Force and our supporting civilian agencies. Our long commitment has been characterised by two intense phases: the initial international intervention in 2001-02, and the significant re-engagement from 2005 to 2013. Along with 49 other countries, we have been part of a United Nations mandated mission to deny resources and opportunity to international terrorism that possessing the state of Afghanistan had formerly offered. We have also helped bring to an end one of the most brutal regimes we have seen.

We are proud in this parliament that we have maintained bipartisan support for our troops and our civilian agencies in Afghanistan. I am proud that the Rudd and Gillard governments found a new way forward to give the best chance of success to our aims, by reorienting the strategy that was being pursued, which included a focus on building Afghanistan's capacity to assume responsibility for their own security and laying the foundation for better governance and a better future for Afghans.

Our understanding is that such conflicts are resolved by addressing the range of security, economic, social and political factors at issue, as evidenced by our creation of the Australian Civil-Military Centre, the development of better approaches to our provincial reconstruction effort, and by ensuring that this has become a central focus for our military support.

We leave behind in Uruzgan a legacy that includes schools and roads, skills and social and health infrastructure. We welcome the progress in transition to Afghanistan-led security right across Afghanistan, of which the handover ceremony attended by the Prime Minister and me on 29 October in Tarin Kowt is but one signpost.

I am grateful to the Prime Minister for the recent invitation to visit our troops. I believe I am the first opposition leader to accept the invitation. It was a profound and informative experience, most clearly, I would have to say, about the professionalism and dedication of our armed forces. They have taken the vow of absence, risk, distance from home and the daily uncertainty of what each hour of their tour will bring. Any persons in this House—and I know there are many—who have visited Afghanistan immediately perceive how close the risk is and how unpredictable events can be at any tick of the clock and from almost any direction, be it at midnight or in the morning. It is in a land and a nation that we can never fully understand or predict.

I believe there are no words to thank our troops and our civilian agencies for their sacrifice of the ordinariness of life that we take for granted. We take for granted being able to come home to our children or go out in safety and regularity and good cheer to a football field or a day at the beach. Our domestic, unheroic, ordinary lives far from hostilities and furies are protected by the risks of our servicemen and servicewomen. We thank our troops, but, of course, words are not enough. Our military forces have almost gone beyond the reach of our gratitude. The opposition salutes our troops and our civilian agencies. We wish them good fortune in the days and months of our mission still pending before they make it home. It will be a glad homecoming from a tremendous job after many years.

Along with the two artefacts the Prime Minister presented, I would like to present a list of the young women who have been able to complete education at high school in Uruzgan.