Madeleine King (Brand, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy Speaker Coulton, welcome back. Welcome back to the parliament to all my colleagues. No doubt for all of us the winter recess has been very busy, whether out in your electorate, on international delegations, undertaking parliamentary committee work around the country, or taking the important opportunity to reacquaint ourselves with family, friends and our communities.

Over the winter recess, I had the extraordinary honour of visiting the Australian Defence Force operating in Afghanistan and the Middle East region. In doing so, I was participating in the ADF Parliamentary Program. This is an excellent program, open to all parliamentarians, that enables us to witness firsthand the working lives and service experience of the women and men of our Defence Force. While each of us serving in the Parliament of Australia may hold different political views, we all recognise the importance of our Defence Force and the sacrifice our service women and men make in the service of this nation.

I travelled to Kabul in Afghanistan with five colleagues: the members for Oxley, Burt, Whitlam, Batman and Fisher. Together we shared an extraordinary experience on the ground with the women and men of the ADF's Task Group Afghanistan, made up of personnel of the Royal Australian Navy, the Australian Army and the Royal Australian Air Force, and Defence civilians, all deployed on Operation Highroad, which forms an important part of the NATO-led Operation Resolute Support.

Our Defence Force continue to make a significant contribution to the peace and prosperity of Afghanistan. The service women and men of the Australian forces working across the Middle East region are dedicated and committed. They are representing the national interests of Australia in one of the most challenging environments in the world, and they do so with the utmost professionalism and pride.

We had the opportunity to travel in the Australian-made Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicle, a vehicle built in Bendigo that performs so well in the conditions of the Middle East that the forces of other nations look on the Bushmaster with envy, and which the Dutch and British forces have also enlisted to work on their operations in the Middle East. The Bushmaster is an Australian military vehicle we can be very proud of, and I certainly am.

I would like to thank all those involved in making this trip happen and those who supported us on it. Thank you to the soldiers, and some sailors, who got us around on the ground, ensured our safety and helped me in particular with that very heavy body armour. I thank the Air Force personnel who delivered us safely by air. In particular I would like to thank our escorts, Major Erica Abend and Warrant Officer Class Two Jeffrey Marshall. My sincere thanks also to Flight Sergeant Carolyn Carruthers of the RAAF, Captain Danielle Andretzke of the Australian Army and Flight Lieutenant Veronica Manalvo of the RAAF. These three lovely women helped me manage in the combat first aid training scenarios in the very challenging 50-degree heat. They were very kind to the pollie, and I thank them for it. I also look forward to seeing, in the electorate and not in Kabul, my future constituent Captain Jason of Wandi.

On Sunday, 23 July, I had the immense honour of being a guest of the Royal Australian Navy at Fleet Base West, HMAS Stirling in Rockingham. I was invited to welcome home HMAS Arunta. The Arunta returned to Rockingham following a nine-month deployment to the Middle East region on Operation Manitou, which is also part of Operation Highroad. This was the longest Middle East deployment by a Royal Australian Navy vessel since 1990. As I stood alongside the friends and family of the 191-strong ship's company, I saw firsthand the joy and delight and quite a few tears, including my own, on the faces of the boys and girls and men and women as they waved in their loved ones to the shore. Despite the stormy weather and grey skies, it was the brightest of days for the crowd of nearly a thousand people who stood and waited in the wind and the rain waiting to be reunited at last with their mums and dads, spouses and partners, sons and daughters and cousins, waiting to bring their families back together. For nine long months the service women and men of the Arunta did their duty and performed their service to our country. They did so a long way from home, covering nearly 50,000 nautical miles. It's always hard to be separated from your loved ones, but in doing so the Arunta's crew engaged in counterterrorism and maritime security operations that are imperative to making our world a safer place.

I would like to congratulate the service women and men of the Arunta on a job well done—or Bravo Zulu, as it is said—and I congratulate the families who have now welcomed their loved ones home. I hope you all enjoy your well-deserved leave. We in the parliament thank you very much for your commitment, service, professionalism and pride. The nation thanks you also. Thank you for your service on HMAS Arunta, and welcome home.