Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It was my absolute pleasure and privilege to catch up with ADF members when they sailed into Darwin Harbour after three months away deployed on Indo-Pacific Endeavour 2019. This is the ADF's biggest overseas engagement activity, maintaining and developing relationships with our neighbours. Up to 1,500 ADF personnel took part. The joint task force visited Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia. The young men and women of the ADF continue to demonstrate Australians' ability to deliver peacekeeping and security operations as well as humanitarian assistance and disaster relief in our region. At Darwin Airport, I bumped into their boss, Air Commodore Rick Owen, the commander of the joint task force, who had nothing but praise for all those under his command—our soldiers, sailors, air men and women, and even a couple of Defence and DFAT civilians thrown in. He told me his troops were engaging, friendly and professional. He told me they represented all that is good about Australia and he was proud of them, and we are proud of them. We recognise their sacrifices and the wives, husbands and children who also sacrifice a great deal during these lengthy deployments.