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

The end of our engagement with Afghanistan presents tough questions for Australia, and the world is watching how we honour our commitments. It's going to be really important for the future as we look to an uncertain Indo-Pacific. How we act from here on in—given our 20-year engagement in Afghanistan—is important because the end of our military commitment might be one thing, but we should also accept that the commitments made by our trusted friends demand honourable responses on our behalf.

It's time for the Afghan National Security Forces, the ANSF, to protect the sovereignty of their republic. The ANSF forces on the ground today are significantly better trained and more capable than they were 10 years ago, and Australia can take substantial credit for that. But they are a young security force, and the withdrawal of Australian forces should not mark the end of our advisory and capacity-building support. But, given we are closing our embassy in Kabul, it's difficult to escape that conclusion if you're in Kabul.

So the question we need to ask is: after two decades of war and nation-building, what role should Australia play in the future of Afghanistan? I would like to see the Australian government, in answering this, come clean on what their plans are. Is Afghanistan still important to Australia and its geostrategic interests, as we were told when our intervention began? Or do we just declare that the only reason we were there was as a flag for the US's military intervention, for good reasons, following 9/11?

Surely we also bear part of the responsibility for the early failure of state building in Afghanistan, as attention and resources were diverted to the Iraq War. The people of Afghanistan are now living in the consequences of those failures, and make no mistake: this disengagement is creating a vacuum in Afghanistan, which is being filled with violence, chaos and great power competition. Without international support we will watch the country further descend into the factionalism that tore the country apart back in the 90s. This factionalism was then exploited by terrorist groups, using Afghanistan as a base to conduct international action, which, of course, was the whole reason we got involved there in the first place.

We know that IS, al-Qaeda and other extremist groups continue to operate in Afghanistan, and we've seen how, in places such as Syria, the vacuum created by chaos and instability can be quickly filled by these extremist groups. This situation will also mean that there will be more opportunities for powerful actors in the region—China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran—to involve themselves more fully in Afghan affairs.

The deliberate killing of civilians, as we continue to witness, is contrary to humanitarian law and is a heinous crime. The Afghan people deserve the protections afforded to them by international treaties and conventions as inalienable human rights, but these will be increasingly under threat with a resurgent Taliban. These attacks undermine the importance of freedom of speech, human rights and the foundations of a lawful society that Australia says we support our partner countries in achieving.

The protection of Afghan women fulfilling professional roles in society and the protection of women in general are massive concerns. Afghan women lawyers, judges, educators, journalists, students, political analysts and civil servants are extremely vulnerable. Many have already been displaced from their roles in several provinces or just killed outright.

From talking to senior officials in the Afghan government I know that moral is low and hope is fading. They are feeling abandoned, like many of our faithful interpreters. I want to acknowledge the veteran Jason Scanes who set up an ex-service organisation called Forsaken Fighters. He was here in parliament last week, but I'm not sure whether any government MP had the chance to meet with him.

The rapid shutdown of our embassy has sent a chilling message about our commitment to that country. Don't get me wrong; it is right that we refocus to the Indo-Pacific, but it's also important that we support those that are trying to survive after 20 years of our commitment. The government has the chance to reverse this disengagement and renew its commitment to peace and nation-building in Afghanistan, and I encourage the government to seize that opportunity.