Julian Simmonds (Ryan, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] My question is to the Minister for Defence. Will the minister please outline to the House how Australian Defence Force personnel are continuing to bring Australians and Australian visa holders back from Afghanistan?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question and for the commitment that he has to the many veterans and serving members of the ADF who live in his electorate of Ryan. The Gallipoli Barracks at Enoggera, of course, comes within his electorate, and he is a regular visitor to and great supporter of the defence personnel that work and live on that base.

As Australians are witnessing, the security situation in Afghanistan is dire, and it's deteriorating. That's certainly been the story of the last 24 hours. The positive of the last 24 hours is that, working in particular with the New Zealand and UK partners—our friends, our cousins—and the United States, we have evacuated approximately 4,000 people in total now, on 29 flights, since last Wednesday, 1,200 just in the last 24 hours. I want to say thank you very much to the RAAF and to the air force from New Zealand for their assistance. The logistics on the ground, the sharing of intelligence, and the way in which they work would make all Australians proud.

But this is a very difficult situation. We do have credible threats and intelligence in relation to planned terrorist attacks at the airport, in that vicinity. There has been advice issued by the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and ourselves that people should not gather at the gates at the airport, that they should move immediately from that area, and that they shouldn't be in areas of large gatherings. That's the very clear advice to all of those people.

The focus for Australia now is to make sure that we can provide support to those people that we have based in AMAB, the base that we have in the United Arab Emirates, where people are staging before they come to Australia to settle and to start a new life that once they could never have dreamed of. The fact that we have, through the Australian Defence Force and the work of DFAT, Home Affairs and others, been able to provide that opportunity is a great credit to our country and many others, including those that I have spoken of in my answer today.

I do want to thank again the special forces, the commandoes, those that have been deployed from Lavarack Barracks out of Townsville, and the SAS. Our country is incredibly well served, and has been for many, many decades, by the regiment and the work they do in keeping Australians safe. The heroics that have been displayed by all our personnel in Kabul are quite remarkable and have resulted in, frankly, a much better situation and outcome than we could have envisaged. There is always more to do, but I thank them and their families for their sacrifice in having the uncertainty of their loved ones being away at this very difficult time.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

on indulgence—I join briefly with the minister in paying tribute to all our servicemen and women, and wish them a safe return.