David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to support the remarks of all senators in this condolence motion on the death of Corporal Richard Atkinson, particularly the remarks of my leader, Senator Abetz, and Senator Conroy, representing the Leader of the Government in the Senate. It was last Wednesday morning—2 February—that Corporal Richard Atkinson, who as we have heard was serving with Australian Mentoring Taskforce 2, was killed in an improvised explosive device strike. A second soldier, Sapper Robert Rose, was seriously wounded in the blast, which occurred during the partnered Afghan National Army-MTF2 patrol as it moved through the Tangi Valley in the Deh Rawood region of Oruzgan Province in Afghanistan.

Corporal Atkinson was 22 years of age and from Darwin, based with the 1st Combat Engineer Regiment. He is survived by his fiancée, Dannielle; his parents, in Tasmania; and his brother, who lives in my home state of Western Australia. As we have heard, this was his first deployment to Afghanistan. He had previously been deployed with combat engineers to Indonesia on a humanitarian assistance mission, Operation Padang Assist. This young man was truly a fine and outstanding professional soldier. Corporal Atkinson is the 12th Australian soldier to have been killed by an improvised explosive device, out of the 22 brave and courageous young Australians who have died so far in this dangerous and difficult Afghanistan environment. There is nothing more dangerous than performing dismounted patrols in Afghanistan. It was whilst performing that task that Corporal Atkinson was killed and Sapper Rose seriously injured.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Richard Atkinson’s fiancée, his family and his comrades at this very difficult time. We mourn the loss of a very fine young Australian. We also wish Sapper Robert Rose a speedy recovery from his serious wounds resulting from this IED detonation. I pause to acknowledge the ongoing commitment, service, bravery and courage of all Australian soldiers in Afghanistan. They continue to occupy our thoughts and our prayers. Corporal Richard Atkinson is and will continue to be an inspiration and a very fine example to all of us.