Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I can well understand that it is fear that overtakes any observer in looking at events in Afghanistan. The tragic deaths of 16 civilians killed by an American soldier in Kandahar require us to send our condolences to all the Afghan families affected. This is tragic, and it is tragic because it heightens that drift towards a clash of civilisations, which I think we would be united in wanting to deplore.

I wish to remind the Senate, however, that we are in Afghanistan under a United Nations mandate. I want to remind the Senate that we are there because we sought to deny al-Qaeda a safe haven in the considerations that overtook the world after September 11. That was a legitimate aspiration. We are there as well to set up the Afghan people for a future in which they will not be intimidated by terrorism and in which women will not be denied their rights. I can point with pride to some of the concrete achievements of Australia and its partners working in Afghanistan, including: since 2001—and I think it is a very compelling indicator—the number of school enrolments in Afghanistan have increased from one million, virtually none of whom were girls, to over seven million today, and 2.5 million of those are young females; the increased access to basic health care; and the support of the delivery of no fewer than 45,000 community development projects in 25,000 communities.

We are committed with our partners to a transition. It is a transition that sees the Afghan people and their forces take responsibility for defence. We are moving with our forces— (Time expired)