Marise Payne (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Together with the United States, our ability to work collaboratively is stronger than ever. Senator Back would know—through not only his chairmanship of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Committee but also his own family experience—how important that collaborative capacity is for our international engagements in the military context. As I have advised the chamber previously, the Australian Defence Force is currently making some substantial military contributions to the US-led Counter-Daesh Coalition in Iraq and Syria to combat this extraordinary terrorist threat. Not only are we contributing through our Building Partner Capacity mission in Taji, through our Special Operations Task Group in Baghdad and the Air Task Group; we also have key senior ADF personnel embedded in coalition headquarters. Further, of course, the United States and Australia are working together in Afghanistan. We work on UN deployments together. We exchange officers in key positions in both militaries. The depth of the relationship and the purpose of the relationship— (Time expired)