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

I thank Senator Burston for some prior notice of his question. I also thank him for a question of this nature on a day when we are honouring our proud Australian peacekeeping tradition that goes back seven decades to our first UN deployment in 1947. Today, a new peacekeeping memorial was unveiled on Anzac Parade to commemorate the courage, the sacrifice and the valour of Australian peacekeepers from the ADF, the police services and the civilian community. The memorial honours the close to 80,000 Australians who have served in more than 60 UN and multinational peacekeeping operations. Senator Burston asks me about nature of service, of which I have several contemporary examples. The ADF is contributing 59 specialist personnel across multinational and UN peacekeeping missions to provide niche capabilities and expertise in areas such as operations and logistics. This currently includes 19 ADF personnel to the UN Mission in South Sudan, 12 ADF personnel to the UN Truce Supervision Organization in the Middle East and 28 personnel to the multinational force and observer mission in the Sinai. I acknowledge those men and women and thank them for their service.

However, it is important to note, in relation to Senator Burston's question, that matters of nature of service will differ from deployment to deployment. Over those 60 operations I referred to earlier, they have been very different over the years. War-like classification requires the authorisation to use force to achieve a military objective and the expectation of casualties.