Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I rise on behalf of the Australian Greens to support the motion and to reflect on the one-year anniversary of the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Just over a year ago, we were seeing heartbreaking images of desperate Afghan people trying to flee the Taliban regime. There are horrible, heart-wrenching accounts of that terrifying ordeal, including by many Afghan refugees who have now settled in Australia. I won't share the full graphic account, but I do want to quote from one Afghan refugee, Noor M Ramazan, who says:

After 20 years, everything in Afghanistan was back to where it began. After years of waiting, hoping and dreaming about our country, we were leaving our belongings, family and friends.

Everyone remembered the first time the Taliban came. The ones who were young and didn't remember heard from elders. We all knew who Taliban were. That's why everyone wanted to be the first to leave. All our belongings were on our back and we were running for life. Celebrities were running, politicians were running, we were running and everyone was running. Elderly people were out of breath, children were trampled and some died, but still everyone was running to go.

Some of those people who sought safety in the chaos around the airport made it to Australia, but many remain in Afghanistan in dire circumstances. I want to acknowledge the effort of all MPs and their officers, including my Greens colleagues and my own office manager at the time, for going above and beyond to expedite the safe passage of so many Afghanis to Australia. I'm sure that many of us and our officers did that, and I acknowledge the former government's efforts to collectively co-ordinate that effort and to evacuate over 4,000 Afghanis.

But there are still people stuck there who are not safe. This is far from over. Women and girls once again face oppression and minorities like the Hazara people live in fear. Many have been killed in the last year by bombings, some of which amount to war crimes. A few weeks ago, a group of UN special rapporteurs and other experts issued a statement warning that the human rights situation would continue to deteriorate. They said:

Since August 2021, we have seen a plethora of human rights violations committed by the Taliban, with their virtual erasure and systematic oppression of women and girls from society being particularly egregious. Nowhere else in the world has there been as wide-spread, systematic and all-encompassing an attack on the rights of women and girls—every aspect of their lives is being restricted under the guise of morality and through the instrumentalization of religion. Discrimination and violence cannot be justified on any ground.

Regrettably, there is little or no sign that the human rights situation is turning a corner. Indeed, the daily reports of violence—including extra-judicial killings, disappearances, arbitrary detention, torture, heightened risks of exploitation faced by women and girls including for the purposes of child and forced marriage, and a breakdown in the rule of law—gives us no confidence that the Taliban has any intention of making good on its pledge to respect human rights.

Australia cannot and must not forget these people. We have a moral obligation, and that starts with telling the truth—to ourselves and to people in Afghanistan—about why it was that Australian troops were deployed. Prime Minister Howard at the time, without recourse to parliament, put us into that war and took us directly into that conflict.

Part of our truth-telling about why we sent troops to Afghanistan must also be a reckoning about our treatment of whistleblowers. Julian Assange has faced incredible injustice and torture in response to his simple act of sharing the truth of what was happening in Afghanistan and why troops were deployed there. The fundamental injustice and lack of transparency around the deployment of Australian troops to Afghanistan has tainted our treatment of whistleblowers. This is why the Greens have called for decisions to commit Australian troops to war to be made by parliament, openly and with debate. Given the wide-ranging and long-lasting impacts of war, these decisions demand parliamentary scrutiny, international cooperation and development and respect for human rights.

As well as telling the truth about why Australian troops were deployed, we must also be honest about what has occurred while they were deployed. We owe that honesty to Afghan civilians and to ourselves as a nation. That includes acknowledging and mourning the 41 Australian soldiers who lost their lives, as well as the horrifyingly high number of civilians killed in Afghanistan by Western forces and their allies. Thousands of Afghan civilians were killed by coalition forces, including by air strikes. There have been serious and credible allegations that crimes were committed by Australian Forces. Those perpetrators must be brought to justice and the evidence must be made public.

We must also be honest about the evacuation of Kabul and the fall of the Afghan government. Some people were able to make it to the airport and through the throngs of people. Many more died, either in the chaos and violence around the airport or subsequently. We know that there were locally engaged employees who worked with Australian Forces who have not been able to leave Afghanistan or find a place of safety. A few weeks ago The Guardian published accounts from some of those left behind, and I quote:

I worked for Dfat in Afghanistan for five years. At the request of my Dfat colleagues, I submitted an application for Dfat's certification. But since August 2021, Dfat has been saying my application for ministerial approval is still under consideration. It has taken more than a year, and I wonder what makes my case different from others.

The Taliban have executed two colleagues I worked with at USAID. I feel I will be next. I remember family members warning me to stay away from international organisations when I worked for the Australian government, lest I be left behind and betrayed. Now, I am reminded of what I was told. I gather I should have worked for someone else as the Australians have closed the door on my face.

The simple reality is that decisions made by ministers of the Australian government cost lives, both of Australian soldiers and Afghan civilians, and have had a devastating impact on the lives of those who remain.

We also need to be conscious of the impact of this war on veterans. The Brereton report and the evidence to the royal commission into veteran suicide have all revealed the high toll of war. We need to make amends to personnel and civilians who have experienced harm, through reparations and psychological and wellbeing supports for serving personnel and veterans. Violent wars are failing everyone. We have seen it in Vietnam and now Afghanistan. We must find peaceful, non-violent solutions to increasing international tensions.

Australia played a significant role in a 20-year war that failed to create a lasting peace, and for which we face allegations of war crimes. The war was not the solution to the problems that Afghanistan faced in 2001. We did not succeed in building robust institutions or in working with the Afghani people to bring about lasting change. Australia's actions contributed to the growing threat to many Afghan people from the Taliban, and we have a moral obligation to provide sanctuary for some of the people who will suffer as a result. The fall of Kabul a year ago was an appalling culmination of two decades of failure by the invading forces. Now we must continue to do whatever we can to support the Afghani people, to remove from harm those who need that help and to make sure that the rights of citizens are upheld.

A year ago the Greens called for the Australian government to provide immediate assistance to Afghan people on the ground in Afghanistan and by providing protection here in Australia. We called for Australia to offer permanent protection visas to up to 20,000 people from Afghanistan who were at risk of persecution from the Taliban. We called for those places to be an addition to our regular humanitarian intake and to include protection for people like female leaders, human rights advocates, LGBTIQ+ people, alumni of Australian universities, journalists, Afghan government workers and people from ethnic and religious minorities previously persecuted by the Taliban.

We welcome the genuinely additional 16,500 places that have been announced, but it still falls short of the 20,000 that we called for, and we still think there is room for the government to do more. Those additional places should be rolled out as needed rather than arbitrarily spread over four years. Afghan citizens on temporary visas in Australia must also be offered protection in Australia with permanent visas. Given the confusion and chaos that faced many leaving Afghanistan, we believe that all 449s issued to Afghan nationals should be honoured and reissued if necessary. The government should immediately offer temporary bridging visas to any Afghan people who worked to support Australian defence forces or consular officers so that they can come to safety in Australia while their claims for asylum are assessed. Australia must also commit significant additional aid funding to Afghanistan, as a matter of urgency, in the order of at least $100 million per year, disbursed to aid organisations working on the ground who have strong connections with local communities and civil society.

Australia must act as a good global citizen and do what we can to support people on the ground, especially women and girls, who face a huge curtailing of their rights living through this dire situation. Australia must do its utmost to pick up the pieces and support the people of Afghanistan and the diaspora in Australia.