Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, and also on behalf of Senators Birmingham and Payman, move:

That the Senate—

(a) acknowledges:

(i) 15 August 2022 marks one year since Kabul fell to the Taliban,

(ii) this date will be a particularly difficult day for many in Australia, for the families of the 41 Australian servicepeople who tragically died in Afghanistan and of those that have been lost since returning, for the more than 39,000 Australian Defence Force personnel and civilians who deployed to Afghanistan over twenty years, for Afghan-Australian communities with loved ones still in Afghanistan, for the thousands of Australian police, diplomats, officials and aid workers that contributed to our efforts there, and

(iii) our commitment to help those who assisted Australian operations in Afghanistan find safe harbour, and the continued efforts of the Australian Government and non-governmental organisations to resettle Afghans in Australia;

(b) notes:

(i) Australia remains committed to working with the international community to respond to the humanitarian needs of the people of Afghanistan, and

(ii) the Taliban, who remain in effective control of Afghanistan, have spurned the opportunity for reform, engaged in violence and repression, and systematically rolled back human rights advancements, undermined media and political freedoms, harboured terrorists and taken away the rights of women and girls;

(c) recognises:

(i) protracted, severe and deepening humanitarian, economic, security and development crises continue to have a devastating impact on the people of Afghanistan, and

(ii) the contributions made by the Afghan diaspora in Australia and that 31,500 visa places for Afghan nationals have been made available over four program years; and

(d) calls on the Taliban to:

(i) stand by its commitment to uphold the rights of all Afghans, including women, girls and minority groups, and

(ii) not allow Afghanistan to become a safe haven for terrorist organisations and their support networks.

At the outset, can I start by acknowledging the support and cosponsorship of the Leader of the Opposition in the Senate and also Senator Payman, who will speak and who obviously has a very deep personal interest in this.

Colleagues, a year ago in Afghanistan, 12-year-old girls went to school. Some aspired to be engineers, doctors or lawyers. Now those same girls are barred from attending secondary school, whatever their dreams. A year ago, many women in Afghanistan went to work, ran their own businesses, provided for themselves and for their families. Today they are effectively excluded from the workplace, directed not to leave their home without a male chaperone. A year ago, Afghanistan had diverse media. Today journalists face arrest, intimidation and harassment, restricted in what they can report, if at all, on conditions and developments in their own country. An estimated 40 per cent of media outlets have been closed, and others are self-censoring. The Afghanistan of today is a diminished country from that which we saw before Kabul fell to the Taliban on 15 August 2021. It is a country facing an economic crisis, growing humanitarian demands and ongoing problems with security and governance. Following the one-year anniversary of that day, it's timely for this place to reflect upon the journey we have taken as a country with the people of Afghanistan and with the international community.

I start by acknowledging that 15 August is a particularly difficult day for many in Australia for different reasons. Our 20-year legacy of engagement saw more than 39,000 Australian Defence Force members and civilians serve in Afghanistan. As part of an international effort, they worked and fought alongside coalition and Afghan partners to deny Afghanistan as a safe haven for international terrorism and help Afghans rebuild their country. On behalf of their nation, they did an incredibly important job in the most difficult of circumstances. They should be proud of their service, as we are. We thank them for it.

Tragically, 41 Australian servicepeople died in Afghanistan. Many more returned home with lasting physical and mental injuries, and we have lost more Defence personnel since they returned. For those veterans and family members who may have been concerned with or affected by the anniversary of the fall of Kabul, we encourage you to reach out to Open Arms, which provides support for current and ex-serving ADF personnel and their families. This is a good time to check up on your mates.

The one-year anniversary is a sad time for the Afghan community here in Australia and around the world. Many left their homeland in the most trying of circumstances. Some had to make the difficult, life-changing decision to navigate a difficult journey to the Kabul International Airport with family and loved ones. They then had to negotiate their way through the intimidation of Taliban checkpoints, congregate for hours, if not days, in the heat of the Kabul summer, with tens of thousands of people also desperate to enter the gates of the airport to secure safe passage out of the country. For those who were able to depart, there remain deep concerns about the safety of family and friends still in Afghanistan.

Today the Taliban remain in effective control of Afghanistan and have reverted to misogynistic and oppressive practices that characterised its rule during the 1990s. The Taliban have worked systematically to take away the rights of women and girls. The Ministry of Women's Affairs, part of the previous Afghan administration, was abolished and replaced by the Ministry for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice, which issues decrees forcing all Afghan women to cover from head to toe and mandating that women leave home only when necessary and always with a male guardian. Male guardians are being punished for noncompliance with their directives. Likewise, since August last year the Taliban have threatened and intimidated journalists and media workers and subjected around 120 to arbitrary arrest and detention, and shocking videos have emerged of Taliban thugs whipping and beating defenceless journalists. This is a deliberate effort to silence dissent. The United Nations has recorded that in the 10 months since the fall of Kabul the Taliban have committed 160 acts of extrajudicial killings, 178 arbitrary arrests and detentions and 56 acts of torture against former Afghan national defence and security forces and government officials.

While the Taliban double down on repression and inclusion they have been negligent in providing the most basic services to the people of Afghanistan amidst a severe and deepening humanitarian crisis. Violence, recurrent natural disasters, poverty, drought and the COVID-19 pandemic have left the Afghan people vulnerable. The United Nations estimates that 24.4 million people, 59 per cent of the population, are now in need of humanitarian assistance, an increase of six million since the beginning of 2021. The World Food Programme estimates that almost 19 million people will face acute food insecurity in coming months through to November 2022, a situation made worse by Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Australia will continue to speak up for the human rights of Afghans. No country has formally normalised relationships with the Taliban, and the international community have been very clear about our expectations, including the need to respect human rights, particularly for women and girls and minorities, to observe humanitarian principles and to deter any transnational terrorism resurgence from Afghanistan. I join, as I am sure all do in this chamber, the voices across the international community in calling on the Taliban to stand by its undertakings and to set a firm date for the opening of secondary schools to all children, and I call on the Taliban to respect the rights of all Afghans, including women and girls and minority groups, and to remove restrictions on women's movement and their right to access employment.

It is not in our national interest for Afghanistan to again become a training ground for terrorists or for organised crime there to go unchecked, and history shows us the flow-on impacts of an unstable and ungoverned Afghanistan. It has consequences for the world, it has consequences for our region and it has consequences for Australia. Al-Qaeda leader al-Zawahiri was killed in a US airstrike in Kabul on 30 July. He was indicted by the United States for the part he played in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and coordinated the 11 September hijackings that destroyed the World Trade Center in 2001. So many lives have been lost and so much blood has been spilled since, including of those Australians who served, sacrificed and gave their lives in Afghanistan. Let the terrorists see that Afghanistan will never be a safe haven for their hatred and attacks on our collective humanity.

Afghanistan remains the world's major producer of illicit opium, accounting for 86 per cent of production in 2021, and Afghans remain vulnerable to human trafficking and modern slavery. We're working with the international community to respond to the unfolding humanitarian crisis, now one of the worst in the world. Over the past year we have committed $141 million, mostly through UN agencies, to ensure that aid is delivered to those most in need, and with our humanitarian partners, Australian support is saving lives. We are providing emergency food supplies, we are enabling responses to natural disasters like the June earthquake in the south-east of the country, we are supporting women's access to sexual and reproductive health care, we are delivering education to primary school boys and girls and we are providing shelter to the most vulnerable, recognising that displacement affects recovery and stability.

We have also supported those neighbouring countries hosting the many Afghans who have fled the country. The fall of Kabul led to one of Australia's largest humanitarian evacuations, and over a nine-day period officials in the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade—supported by colleagues from Home Affairs, Australian Border Force and of course the ADF—led the whole-of-government effort to facilitate the safe movement of around 4100 people out of Kabul on 32 flights. I thank all those who were part of this urgent and dangerous mission. In addition to those on the ground in Kabul, officials in Dubai, Doha, Tehran and Islamabad supported the evacuation operation, and we want to recognise the role of host governments in supporting this important phase of the operation. People will know, when in opposition, we were highly critical. We were critical of the approach of the Morrison government, which failed to act on warnings about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, appeared to apply rules inconsistently and did not move fast enough to evacuate locally engaged employees who had helped Australia.

The Albanese government is commissioning an independent review of how decisions were made, including the application and appeals process, record keeping and departmental resourcing. In the meantime, we will do what we can to enable safe departure from Afghanistan.

Following the conclusion of the evacuation phase from Kabul airport, almost 3,000 people have departed Afghanistan for Australia, including on 22 flights out of Islamabad and on six Qatari-facilitated flights via Doha. A total of 31,500 places have been earmarked for Afghan nationals over the next four years, which comprises 26,500 places under our humanitarian program and 5,000 under the family stream of the migration program. Our focus is on doing everything we can to assist people fleeing persecution and seeking help, but we should be clear: this is a very difficult set of circumstances, not least because border crossings out of Afghanistan are difficult and they are dangerous. At the same time, the demand for protection is growing, particularly as conditions under the Taliban deteriorate.

This government is steadfast in its commitment to supporting the Afghan community at this distressing time. The Afghan diaspora brings its own special contribution to multicultural Australia, including my recently elected colleague who will speak in this debate, Senator Payman. For this community and for many others around the world, this anniversary will bring much pain and great sadness, but let us remind ourselves that history did not stop on that day. As difficult as the forward path is, it continues, and Australia remains part of this journey.

Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

HAM (—) (): I rise to also speak in support of the motion noting the first anniversary of the fall of Kabul, a motion which I am pleased to co-sponsor with the Leader of the Government in the Senate and Senator Payman, for whom this motion brings extremely personal reflections. I thank the government for the opportunity to co-sponsor this motion. It is with a degree of great sadness and disappointment for so many people that through this motion we acknowledge that, on 15 August this year, it was one year since the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. We acknowledge all the consequences the last year has brought to the people of Afghanistan and to the Afghan diaspora here in Australia and around the world. Many still feel, quite understandably, for loved ones in Afghanistan. As we speak to this motion, we also note that we are just four days away from the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks that so shook the world at that time and which sparked the military engagement to come in Afghanistan.

The return of the Taliban to power in Afghanistan was a major blow to all those who fought for peace, for freedom and for human rights in Afghanistan over those long 20 years. That disappointment, no doubt, is felt most acutely by the many Afghan people alongside those who sacrificed so much in pursuit of peace and stability. Today we honour the 41 Australian soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice during their service in Afghanistan. We honour those from other nations who served alongside them and those within Afghanistan—Afghans—who equally sacrificed. We honour the many more Australians who were wounded and those who continue to experience the trauma of what they faced and endured, including those whose lives have been lost since returning home. This anniversary, I'm sure, is felt intensely by the more than 39,000 Australian Defence Force personal and civilians who served in Afghanistan; felt intensely by their family, friends and loved ones; felt intensely by those from all nations who served during those conflicts. We honour them, we acknowledge their pain and we thank them for their service.

The images we all saw on 15 August last year and in the days surrounding that—of people crushing to get to flights to evacuate out of Kabul, of the desperation to flee—are a haunting reminder of the fall of Kabul. Australia, through the work of the Australian Defence Force and other agencies, facilitated the departure of 4,100 people out of Kabul on dozens of flights. I acknowledge and thank all of those involved in those operations. Eighty thousand people were evacuated in those few days, thanks to the combined efforts of nations around the world.

There are many stories of those who managed to escape, of those who made connections with people in this please, with people throughout our systems of government and with those in other nations that helped them to be able to escape. There was a day-and-night effort put in by Australian officials and by those of like-minded countries to help as many as possible. Sadly, of course, there are many more who were not able to undertake that journey or to have that opportunity. As this motion notes, Australia remains committed to the resettlement of Afghans in Australia, especially of those who assisted Australian operations in Afghanistan, as we should. On behalf of the coalition, I reaffirm our strong bipartisan support for this important and ongoing resettlement effort.

Most importantly, despite the withdrawal from Afghanistan, we, like those friends and allies around the world who value democracy, freedom and human rights, especially the rights of women and girls, remain committed to working in a bipartisan way with the government here in Australia and with the international community to respond to the humanitarian needs of the people of Afghanistan. This continuing effort is critical.

As this motion notes, the Taliban has stripped freedoms from the citizens of Afghanistan. It has clawed back the educational opportunities for young girls and women. The Taliban has stripped away 20 years of progress as it engages in violence and repression. The United Nations, in its report Human rights in Afghanistan, released in July this year, noted that in the first 10 months after the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban 'the erosion of women's rights has been one of the most notable aspects of the de facto administration'. The United Nations Acting Secretary-General's Special Representative for Afghanistan, Markus Potzel, said:

The relegation of women and girls to the home denies Afghanistan the benefit of the significant contributions they have to offer.

During the period of time in which peace, stability, freedoms and democracy were sought to be achieved in Afghanistan, the advances made and the opportunities created for young women and girls across Afghanistan were perhaps the greatest achievements of many, and to see those advances now so eroded, the hopes and opportunities of those women and girls so crushed, is unquestionably one of the most depressing aspects of all we have seen in the last 12 months. Despite all the promises made by the Taliban in August last year, we have seen the end of so many gains that came to be held dearly by the Afghan people, including the right, the freedom, of peaceful assembly, freedom of expression and freedom of opinion. Dissent has been curtailed through crackdowns on protest and by the curbing of media freedoms. These are freedoms we in Australia are fortunate enough to be able to take for granted. However, the events we've seen unfold in Afghanistan since 15 August 2021 are a reminder that such freedoms can never be taken for granted by those who enjoy them. Extrajudicial killings, arbitrary arrests and detention, torture and ill-treatment, along with human rights abuses, have, as the UN has noted, sadly become the norm in Afghanistan over the past year.

The Amnesty International report Death in slow motion, released in July this year, reported that 95 per cent of the Afghan population does not have enough food to eat. It is appropriate therefore that Australia implement the United Nations Security Council Taliban sanctions regime into Australian law and apply those sanctions in efforts to promote peace, stability and security of Afghanistan. It is appropriate that Australia rightly be a significant contributor to the humanitarian aid effort in Afghanistan.

In April this year, the then Minister for Foreign Affairs, Senator Payne, announced an additional $40 million in aid in 2022. This was in addition to $100 million announced in September 2021. This was announced just after the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban. It was following and alongside the implementation of those UN sanctions. This aid is crucial and ongoing support to ensure that we deliver aid and assistance to where it is needed and that we deliver the humanitarian support and assistance across the wide range—the almost insurmountable range—of needs faced by the Afghan people.

Through this motion today, we also recognise the important role of the Afghan diaspora in Australia. We're all, in this place, well aware, I'm sure, that connections between Australia and Afghanistan go back a long, long way—to the 1860s, when the first Afghan cameleers arrived in Australia, playing their role in the development of our remote inland. Today, more than 40,000 people born in Afghanistan, most of whom have arrived since the war in their homeland began, are part of a community which makes a significant contribution to Australia. That community is growing, with more than 31,500 visa places being made available over four years to Afghan nationals through our humanitarian program and family stream. That was a decision announced by the coalition government in the last budget. It's one which I note, and I encourage the current government to maintain their efforts to ensure full delivery of those places.

This motion is a tangible demonstration that we should never give up in standing up for the rights of Afghans, that we should never forget the battles they face and the challenges they face, that we should not grow apathetic or tired of focusing on those needs and pressures. We must continue to work to uphold the rights of all Afghans, especially women and girls and minorities groups who have suffered so much over the past year with little hope in sight for the future. We must call on the Taliban to honour the commitments they made and to be true to the words they gave in relation to the rights of Afghans and, in particular, Afghan women and girls. We must be strong in our own position and urge all other nations of the world to apply the same pressure to the Taliban to reverse the type of erosion of rights they have undertaken. We must not allow Afghanistan to become once more a safe haven for terrorists and their support networks. We have seen all too starkly what can happen when the Taliban believes it can act with impunity.

In speaking to this motion, I want to reiterate the words of the Leader of the Opposition, who said on the anniversary date:

The tragedy of August 2021 does not detract from 20 years of service and sacrifice which denied al-Qaeda a safe haven, inhibited the terrorist organisation's ability to plan operations, and prevented attacks being conducted on Australian soil or elsewhere around the world.

It is important to reiterate that point because, for those who may feel that what was undertaken through those years in Afghanistan was wasted effort, it is important to remember the achievements that did occur and were made and what we continue to fight for.

With this motion today, we stand with Afghanistan. We stand with the people of Afghanistan. We must and will remain steadfast in our determination to see the people of Afghanistan achieve their hopes for a peaceful, free future of opportunity and equality.

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to 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.

Fatima Payman (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

PAYMAN () (): I note this is not my first speech. I rise as an Australian Afghan to express my support for the motion commemorating the one-year anniversary of a sad day, 15 August, the day when Kabul fell to the Taliban yet again. A nation has been torn by war, destroyed over decades of conflict and left in a state of destitution. A land is prominently rich in natural resources such as lithium, iron, zinc and copper, yet the economy remains depleted. The country was a busy section of the famous Silk Road, a route that merchants have travelled for over 2000 years from China, India and Europe. This is the reason Afghanistan earned the title 'crossroads of cultures', with a population of 35 million people, 34 provinces and a range of diverse languages spoken, from Dari and Pashto to Uzbek, Hazaragi, Baluchi, Pashayi and Nurestani, just to name a few.

During the last year we have seen the deterioration of human rights and the growing humanitarian crisis, leaving thousands in poverty and resulting in ongoing problems with security and governance. We have seen schools shut down for girls. According to a recent UN report:

Women and girls in particular have been subjected to severe restrictions on their human rights, resulting in their exclusion from most aspects of everyday and public life.

Unemployment has increased dramatically, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee to neighbouring countries, but millions of Afghans remain stranded, with no hope in sight of a future for themselves or their families. We are still hearing reports of the Taliban persecuting and torturing members of the previous government, while thousands of people from different ethnic groups whose opinions were against the Taliban have been killed and labelled as ISIS. We cannot let Afghanistan become a breeding ground for terrorism and extremism.

We find ourselves here today marking one year on from the fall of Kabul, and I want to extend my deepest condolences and prayers to the people of Afghanistan and the diaspora communities across Australia, who are suffering and in pain and feeling the trauma. I too have family back in Afghanistan and receive daily news of the atrocities and injustices that take place, while their lives remain in danger and their children remain stranded at home, with no access to education or any prospect of a sustainable future. It is heartbreaking, and my sincerest thoughts go out to everyone with family and friends in Afghanistan going through this ongoing devastation and to the veterans and their loved ones scarred by the pain and trauma. I wish upon you healing and closure.

I have come to understand that in the plight of these challenges, unity is so important. There is no such thing as a minority group in Afghanistan bearing the brunt of the atrocities and destruction alone. Whether you identify as Tajik, Uzbek, Pashtun or Hazara you are experiencing the same pain and heartache as millions of people in Afghanistan and abroad. I am aware of the unspoken division that exists among the ethnicities within the Afghan diaspora here in Australia. At times like this your unity is needed more than ever. Bond over your identities as Australians first, then as Muslims and then as Afghans. There is no need to ostracise, criticise or have animosity towards one another because of what history had determined.

History teaches us many lessons and the people to pay tribute to, so I would like to take a moment and acknowledge the brave contribution and sacrifices made by more than 39,000 Australian Defence Force and civilian personnel, who supported operations in Afghanistan for over 20 years. Australia contributed in capacity building, counterterrorism, counterinsurgency and national security. We remember the 41 Australian soldiers who died during operations and will never forget their ultimate sacrifice. The fall of Kabul led to one of Australia's largest humanitarian evacuations and, over a nine-day period, around 4,100 people were evacuated on 32 fights. The work to ensure safe departures from Afghanistan continues.

The Albanese government is committed to standing by those who helped Australia, including by supporting former locally engaged employees to apply for visas and resettle in Australia. The government is considering its response to recommendations from the Senate inquiry into Australia's engagement in Afghanistan. Australia is working with the international community to respond to the humanitarian crisis and has committed $141 million to ensure that help reaches those most in need, whether it be emergency medical supplies, food supplies or simply a safe place to get some rest. Australia will also offer 31,500 places to Afghan nationals under the humanitarian program and the family stream of the migration program over the next four years. We understand the urgency and nature of this crisis, and we in Australia are doing our best.

I now want to talk about something that has made this devastating crisis in Afghanistan even more heartbreaking for those impacted and for those like me who are from Afghanistan and now calling Australia home. We know that the former Liberal-National government were responsible for countless scandals and cuts to our public institutions, and one of the most disgraceful examples of this is the broken system of visa and citizenship processing. They destroyed that system bit by bit, firing thousands of staff over their decade in power, and it has caused human misery and economic pain. The economic pain is obvious now, with small businesses, the health system and the education sector crying out for visas to be processed, while the delays mean other countries who haven't destroyed their own visa systems race ahead.

All of this is obvious, and we saw some progress made at the Jobs and Skills Summit last weekend, which is amazing. But I want to focus on the human element, often forgotten but just as important. Every day my office hears from those with loved ones trying to flee the Taliban or from those who have been hunted down. I cannot describe the insurmountable pain and misery we hear about day after day, and, while we should not lay the blame at the feet of the former government, it is true that countless visas for those trying to flee the Taliban did not get processed in time because the system had been so thoroughly destroyed. It is now our responsibility to fix this. It will take time to fix the 10 years of destruction, but we will and I will keep speaking up.

I'm heartened by the work already begun and that the minister has confirmed processing the visa backlog is an urgent priority. There is also important work to be done in our platform, like giving genuine refugees permanent protection in this country and moving them off the cruel temporary protection visa scheme. The Labor government will fix things. It will take time, but it will happen. It is easy to break things, and the former government took pride in destroying the system and so have caused immeasurable pain for countless families. Just like with a house destroyed by a natural disaster, it can happen instantly, but the rebuilding can take months. This is what we are facing right now, trying to repair the visa system. Like I said, it will take time to clear the backlog, but we have started the work and are committed to seeing this through. Thank you.

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too rise to speak in support of this motion. So often in this chamber we talk about statistics, we talk about numbers, but we don't always talk about people. What I'd like to talk about today, in support of this motion, is the last 20 years of my life. While I didn't serve in Afghanistan, what happened in Afghanistan in 2001, and subsequently through to this year, has been a reoccurring theme in my life. I would like to share that with the chamber today, because I believe it reflects the disservice but also the support of so many Australians. Unlike what we've just heard in the chamber from previous speakers, I believe how Australia responded to the world trade towers, the Pentagon and all the aircraft that were downed during all those attacks right through to today shows the best of Australians. Our response over that 20 years shows us that Australia is a strong nation. We are a compassionate nation and we are good people. We are generous and we are welcoming.

My journey with Afghanistan started with the bombing of the world trade towers. I was Chief of Staff to the Minister for Justice and Customs at the time. If you will recall, the Prime Minister was actually in Washington on the day. Like everybody in this chamber who is old enough to remember that footage and those events we watched with horror and incredulity at the images of those passenger aircraft deliberately being flown into towers, into the Pentagon and into the ground. As we gathered here in the building to assess what it all meant, the first question for us all was: where is our Prime Minister? Is he alive and is he safe? Once we had ascertained that it quickly pivoted to being all about the response. What do we need to do for Australia? What do we need to do with our like-minded partners globally?

Just to remind people of the impacts, nearly 3,000 people from many, many nations were killed on that day and that included 10 Australians. Very quickly, on 14 September Australia invoked Article IV of the ANZUS treaty. For the following 20 years we conducted two operations in Afghanistan continuously. The first, from November 2001 to December 2014, was Operation Slipper. That was followed by Operation Highroad, from January 2015 to mid-2021—when the last of our ADF personnel withdrew from Afghanistan.

In total, over those nearly 20 years, 39,000 of our service men and women—full-time, part-time, Army, Air Force and Navy—served in Afghanistan and also in support of those who were actually in country in Afghanistan. At its peak of our military deployment we had 1,500 personnel based there at any one time. Tragically, we also lost 41 Australian service personnel, personnel who came home in coffins to grieving families. As a nation we will always commemorate their service and thank their families and support their families, who still grieve to this day.

Tens of thousands of Afghan citizens also lost their lives over those 20 years. Two hundred and sixty Australians returned home seriously wounded and many thousands more returned home with injuries that weren't as visible, with mental health issues that are still with many of them today. I think Senator Wong and Senator Birmingham very eloquently summed up the impact over the last 12 months of the return of the Taliban. I think it is worth reflecting on a few things and asking us the question: was it really all worth it? I would say absolutely, yes, it was worth it.

The Taliban have a strategy that it is encapsulated in the saying, 'You have the watches and we have the time,' which reflects their strategy of waiting out foreign forces in their nation. That is clearly what we saw 12 months ago.

So was it worth it? I know that is something considered by many service personnel who have returned home—including service personnel with lifelong wounds—and their family members. As I said, I believe that it was. Have a look at what was achieved while the coalition forces were there. The proportion of girls attending secondary school rose from six per cent to well over 40 per cent. The proportion of boys attending secondary school rose from 18 per cent to over 70 per cent. Female literacy in 15- to 24-year-olds rose from 11 per cent in 2001 to 56 per cent. Male literacy in the same age group rose from 46 per cent to 74 per cent. Women, who'd previously been banned from higher education under the Taliban 20 years ago, comprised over 30 per cent of university students.

Coming through to subsequent circumstances, while I didn't serve in Afghanistan it was a recurring theme in my career and my life. I had the privilege as the Minister for Defence to visit Operation Highroad in 2019 and to meet the many men and women who were serving there in conditions where there were still clearly threats. There were still attacks on our accommodation and it was still very dangerous flying in and flying out of Kabul. But they were there. They were in high spirits and they could see the difference they were making every single day. And they were so proud of what they were doing in the community for community development: the schools they'd built; the people they'd educated—the service personnel, the carpenters, the builders and the girls. They made a lasting and enduring difference. On this upcoming anniversary I hope that all of our service personnel—the 39,000—will remember the great things they did.

Coming back to almost one year ago today, the Taliban, true to their word—we had the clocks and they had the time—returned. We've heard here today the devastating impacts and consequences of that. What shows the best of Australians is that we joined with so many other like-minded countries to form an airbridge out of Hamid Karzai International Airport. We had 32 flights out of Hamid Karzai in the most challenging and difficult of circumstances, and we evacuated over 4,000 Afghan nationals during that time—part of the 80,000 in total who were airlifted by other like-minded countries during that period. Like many people in this chamber, and many people we know throughout this building and in the other place, many of us were working furiously to try and get out a whole range of people who needed to be evacuated.

I would like to share with the chamber the story of 16 of those 4,000 people who were evacuated in the most traumatic, difficult circumstances out of Hamid Karzai airport. On 15 August I sent a message to my friend, Shukria Barakzai. Shukria had been an underground teacher under the Taliban and an MP in the Afghan parliament. She was also the survivor of a Taliban suicide attack, an experience she emerged from alive but terribly scarred mentally and physically. I contacted her, knowing she was still in Kabul, and asked her what I could do and did she need any help to get out because her life was clearly in great danger. She said to me, 'No, I will be fine, but there are others who you need to help.' One of them, she said, was a young, outspoken journalist whose name was Khalid Amiri, who she said was in immense trouble, and was facing death threats from the Taliban. She said he needed to be removed from Afghanistan so that some of the young voices—some of those young Afghans who had been educated and who are very supportive of a modern, free and democratic Afghanistan—could come out so that they could still have their voices heard.

On Twitter I contacted Khalid, having never met him or communicated with him before. That started an extraordinary chain of events which again mirrored so many others. Foreign minister Marise Payne and her staff were working 24/7 on evacuating. Can I now just acknowledge then minister Payne and also her staff, who did an extraordinary job to coordinate the activities, as did the minister for immigration, to get the visas and to get many of these people out. Khalid and his family were under threat, and he was terrified. He had four sisters living at home with him, all of whom had been educated and were professional young women. He also had a married sister and a brother who each had their own children—between them, four daughters and a son—and they were all under immediate threat.

I now have hundreds of WhatsApp messages about how we could get them visas, how we could get them quickly, and how we could get them to safety. It was an extraordinary time. They got the visas, they left their home, they put on women's clothes so they wouldn't be identified. We tried to get them through the Taliban checkpoints into the French embassy. That didn't succeed. They then moved to Abbey Gate. Everybody has seen those pictures of thousands and thousands of people trying to get through Abbey Gate and over the fences. They were very tense days and hours.

But then I got a text message from Khalid as I was leaving this chamber, after I hadn't heard from him for hours. He sent me a photo from right on the wall at Abbey Gate, and I could see two marines sitting there on the gates with other people around. I asked Khalid to give his phone to the marine to see whether an Australian voice would help the marine help him and his family through to the Australian evacuation point. Wonderfully, this marine, whose name I cannot mention but who has been thanked, came on the phone. There was this Australian voice who asked him to take my word that these people had Australian visas, and he did. He took Khalid, his mother and father and four of his sisters to the Australian collection point. Then the rest of the process as it unfolded: Khalid and his family got on the C-17 at Al Minhad Air Base with the Australian soldiers, and then through to Howard Springs and to Melbourne. Wonderfully, his brother and sister and their families are now also reunited with them in Melbourne.

They will be extraordinary Australians. It is the stories of the 16 members of the Amiri family plus everybody else who we were able to get out and who we are supporting today. They, along with the other 80,000, are the future of Afghanistan. It is our great hope that they will be able to return to Afghanistan and that the Taliban will once again fall. In the meantime, they are here in Australia. The girls are studying. They will be great contributors to the Australian economy. Their nieces in particular will have a very different future. Whether they become Australian citizens and stay here, or whether they are able to return to Afghanistan, I think they demonstrate that it was worth it. I hope that in those stories, and in the stories of every other Afghan who has been ripped from their nation and has come to Australia or gone elsewhere, our service men and women and the families of those who were killed will find great solace.

Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today marks—and we mark as a Senate—one year since the fall of Kabul and the end of the war in Afghanistan. For the people of Afghanistan, the time between the invasion of their nation and that moment when the last plane took off from the tarmac of Kabul airport marked two decades wherein the tyranny of a regime guilty of horrendous human rights abuses was replaced by the shadow of occupation. As we as a parliament reflect on the one-year anniversary since the end of that war, we must do so actively, seeking to take responsibility, seeking to offer apology and seeking to translate apology into urgent action.

Let's be really clear. In entering into the war in Afghanistan alongside the United States, Australia committed a terrible mistake, a mistake of judgement, which led to the death of tens of thousands and the harm of so many more. Our failure in those moments in the aftermath of 9/11 to confront our American friends calmly but firmly and demand that the global action taken in response to those events be proportionate and within the boundaries of international law, and clear in its purpose, cost the lives not only of Australian serving personnel but of so many Afghans. We poured away life, we poured away resources and we took so much from the Afghan people during this war, which came on the back of so many decades of occupation by foreign powers.

In doing this, we made the justification to ourselves that we were supporting invasion and occupation in order to liberate the people of Afghanistan from tyranny. Yet not once in all of those decades did we reflect upon the fact that our ally in that cause, the United States, was to its very core one of the key reasons for the existence of the tyrannical regime which was the Taliban in the 1990s. Never was there a moment to own and reflect on the reality that it was American support of the mujaheddin during the Soviet-Afghan War that gave birth to the Taliban.

From this space of ignorance and unwillingness to work collectively and within the boundaries of international law to react to the events of 9/11, we ended up staying alongside the United States in an occupation which did incredible damage to the Afghan people, undermined institutions and left a legacy of destruction and division which they will have to manage for generations to come. We not only perpetrated this damage in our entry and our occupation; we then after 20 years exited in one of the most diabolically mishandled, fundamentally inhumane moments in Australian political history, leaving behind countless people who, despite our presence alongside occupying forces which daily took the lives of Afghans, and despite the fact that our special forces, the 'red beards', took the lives of—murdered—innocent civilians and disabled Afghans, worked with our forces in an attempt to build something better. We left them behind. We failed them, proving in that moment that our so-called dedication to the people of Afghanistan had never been much more than a political spin; proving that it didn't even go skin deep, because, when things got tough, we got out and we left them.

And what have we left them in? We have left them in a humanitarian disaster which we contributed to. I would like to read to the Senate just a few of the stories of individuals who are right now in Kabul and throughout Afghanistan living in the ruins that we left behind, trying to rebuild their lives in the chaos. Ansar, an IT officer in Kabul, sent to my yesterday the following words:

Life in Afghanistan is a burden, something to just bear. Neither do we have human rights nor civic rights, we are deprived of all basic rights. Every day that goes by, life under Taliban rule breaks my spirit and weakens my consciousness. We feel abandoned and on our own.

I inform the Senate that, in the next passage, I will be making reference to issues of suicide and sexual violence, but I feel it is necessary. This comes from an individual who has experienced these crimes firsthand on the ground:

There have been reports of girls and women being detained and then raped in prisons. In the last few days, there was widespread coverage of the case of a girl who was first detained and then raped by a prominent Taliban commander. The victim's name is Elaha and the perpetrators name is Saeed Khosty, who forced the girl to marry him. Saeed was constantly beating and torturing her. Then Saeed divorced her, claiming she made blasphemous comments and that he has evidence. There is now concern that she will be tried for blasphemy. If proven, and this may be through coercion, she may face death.

It has been well reported that women's employment and access to education have become extraordinarily limited under the return of the Taliban regime, as it has been reported that women are unable to move without the presence of a male companion.

Human rights abuses of the most heinous nature are reported daily, and it is incumbent upon us as a nation to take our share of responsibility, as the reality is that these crimes are being perpetrated, because for 20 years, instead of working with the people of Afghanistan, as we should have done, to rebuild and to address the issues facing their nation, we sat alongside occupying forces for political reasons—and then we left for political reasons. And we have now seen fit as a nation to cast ourselves free of even the thought of the people of Afghanistan.

I once again reiterate the Greens call for emergency humanitarian intakes to ensure that those who served and supported the work that was done are brought to safety; for accountability for those who, during the war, committed such heinous crimes against the people of Afghanistan; and so to accountability for those officials and members of government who, in the full knowledge of the imminent evacuation of Kabul, failed to get those people to safety.

Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Steele-John, time for debate on this motion has expired, but you will be in continuance. I now proceed to two-minute statements.