CANBERRA - 21 June 2021

Deputy Speaker,

The end of our engagement with Afghanistan presents tough questions for Australia, and the world is watching how we honour our commitments.

The end of our military commitment is one thing.

But we should accept that the commitments made to our forces demand honourable conduct on our behalf by trusted friends.

It is time for the Afghan National Security Forces to protect the sovereignty of the Republic, and the ANSF forces on the ground today are significantly better trained and capable than they were 10 years ago.

Australia can take some credit for that.

But Afghanistan’s is a young security force, and the withdrawal of Australian forces should not mark the end of our advisory and capacity building support.

However, given we are closing our Embassy in Kabul, it is difficult to escape that conclusion.

So, the question we need to ask is: after two decades of war and nation-building, what role should Australia play in the future of Afghanistan?

In answering this, I would like to see the Australian Government come clean on what their plans are.

Is Afghanistan still important to Australian and its geo-strategic interests, as we were told when the intervention began?

Or do we just declare that the only reason we were there was as a flag for the US military intervention following 9/11?

Surely, we bear part of the responsibility for the early failure of state-building in Afghanistan as attention and resources were diverted to the Iraq War?

The people of Afghanistan are now living with the consequences of those failures.

Make no mistake, this disengagement is creating a vacuum in Afghanistan which is being filled with violence, chaos, and great power competition.

Without international support, we will watch the country further descend into the factionalism that tore the country apart back in the 90s, a factionalism which was then exploited by terrorist groups using Afghanistan as a base to conduct international action which was the whole reason we got involved in the first place.

We know that Islamic State, Al-Qaeda and other extremist groups continue to operate in Afghanistan.

We’ve seen how in places such as Syria the vacuum created by chaos and instability can be quickly filled by extremist groups.

This situation will mean more opportunities for powerful actors such as China, Russia, Pakistan and Iran to involve themselves further in Afghan politics.

The deliberate killing of civilians, as we continue to witness, is contrary to international humanitarian law and are heinous crimes.

The Afghan people deserve the protections afforded to them by international treaties and conventions as inalienable human rights.

This will be increasingly under threat with a resurgent Taliban.

These attacks undermine the importance of freedom of speech, human rights, and the foundation of a lawful society.

The protection of Afghan women fulfilling professional roles in society and the protection of women in general are massive concerns. 

Afghan women lawyers, judges, educators, journalists, students, political analysts, civil servants are extremely vulnerable.

Many have already been displaced from their roles in several provinces or killed. 

From talking to senior officials in the Afghan Government, I know that morale is low and hope is fading.

They are feeling abandoned like many of our faithful interpreters.

I want to acknowledge veteran Jason Scanes for Forsaken Fighters.

He was here in Parliament but no government MP would meet with him.

The rapid shutdown of our Embassy sent a chilling message about our commitment.

The Government has a chance to reverse this disengagement and renew its commitment to peace and nation-building in Afghanistan.

It needs to seize it.

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ENDS