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Wednesday, 23 May 2012
Page: 5280

Afghanistan

Mr MELHAM (Banks) (14:12): My question is to the Minister for Defence. What are the implications for Australia's commitment in Oruzgan province in Afghanistan as a result of the outcomes of the NATO-ISAF leaders summit held in Chicago?

Mr STEPHEN SMITH (Perth—Minister for Defence and Deputy Leader of the House) (14:12): I thank the member for Banks for his question. Over the weekend and on Monday I accompanied the Prime Minister at the NATO International Security Assistance Force summit in Chicago. In the course of those two days, I had the opportunity of exchanging views with a number of my counterparts, including Secretary of Defense for the United States, Leon Panetta; my United Kingdom colleague Philip Hammond; my Canadian colleague Peter MacKay; our New Zealand colleagues, foreign minister Murray McCully, who was representing John Key, and also the defence minister, Jonathan Coleman; and of course defence minister Wardak of Afghanistan.

As the Prime Minister indicated, the agreement reached in Chicago on the future of Afghanistan and transition is very important. As the Prime Minister has said, we are on track for transition by the end of 2014. The agreement over the weekend also means that, by the middle of next year, by the middle of 2013, the so-called Lisbon milestone will have been met and all of Afghanistan will have commenced transition.

The member for Banks asked me what implications this has for Oruzgan. Members might be aware that, shortly before the Chicago summit, President Karzai announced the third tranche of transition of provinces and districts in Afghanistan, and Oruzgan province as a whole was included in that tranche.

Transition in Oruzgan we expect to occur over a 12- to 18-month period, with the transition process to commence in the next couple of months. As to Australian forces, our Mentoring Task Force is making steady and good progress in training and mentoring the 4th Battalion of the Afghan National Army, and our advice continues to be that, in the course of the 12- to 18-month period that the Prime Minister and I have referred to, the Kandaks of the 4th Brigade as a whole will be able to take lead responsibility for security in Oruzgan province and be operationally viable. Later this month, our Mentoring Task Force 5 will travel to Afghanistan and take over from Mentoring Task Force 4. This will be the first of our task forces to be involved or engaged in the transition process. In Townsville on Saturday before our departure to Chicago, the Prime Minister and I had the opportunity of meeting with members of that task force and being briefed by the Chief of Army and by the commanding officer of Mentoring Task Force 5. Over the weekend, the Prime Minister and I made this important point: the conference was a very good success, but Afghanistan continues to be difficult and dangerous. It is difficult and dangerous for our troops deployed there and as we now commence this current, northern fighting season, I know that the thoughts of all members of the House will be with our forces in Oruzgan and Afghanistan.