Can you foreshadow any review of Australian defence personnel in Afghanistan?
STEPHEN SMITH: One thing I am looking forward to, so far as Afghanistan is concerned, is a Parliamentary debate on Afghanistan. That, of course, has come out of discussions with the Independents and Mr Wilkie and the Greens. My colleague Defence Minister Faulkner very strongly supports that notion. I think that is important. It is a difficult and dangerous mission, and our objective is to enable the Afghan Government, the Afghan security services, the Afghan army to take responsibility for security matters in Afghanistan. That’s the transition we want to effect. Our objective is to prevent Afghanistan from again being a breeding ground or a hotbed of international terrorism. Often Australians will ask questions about the value of that in the abstract, in the face of terrible tragedies like we’ve seen with Lance Corporal McKinney’s family. Australians will always focus on the tragedy that our service overseas in conflicts brings. Often it’s hard to see in the abstract what we’re trying
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- Does the ADA represent the interests of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) or defence force personnel?
- Did anyone from the Australian Defence Force speak to Mr Habib at all while he was in Afghanistan?
