Minister for Defence – Doorstop, Welcome Home Parade, Brisbane, Queensland, Saturday, 17 September 2016

Subjects: Operation OKRA, Operation HIGHROAD, Operation ACCORDION

JOURNALIST:

Minister, you said in your speech there that you looked down and you saw an impressive sight, that people actually turned up and gave their time up to stand and cheer.

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Up and down the street where I was standing with his excellency I thought the enthusiasm, the excitement on people’s faces was great to see and around here in the park – in the gardens, I’m sorry – I’m a Sydney-sider – in the gardens it’s really nice to see members of the public. I was just chatting with a two generation military family there who’ve just welcomed back their son who was in Taji. So, as I said, Darren, that sort of feedback is of great interest to me and it’s a chance to catch up with a few more.

JOURNALIST:

Holding a reception, what does that do for the mental health of these guys who come back?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Well, I think for the reputation of themselves, for the work that they do I think it’s a good reinforcement and a good message that Australia does recognise that although not a traditional conflict situation, we are still sending men and women into harm’s way and we recognise that service. We acknowledge and thank them for that service and also for some of the people I’ve just been speaking to, the contribution of their families.

JOURNALIST:

They were training a lot of (unclear) and that, it’s still a risky job, isn’t it?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Absolutely it is. There is absolutely no question these are very high risk areas and having recently been myself, which I think is very important, to make sure you have an appreciation of what we’re asking our own men and women to do, having been there recently myself, I do recognise that making sure that the men and women of the Iraqi Defence Force also have the experience of the training that they need, that’s a very significant responsibility. Can I also say that the government in Iraq, the government in Afghanistan as well, in my recent visit absolutely reinforced and emphasised the value of the contribution that we are making. It is making a very significant difference.

JOURNALIST:

Can you paint a bit of a picture for us, what is it like, what kind of stuff are they doing?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Well, at this time of year it is an extremely hot environment. Let’s just start with that. So you’re working temperatures that are in excess of 45 and 50 degrees Celsius, just for starters. So the sort of work that we ask people to do in terms of weapons training, movements training, logistics, safety, it’s fairly solid work that has to occur in those conditions no matter what. It is a secure compound, so there’s not freedom of movement or flexibility or anything like that and whilst we look after people as best as we can, it’s never the same as being at home. So I think the sacrifice is a significant one and the contribution is an important one.

JOURNALIST:

What sort of things do you say to the wives and partners of the soldiers here today when they say look, you know, it was a tough six months or whatever that they were away, how do you put that into context for them?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

I say that we know that they can’t do what they do without the strength and support that they have at home. The messaging, the capacity to communicate is over and above almost anything that people speak to me about as one of the most important things. To be able to talk to their wives and husbands, their boyfriends, their girlfriends, their mums and dads, some of these people are very young, and just starting out in life and they’re starting out in life for the Australian Defence Force, for the Australian people. Being able to see almost real time pictures of what your kids are doing, particularly as they’re little and they’re developing so quickly, that communication and the power of that is constantly reinforced to me. So, making sure that it works on both ends as best as we can possibly do it for the people who are here and at home and for those who are deployed is a real passion of mine.

JOURNALIST:

Minister, we haven’t had any fatalities this time around but of course we have over time. Have they learnt something about that, particularly when they’re training troops within their own camps?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Well, any incident of that nature, any loss is one loss far too many and we are very, very focused on safety and very focused on ensuring that the men and women of the ADF are as well-equipped as they can possibly be to take care of themselves and to take care of those they are training. I talked about weapons training. First and foremost in weapons training contexts we want to make sure that they’re safe and that the Iraqi Defence Force members that they’re training are safe. That is the threshold position we start with. I think an emphasis on that and the work place importance of that sort of care is something which we place a very high level of importance on.

JOURNALIST:

The National Threat Level is at “probable” at the moment. Are you concerned when you have so many Defence force members, openly wearing their uniform in a big city like this?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

I would not say that I was concerned I would say that I am reassured by the fact that the law enforcement agencies, the Australian Defence Force itself, works at the highest levels to ensure the safety of events such as this and to ensure the safety of the community and of the men and women who serve. We are fortunate, but it is good fortune at this point in time, that we have not been impacted the way many countries around the world have had tragic experiences recently, but we work very hard at that. We work extremely hard at that. As the Foreign Minister has said, we need to be lucky all the time, our opponents only need to be lucky once. Making sure that we protect ourselves, we secure ourselves and we maintain constant vigilance is the approach that we, the government and the state and territory governments around Australia take and I am very pleased to see that on a beautiful day like this in Brisbane you can have an event such as this in the middle of the Botanic Gardens.

JOURNALIST:

Minister, just for information, for future deployments, what is our commitment now with other operations?

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Indeed, so we have about 2,300 men and women deployed around the world at the moment. In the Middle East that is manifested in Operation OKRA, Operation Accordion and Operation Highroad. So in the Middle East generally and in Afghanistan and in Iraq there are 400 men and women in the Building Partner Capacity Group at Taji where we work with the New Zealand Defence Force, about 80 in the Special Operations Task Group in Baghdad, and then a number in the Air Task Group as well. It is a significant undertaking. It has, as well as that operational level of activity it has a really solid support foundation as well. So the men and women who make things tick over every single day, we can’t do it without them. We will continue to do that. We are committed in Afghanistan in troop terms until the middle of 2017 when we’ll reconsider again. We’re committed in Baghdad and Taji on an ongoing basis and I work very closely with the Prime Minister and the ADF leadership to determine any changes or amendments to that based on need and based on operational circumstances.

JOURNALIST:

Thank you.

MINISTER FOR DEFENCE:

Thanks so much for being here today for these guys, it’s fabulous to see you all here.