PM: As Prime Minister I am here to offer the nation's deepest condolences to the family and friends of Sapper Jamie Larcombe. Sapper Jamie Larcombe lost his life last night, Australian time, fighting in Afghanistan.
Sapper Larcombe has family and friends who will be grieving for him very deeply today. They include his parents, his three sisters and his girlfriend. Our most sincere condolences go to his parents, sisters and girlfriend and to everyone who knew Sapper Jamie Larcombe.
I also want to offer my thoughts and best wishes to his comrades-in-arms in his regiment, the First Combat Engineering Regiment. On Monday this week we had the funeral of Corporal Richard Atkinson, he was a member of the same regiment. As a result the soldiers who serve in that regiment would also be very, very hard hit by this news coming as it does so quickly after the loss of Corporal Richard Atkinson.
Every day we have to talk about a lost soldier is a hard day, every loss hits us hard as the first one did, and there will be many Australians grieving today, many Australians pausing and reflecting on this loss of a brave man.
Jamie Larcombe was fighting in Afghanistan; he was part of our forces there that are there for three essential purposes: to train the Afghan National Army, to assist with building governance and capacity in Afghanistan, and taking the fight to insurgents so that security in Afghanistan can prevail.
Jamie Larcombe died taking the fight to insurgents.
This is a hard day and last year when I spoke to the Parliament about our strategy in Afghanistan, I warned that there would be hard days ahead; this is one of them.
I very much, very much grieve and very much mourn this loss and I know that there'll be a lot of Australians sharing this burden today. The nation as a whole will mourn, the family and friends of Jamie particularly will mourn, and our thoughts are with them.
I'm happy to take questions.
JOURNALIST: Prime Minister you said that Sapper Larcombe died taking the fight to the Taliban, the insurgents, as part of an expanding operation into Taliban heartland. Are you concerned that Australian troops are now getting too thin on the ground in Uruzgan and it may be time to look at increasing troop numbers?
PM: The continuing advice to me from the Chief of the Defence Force is we have the personnel and equipment we need to acquit our mission in Uruzgan province. We keep this issue under close watch and close monitoring, but the advice to me remains, as it has been for some time, that we have the men and the means to acquit our mission in Uruzgan province.
JOURNALIST: When you go to Washington will that be an opportunity to reassess the commitment or will it just be business as usual?
PM: Every time I've spoken to President Obama when I've met him at international meetings, Afghanistan has been something we've spoken about. We together attended the Lisbon summit of NATO in ISAF format; that is it was a summit of all countries who have provided troops in Afghanistan and are part of the international mission there.
Each time I've had those discussions with President Obama I've said to him exactly the same thing that I've said to the Australian people: it's the interests of the Australian nation to deny Afghanistan as a training ground for terrorists. It has been used a training ground in the past and those terrorists have come and taken Australian lives and American lives. In those circumstances we are committed to our mission, to seeing it through, to denying Afghanistan as a training base for terrorists. It's a hard mission and I'm not underestimating the cost, I understand the cost, and we're talking about the loss of a very brave, very young man today. Jamie was 21 years old, so I understand the cost, but I also understand the importance of this mission. So today I am immeasurably sad but I am certainly very determined to see the mission through.
JOURNALIST: Could I ask you a question about Australian defence. It was reported at the weekend that our Defence facilities are at risk of being easily penetrated. Have you called for any information on this and do you think there is serious reason to be concerned and what do you plan to do about it?
PM: Michelle I would direct you to the Defence Minister on that, I have seen those reports, but my purpose today is to deal with this tragic loss, so I can talk to you about those things in the days to come and I'd direct you to the Defence Minister's statements which were made on the day that report was in the newspapers.
Thank you.