E&OE...
Thank you very much. To the Defence Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr Rudd, General Hindmarsh, Colonel Smethurst, ladies and gentlemen. I have come here this morning for myself and for the Government to express my great admiration for all of the men and women who are going to Afghanistan, to wish them well, to say that they go with our very best wishes and prayers for a successful mission and a safe return home.
Afghanistan is a dangerous place and I would be less than honest with you as the person ultimately responsible for committing Australian forces to that country, if I didn't say so. The situation has got difficult. There is renewed activity by the Taliban and to say otherwise is deluding you. On the other hand, of course, you go superbly trained, you join an operation task group that is providing valuable support for our reconstruction team and you go to an area where there is very close cooperation with our allies.
To those loved ones, wives and husbands, girlfriends, boyfriends, fathers, mothers, sons and daughters who are left behind I can say to you that we will do everything we can collectively through the defence force and through the Government to provide you with comfort and assurance whilst your loved ones are in Afghanistan.
It is a very important mission. If terrorism wins in Afghanistan, that will be bad for our part of the world as well as bad for the people of that country. It's not easy, of course, in a time of general peace and prosperity to say to a group of men and women we would like you in our name to go to a very difficult theatre of operation and a potentially dangerous one and that is why I admire you so much and why the Australian people admires you so much.
You go with the comfort and assurance that the esteem in which the men and women of the Australian Defence Forces are held at the moment has never been higher. At a time of great cynicism in the community about many institutions there is one group of Australians in relation to which there is no cynicism and that is those who put their lives on the line when asked to do so to defend our interests and that, I hope, is of some comfort and legitimate pride to you and also to those who love you most.
So to all of you who are going, and I had the opportunity only a few weeks ago to visit a number of your colleagues in Afghanistan, I wish you well. You go with my prayers and that of a very grateful and a very proud country. Thank you.
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