Well you know something? I've been Prime Minister for a year now and I've learnt one thing. And that is, you blokes who look really ugly with beards belong to the Special Forces.
[Laughter]
And blokes without beards don't.
It's good to see this operation again as I was here this time last year.
You know, that was a very impressive display of fire power and an impressive display of what you do when you harness the kinetic force of this operation again an enemy.
I know enough about what you've been doing the last 12 months to know that that is not just for show for visits by the Chief of the Defence Force and myself today but that is what you actually deploy in the field.
And this is an ugly operating environment. It doesn't look a bit like the Gold Coast to me. And can I say, each time you've lost one of yours we go through it, and we have a report from the Chief of the Defence Force about what happened and about who you're up against and how ugly it was.
And what I want you to know, as your Prime Minister, is that each of us who sit around a table and listen to that take it very personally.
So when you're out there in this God-forsaken part of the world, doing your stuff, you need to know that back home, not just the nation's behind you, the people running the show like the Defence Force Chief are behind you and the Government is behind you as well.
What I admire about what you blokes do is that it is full of skill. What you just displayed [inaudible].
I know enough about what you deploy and what you do but skill is one thing [inaudible].
[Aircraft noise obscures audio]
...and again, saying goodbye to one of your own. I've been there too often. Look after yourselves, be careful, do your job.
And I haven't brought it out with me but what I've brought from Australia is, is, is - I was going to bring a crate load of beer but that wasn't allowed.
[Laughter]
I was going to bring a smaller crate load of something harder than that and that wasn't allowed either.
But the Test Series is coming up so for the Boxing Day Test between you blokes and the reconstruction fellas down the hill, there is a brand new cricket kit for each of you. Bats, balls, wicket keeper's gloves, pads, and - given that I understand that some people here are of a serious standard - protectors as well. So it is all there.
When I was out at Holsworthy the other day, I ran into two ladies who asked me to plant a kiss on the cheeks of Sergeant [inaudible].
[Tape ends]