Page 3983 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 25 August 2010
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I would just like to read the names now of the 21 soldiers who have lost their lives there. I hope this is the last time I will have to do this, but I fear that it will not be: Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney, Sergeant Andrew Russell, Trooper David Pearce, Sergeant Matthew Locke, Private Luke Worsley, Lance Corporal Jason Marks, Signaller Sean McCarthy, Lieutenant Michael Fussell, Private Gregory Sher, Corporal Mathew Hopkins, Private Grant Kirby, Sergeant Brett Till, Private Benjamin Ranaudo, Sapper Jacob Moerland, Sapper Darren Smith, Private Timothy Aplin, Private Scott Palmer, Private Benjamin Chuck, Private Nathan Bewes, Trooper Jason Brown, Private Tomas Dale.
Obviously, this is a very difficult struggle that we are involved in, and I would now like to quote from our defence minister, Senator Faulkner, who said today:
I believe our work there is absolutely vital ...
This soldier and his fellow soldiers have been doing the difficult but essential work of training and mentoring the Afghan National Army.
And:
the work of protecting our community must include preventing Afghanistan from becoming fertile ground for terrorism.
I would like to support Senator Faulkner and the words he spoke today.
Finally, I would just like to wish the troops serving in Afghanistan well. I am sure that is a sentiment echoed by everybody here, both within the chamber and also in the Canberra community. Many of our serving personnel actually would come from the ACT. I would like to wish Lieutenant Colonel Mark Jennings, the commanding officer of the MTF-1, all the best—to him and to all his troops—and likewise to the Special Operations Task Group and to all of those various troops who are embedded in headquarters and embedded with coalition forces.
Rest in peace.
Telstra business awards
MR SESELJA (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (9:36): Mr Assistant Speaker, I would just like to pay tribute to the Telstra ACT business award winners announced recently. I, along with many others, had the opportunity to attend the Telstra business awards here in the ACT, and they were ably, again, emceed by the wonderful Anne Fulwood. But I would like to pay tribute to Telstra for sponsoring these business awards. They do a great job in putting these on and they are very professional awards and it is always a fantastic night.
I would like to particularly pay tribute to the local winners. We have the business owner Micro-Business Award to Makin Trax Australia, which is a Curtin business, established in 2005 by Darren Stewart, that designs, constructs, maintains and remediates mountain bike, walking and multi-use track networks. Completed
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