PRIME MINISTERS REMARKS AT BBQ WITH AUSTRALIAN DEFENCE FORCE PERSONNEL - BAGHDAD, IRAQ It is a real honour for me to be here at this time. I was hoping to come to say Happy Christmas to you. That opportunity was closed off by unfortunate events in Sydney, but Im pleased to be here today to say Happy New Year to you. I am incredibly proud of you and your work. I think every Australian is proud of you and your work. People will always argue with the policy of the government of the day, but I dont think any fair dinkum Australian questions the commitment, the professionalism and the courage of our armed forces, and everyone wants you to help the Iraqis to knock off ISIL, Daesh – whatever we want to call it – it is a death cult, it has declared war on the world, and you are doing our bit for Australia, for the Middle East, and for the wider world. So, thank you. Thank you very, very much indeed. You are prepared to put yourselves in harms way. You are prepared to serve a long way from home. You are prepared to put your country first in a way that almost no one else is. Thats why I salute you and thats why its important that as your Prime Minister, I am here in person to give you that message. Im delighted that Kevin Andrews – the new Defence Minister – is here, because its good for him to see at first-hand your work. I am particularly thrilled that the Chief of the Defence Force is here with me on this trip, because we want our work here to be as effective as possible and, obviously, talking to you is a very important part of making sure that in the weeks and months ahead, what we do is as effective as possible in terms of defeating the Daesh death cult. So, thanks so much. I look forward to the chance to say gday to most of you and I also want to have the chance to get your feedback on the work youve been doing over the last couple of months. Thanks so much, team.
Posted on: Sun, 04 Jan 2015 22:05:40 +0000
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