Aust election: Death at war casts shadow over talks

CANBERRA - The shadow of Afghanistan again fell across the formation of Australia's new Government yesterday as another soldier died during a three-hour firefight with Taleban insurgents.

The death of Brisbane-based Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney came as the bodies of two earlier victims of the war began their journey back to Australia, bringing to 21 the number killed in Afghanistan - 10 since June.

Although the two major parties remain committed to the deployment of about 1500 troops in Oruzgan Province, the war has become increasingly unpopular and is opposed by the Greens, who will control the balance of power in the new Senate.

The support of the party's first federal MP, Melbourne barrister Adam Bandt, will also be important for caretaker Prime Minister Julia Gillard as she battles to win the support of as many as four independents to remain in power.

The Greens want an immediate withdrawal from Afghanistan, linked to a constitutional amendment requiring parliamentary approval of foreign deployments, and the restriction of military commitments abroad to "defence" and peacekeeping roles.

Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young told ABC television yesterday that although the death toll continued to rise, the major parties did not want to discuss the war.

"It is time to have a good discussion in our Parliament about this," she said.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, who faces a hard time with a hostile Senate controlled by the Greens if he becomes Prime Minister, said he would support a debate on the war by the new Parliament that eventually emerges from the deadlock of last Saturday's election.

"We don't lightly put the lives of Australian personnel on the line [and] I'm happy to see a parliamentary debate about it," he said.

Late yesterday the Electoral Commission gave 71 seats each to Labor and the Coalition, with one Green and four independents, and three Labor seats still in doubt - the Liberals leading in Brisbane and Hasluck in Perth, and the Government clinging to Corangamite in Victoria.

Whoever emerges as the Government from the negotiations that will begin in earnest with the independents next Monday will be faced with increasing opposition to the Afghan war, especially with rising casualties and no timetable for withdrawal.

The increased tempo of the war has been reflected in the number of Australian dead and injured, with 49 of a total 177 wounded hurt in the past eight months, eclipsing the toll for any of the preceding full years since 2002.

Almost half of the 21 Diggers killed in Afghanistan have died since the fighting season resumed with a new fury in June.

At the weekend Privates Tomas Dale, 21, and Grant Kirby, 35, of the Royal Australian Regiment's Brisbane-based 6th Battalion, were killed by an improvised explosives device, and two others were injured the next day.

Yesterday Defence Force Chief Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston confirmed the death of Lance Corporal Jared MacKinney.

MacKinney, a 28-yr-old father, was on foot patrol with an Australian unit and Afghan forces in the western Oruzgan region of Deh Rawood - previously the responsibility of now-withdrawn Dutch forces - when the Taleban attacked.

Caught in a battle that also involved an AH-64 Apache attack helicopter and precision-guided weapons, MacKinney died despite desperate efforts by his mates to keep him alive.

He was on his fourth operational deployment and his second tour of Afghanistan.

"Jared was a much-loved young man whose death is going to leave a terrible, terrible gap in the lives of those around him," Defence Minister John Faulkner said.

Faulkner said he was sure the soldier's death, coming so quickly after recent losses, would cause some to question why Australia was in Afghanistan. "Let me say I believe our work there is absolutely vital."

Opponents of the war have criticised the lack of an exit deadline - officials estimates say only that Australia's role should end in "two to four years" - a concern increased by new doubts from United States Marine Corp head General James Conway.

Despite US President Barak Obama's July 2011 deadline for a start for withdrawal, Conway said Afghan units would not be ready to take over for "a few years" and urged against an early exit.

But Gillard said that Australia remained committed to the war and that despite the expected recent increase in intensity progress was being made.

"It is difficult, dangerous work," she said. "There's no hiding from that."

Abbott also remained committed: "The last thing we should do at a time like this, with our soldiers mourning the loss of their comrades, is to waver in our commitment to the work that our forces are doing in the field."

Meanwhile, re-elected independent MPs Bob Katter, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott met in Canberra yesterday to discuss a common approach in negotiations with Gillard and Abbott.

They have prepared seven key points for their discussions and have said that although they will unite for the talks, they will not be forming a voting bloc.

Andrew Wilkie, the independent who appears to have won the Tasmanian Labor seat of Denison, said he felt "uncomfortable" about his new colleagues' approach and would not be joining their negotiations.