The Australian Federation of Ukrainian Organisations (AFUO) welcomes and strongly endorses the report of the Senate inquiry into Australian support for Ukraine, which was released yesterday.
We urge the Government to accept and adopt all the recommendations, which make solid, positive and timely suggestions about how to improve the impact of Australian support for Ukraine.
Recommendations include:
- developing and committing to a consistent objective in Australian support for Ukraine across all departments and government agencies, to be led by a Coordinator-General
- committing to a comprehensive package of defence and humanitarian support, including multi-year sustainable support
- developing strategies and public awareness about the threat to global security and Australia of russia’s invasion of Ukraine
- adopting a default position that Defence materiel being retired or otherwise disposed of (for example Abrams tanks and Tiger helicopters) will be gifted to Ukraine unless there is a compelling case against this
- providing long-term certainty to Ukrainians already in Australia on temporary visas
- re-opening the Australian Embassy in Ukraine, supporting lifting restrictions on the ability of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to strike military targets in russia and transferring russian assets or associated income to Ukraine
The AFUO thanks Senators Chandler (Chair), Ciccione (Deputy Chair) and Committee members for their report. We also thank all members of our community and all of Ukraine’s supporters who made submissions or appeared before the Committee. We are grateful that many of the recommendations reflect ideas and insights offered by the AFUO and the Ukrainian community.
See the full report here: https://www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentary_Business/Committees/Senate/Foreign_Affairs_Defence_and_Trade/UkraineSupport47/Report
