English Bill: Motions — New Zealand Defence Force—Deaths of Lance Corporals Pralli Durrer and Rory Malone in Afghanistan 2012 Olympic Games—Success of New Zealand Team 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
English Bill: Motions — New Zealand Defence Force—Deaths of Lance Corporals Pralli Durrer and Rory Malone in Afghanistan 2012 Olympic Games—Success of New Zealand Team 
[Sitting date: 14 August 2012. Volume:682;Page:4289. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Acting Prime Minister) 
: 
 I seek leave to move a motion without notice on the incident on Saturday 4 August 2012 in the Bamian Province of Afghanistan that tragically claimed the lives of two New Zealand soldiers and injured six more. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Is there any objection to that course of action being followed? There is none. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: I move  
That this House express its deep sympathy and condolences to the family friends and military colleagues of the New Zealand Army soldiers killed in Afghanistan on 4 August and also express its sympathy to their six injured colleagues and its best wishes for their recovery. 
 On Saturday 4 August at around 8 a.m. local time members of the New Zealand Defence Force’s provincial reconstruction team responded to a request for assistance from an Afghan quick reaction force platoon which had come under insurgent attack in north-east Bamian. A New Zealand Defence Force patrol was immediately mobilised and assisted in engaging the insurgents until a second New Zealand Defence Force patrol arrived. It too came under attack during which some of our personnel were wounded. Two further New Zealand patrols arrived and during the ensuing fire fight the New Zealand Defence Force sustained more casualties including Lance Corporal Rory Malone who was killed at the scene. Seven wounded were evacuated and the most seriously injured soldier Lance Corporal Pralli Durrer died en route to hospital. 
 This incident has served as a tragic reminder of the risks that our men and women in the services face every day in unstable conflict zones. Rory Malone and Pralli Durrer are the sixth and seventh Kiwis to die while working selflessly on behalf of New Zealand and the international community in trying to stabilise Afghanistan. These Kiwis are willing to risk their lives defending not their homeland but strangers in another country. We could not ask more of them. We could not expect more of them. 
The Government has received messages from many other Governments and leaders who understand the terrible sacrifices that are being made in Afghanistan as we collectively do our best to create a functioning stable society there. We have always known that the task is both vital and dangerous. I know that for the Defence Force and their families accepting that there are risks in the job is part of daily life. However I also know that that knowledge does not make it any easier when the knock at the door that they hope will never come does come. The weekend before last it came for the Durrers and the Malones and also for their friends and colleagues inside and outside the Defence Force and for the Government and the people of New Zealand. On Saturday I attended the memorial service for Pralli Durrer and Rory Malone and the more I learn about them the more heavily their loss weighs. 
We are mindful today also of the injured. I am advised that three of the six returned to their families in New Zealand late yesterday. Three more remain in hospital in Germany all in a stable condition. One of them is Major Craig Wilson who was the commanding officer of the team involved in the attack. He has strongly praised the courage and the performance of Lance Corporals Durrer and Malone in the combat engagement that claimed their lives. It is hard to find any redeeming feature in this tragedy but at least in today’s conflicts we are usually able to repatriate our fallen and the Government thanks the United States Government for its assistance in evacuating the wounded and returning Rory Malone and Pralli Durrer to their families. 
Bamian is a better place because of the dedication effort and commitment of these men and their colleagues. Their sacrifice has been a dreadful price to pay but a reminder too of why we are there. Violence lawlessness and a brutal and wilful disregard of the rights of others should never be allowed to become a way of life. These two young brave men were fighting for a more secure Afghanistan and a more secure world. We are proud of them and their colleagues who right now as I speak are facing the same risks to uphold the same noble objectives. The Malone and Durrer families’ loss is New Zealand’s loss. We grieve for them and with them.