Former prime minister John Howard led Australia into the war in Afghanistan 20 years ago but says a military presence should have remained in the country until everyone who helped Australian troops could have been flown out.
In a wide-ranging interview with SBS News marking the release of the 2001 Cabinet records, Mr Howard also stuck by his decision to begin Australia's offshore detention regime and defended the lack of discussion about women in his Cabinet.
Mr Howard, now 82, was prime minister when the 9/11 attacks took place in New York in 2001 and he committed Australia to the United Nations' push to invade Afghanistan and defeat the Taliban.
The United States pulled out of Afghanistan in August 2021, leaving behind chaos as the resurgent Taliban swept into the capital and thousands of Australian visa holders became stranded.
John Howard speaks about the release of the 2001 Cabinet records. Source: National Archives of Australia
"I think what should have been done at the end was to say, 'well, we stay until we get everybody we owe an obligation to get out of the place,' instead of the other way around," Mr Howard said.
"At the very end, of course, the withdrawal from Afghanistan was chaotic, and that was because of decisions taken by two American administrations, by both the Trump administration and the Biden administration.
"I wished it had been otherwise. But it's very easy to say that, but it's nonetheless true that if there had been a more orderly approach to withdrawal, we may have avoided some of the tragic, individual circumstances."
Mr Howard said it will now be hard to help those left behind without Australian Government officials on the ground.
"It's very hard when you don't have a presence," he said.
Speaking ahead of a G20 leaders' meeting on Afghanistan in October, Prime Minister Scott Morrison pointed to the number of people Australia had evacuated from Afghanistan since that Taliban takeover in August.
John Howard's visit to the US was cut short by the attacks on 11 September 2001. Source: National Archives of Australia
"Australia has evacuated around 4,100 people as part of our evacuation operations from Kabul International Airport and helped to secure visa and settlement arrangements for thousands of people from Afghanistan," he said in a statement.
"It is crucial that the world’s major economies work together to support the people of Afghanistan. We must be coordinated in our approach to Afghanistan’s immediate humanitarian needs, to demand the Taliban regime ensure safe passage from Afghanistan for foreign citizens and visa holders, and to prevent Afghanistan from becoming a safe haven for terrorism."
The Tampa crisis and 9/11 attacks
The beginning of the war on terror is well covered in the 2001 Cabinet papers, but they reveal little about Australia's decision to block asylum seekers aboard the MV Tampa in August 2001, as the nation's migration policy took a harder line.
"It arose in the context of a day-to-day dealing with a particular challenge. And it was obvious what we had to do, you didn't need the Cabinet to decide that we had to enforce the law of Australia," Mr Howard said.
"The law of Australia who said that if somebody sought permission to enter the territorial waters of Australia has refused that permission, then they should be stopped. You didn't need a Cabinet decision to decide that."
The asylum seekers were taken to be processed on Nauru, and some to New Zealand. It was the beginning of Australia's "Pacific Solution" system of offshore detention and processing for boat arrivals, which has resulted in deaths, cost overruns and human rights criticisms.
"I don't think it was a bad call. I think it in the long run prevented deaths because it deterred people from undertaking hazardous journeys," Mr Howard said.
Asylum seekers onboard the Norwegian cargo ship MV Tampa in August 2001. Source: AAP Image / Wallenius Wilhelmsen
"We continue to see the consequences of those in other parts of the world. I think the policy reinforced the view that this country welcomed migrants, but they had to come in an orderly way.
"I think it preserved the interest of people who were patiently waiting in refugee camps, to be accepted into Australia. I would often say that somebody who illegally enters Australia denies somebody who's waiting for legal entry, the right to come here."
Historian Dr Chris Wallace said the Cabinet records, released to the public on 1 January, were interesting not just for what they said, but for what Cabinet also did not address.
"There are some on September 11 terrorist attacks including a very interesting one that shows Cabinet having to come to grips with quite a different security situation than they'd ever expected," she said.
"One of the most interesting papers actually shows the cabinet going 'Oh my God, this shocking event has happened, how do we need to fundamentally re-adjust defence and security policy?'
"But on the Pacific Solution and Tampa - nothing."
One Cabinet submission by then defence minister Peter Reith just three weeks after 9/11 called for urgent “defence enhancement for domestic security” including strengthening of “counter-terrorism, chemical, biological and radiological response and explosive ordnance response capabilities”.
People protesting against Australia's contribution to the US-led war in Afghanistan. Source: National Archives of Australia
Mr Reith privately warned Australia's strong anti-terrorism response "raises our profile with the terrorists themselves".
Cabinet also noted the importance of ensuring that "no member of the Australian community should feel vulnerable because of their ethnic or cultural heritage in the aftermath of the attacks".
'Children overboard'
Mr Howard also said he didn't regret the so-called "children overboard" affair in which then immigration minister Philip Ruddock and other ministers said asylum seekers on the SIEV X had thrown their children overboard as part of a ploy to be rescued.
"Well, I don't regret, because the information I had, at the time I made that statement, supported that belief," Mr Howard said.
"And after a lot of investigation, a different view was established, but I accepted that."
When asked if he was misled, Mr Howard replied: "The information turned out to be wrong".
Then immigration minister Phillip Ruddock in 2002. Source: AAP Image/Alan Porritt
"I'm not going to all these years later condemn the naval people involved, or anybody involved. For me, the point is that it wasn't made up."
Population and migration policy
The Cabinet papers also reveal Mr Ruddock made several attempts to get Cabinet to sign off on a national population policy, but there was a clear lack of appetite among his colleagues.
Mr Ruddock wanted to release an information paper on "Australia's population future" and "triennial population reports" to help inform debate on issues like "attracting skilled migrants and participation rates of women and older Australians”.
Dr Chris Wallace said Mr Ruddock was a “huge population policy enthusiast” and described it as “a missed opportunity”.
"Unfortunately, Cabinet rebuffed him in a nice way, but most definitely again and again.
“It did not want a community-wide discussion of population issues or immigration policy, unsurprisingly perhaps given that it was an election year and with the asylum seeker issue becoming much bigger as the year went on,” she said.
Women and culture
The NSW Liberal Party recently backed a 50 per cent target for female candidates at the next federal election with Mr Morrison pushing for it to be a national target.
Dr Wallace said the Cabinet papers were notable for how little women were even mentioned 20 years ago.
"The 2001 Cabinet papers show women pretty much didn't exist, as far as the discussions in the Howard Cabinet were concerned," she said.
The third Howard ministry was sworn in at Government House in Canberra, November 2001. Source: National Archives of Australia
"When you look at what's happening in the Coalition now with its men problem, you can see back then 20 years ago, pretty much the psychology that existed with women being essentially invisible, and that's very much continued through to the current day."
Mr Howard said it was "erroneous" to think that the federal government made decisions that only affected men or women.
"I thought that our attitude towards issues that affected women was appropriate then, and they're still appropriate now, because national security, standard of living, economic opportunities, educational opportunities, the application of the rule of law, they all affect women," he said.
"I would like to see more women in parliament. But I think the merit principle should trump any other principle.
"I'm not in favour of quotas, and the Labor Party's got quotas and is it necessarily made things better for women? I'm not sure it has.
"I'm in favour of getting high-quality men and women into parliament. And you don't do that by having quotas, as you do that by having an open preselection system where the rank and file of the party participate, and you don't have candidates imposed on people."
