Morrison coy on Afghan rescue mission
Scott Morrison remains coy about Australia's mission to evacuate Afghans who helped allied forces as the Taliban takes Kabul.
The prime minister has refused to talk about "operations", when asked if it's too late for Australia to send a mercy flight to Afghanistan.
He is meeting with the national security committee of cabinet on Monday morning to discuss the next steps.
"I can't really talk about operations. But what I can tell you is since April of this year, we've obviously been anticipating the situation," Mr Morrison told Seven.
Australia closed its embassy in Afghanistan in May. Since April, it has evacuated 430 Afghan employees, and their families, who assisted Australian forces.
"We have been working steadily and swiftly and carefully to ensure that we're able to achieve that and we will continue to press forward in that very important task," Mr Morrison said.
The Taliban has taken Kabul after the US withdrew from the country.
The US sent about 3000 extra troops to evacuate embassy staff and others as the capital fell.
The UK also said it was deploying troops to help its nationals and local translators flee.
Since 2013, Australia had gotten 1800 people who had worked with its forces out of Afghanistan.
"The reason we went there was to track down Osama bin Laden. The reason we went there was to stop al-Qaeda and stop them mounting operations from there," Mr Morrison said.
"Forty-one Australians have lost their lives in the cause and ultimately that's the cause of freedom."
There are widespread fears the progress made on women's rights in Afghanistan over the past 20 years will quickly evaporate.
