We salute our forces serving in democracy's cause SINCE 1971, this newspaper has selected an Australian of the year, an individual, occasionally a number of people, who have helped humanity, whose epic achievements in sport or science, the arts or education, commerce or community service have earned our respect. It is always a hard selection to make. Australia is never short of men and women of great spirit, energy and ability. But the sheer size of the qualified field is not the reason we have chosen a large group this year, people personified in the august archetype of the Digger. Today we define the Digger more broadly than the Australian infantry on the Western Front in World War I, who took the name for themselves. Now the title is rightly taken by the men and women of the army, navy and air force. And this morning we honour the 2900 among them who are on active service, providing forward defence of our democracy against the threat of terror attack. They, both because of their individual achievements and sacrifice for their country, and in the way they also represent their colleagues, who are home from foreign duty, or are preparing to go, are our Australians of the Year for 2006.

Some will be surprised by our selection. The Digger is respected but the job our armed forces do is not widely understood. Nor is ours an especially martial culture. Service people have always been citizens first and foremost, rather than members of a warrior caste with values and traditions separate from civil society. And we are not a nation quick to fight or to shoot first and negotiate later. After the imperialist adventure of the Boer War, almost all our military engagements, even the controversial campaigns in Vietnam and Iraq, were undertaken to defend Australia's interests or assist our allies. And so it is today. The Digger is on active service in Sudan and Solomon Islands. The Digger helped deliver independence in East Timor and still stands ready to assist the struggling state from civil strife. And Australian forces will doubtless answer future calls for help in other countries in our region. In all these engagements, and those that may come, today's Digger acts on the great Australian tradition of defending democracy. But it is in Iraq and Afghanistan, and on the waters of the Persian Gulf, that the Digger is serving in the first global conflict of the 21st century - the war on terror. Some Australians assume we are not a terror target, despite all the evidence of foreign threat and enemies within. Others argue that Islamic terrorists, intent on establishing theocratic rule in Afghanistan and throughout the Middle East, are not interested in us. They are all wrong. The evidence of New York, London, Madrid and all the Asian and African cities that have been terror targets demonstrates that the world is at threat from these zealots. And we must confront them wherever they act, both in our own defence and to help the vast majority of Muslims, who are also their targets. That the small size of our armed forces precludes more Australian boots on the ground, especially in Afghanistan, is troubling. Even with the two new battalions the army is raising, Australia would be stretched if problems in the Pacific and Middle East required simultaneous combat commitments. But with new warships and fighter aircraft coming, the army's acquisition of US armour, and the continuing achievement of the world-beating SAS, the Australian Defence Force is capable, albeit on a limited scale, of war fighting, as well as peace keeping.

While there may not be many Diggers, they are strong in the service of just causes. And in this, today's Digger is linked to the first service people who bore the name. For years, academics have argued that the ideal of the Digger is a con, that throughout the 20th century Australians were willing mercenaries in other peoples' wars. But what such cynics always ignore is the tradition of service that has always shaped the Australian way in war. The Diggers who stopped the Germans in some of the most crucial Western Front battles in 1918 were not mercenaries but volunteers, citizen soldiers who, unlike the enemy to their front and the allied formations on their flanks, had freely chosen to serve. These Diggers did their best, in part because, in the Australian way of doing things, they did not want to let their mates down. But they also fought because they did not like the idea of what would happen to Europe and the world if the totalitarian German state were to win the war. The Diggers we honour today are much the same. They serve because it is what they are trained to do, but also because they recognise that the best way to ensure Australia's safety is to advance the cause of democracy around the world.