It would be foolish to trust the Taliban

In a remarkable turnaround for an organisation best known for thuggish displays of brutal violence - ranging from stonings, floggings and rape to forced marriages, torture and public decapitation - the organisation's longtime spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, held a press conference in Kabul overnight on Tuesday.

Claiming the new Taliban was a changed organisation from the barbaric gang of fundamentalists of 20 years ago, Mujahid's honeyed words were meant to reassure terrified Afghans all was well and the future would be bright.

His message to foreign powers was also clear: "We want the world to trust us," Mujahid said.

Those who had worked with the Americans, Australians, British, Canadians and other Westerners would be safe: "All our compatriots, whether translators or those in military activities, or civilians, all of them have been pardoned. Nobody is going to be treated with revenge," he said.

The security of foreign embassies and aid organisations would be respected, and women and girls had nothing to fear: "The Islamic Emirate is committed to the rights of women under the laws of sharia. We are going to allow women to work and study within frameworks."

This, like the amnesty, is hard to believe, given it was not the case when the Taliban ruled Afghanistan under the same laws in the 1990s. The rhetoric is also out of step with what has been happening on the ground.

Government soldiers have been murdered out of hand after surrendering, a woman in Takhar province was shot after she went out in public without a burqa, and armed Taliban are roaming Kabul seeking out government workers and known activists.

This credibility gap is one reason the Prime Minister doesn't envisage establishing diplomatic relations with a Taliban-ruled Afghanistan any time soon.

"I'm making no assumptions about Taliban commitments," he said on Wednesday.

"I would welcome a better environment, but I'm not counting on one. I know their form and I'm acting on the basis of their form."

Foreign Minister Marise Payne was on the same page: "A request for trust is usually met by an expectation that trust be earned."

While this scepticism is appropriate, it doesn't alter the fact our government, like the other Western powers with a presence in Afghanistan, has to negotiate with the new regime in order to get our people - and those who helped us over two decades - out.

The initial airlift of only 26 passengers in a plane authorised to carry up to 134 is proof of how hard it is for the 600 Australians and Afghans the RAAF is hoping to retrieve over coming days to reach the airport.

And they, of course, are just a drop in the bucket. With millions of refugees now likely to flee the country by any available means, Mr Morrison's fixation on stopping people smugglers, rather than providing hope and asylum, will disappoint many Australians.

He would be well advised to follow the examples of Malcolm Fraser on Vietnam in 1975, and Bob Hawke on China in 1989, by being truly generous in accepting refugees for the first time in decades.

As well as fulfilling a clear moral obligation, experience has shown this would make Australia a stronger, more culturally diverse and better nation.

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