No war in Iraq - contribution to the parliamentary debate.

20 March 2003

A mere phone call from President Bush to Prime Minister Howard was all it took to have Australia confirm its participation in the invasion of Iraq. This commitment by John Howard represents the first time Australia has engaged in conflict as an aggressor.

At any other time, under any other government, this would be untenable.  But under the Coalition Government, this is where the citizens of Australia find themselves.  This shameful situation has been brought about by Prime Minister Howard.

The motion we are debating today seeks endorsement for John Howard’s decision to commit the Australian Defence Forces to an attack on Iraq led by the US. The opposition is seeking to amend this motion to express the view of the Labor Party and the majority of Australians, which is to oppose Australia’s involvement in this attack.  So I speak against the motion and in support of the amendment put forward by Labor.

This is not a debate about the alliance with the US.  This alliance does not mandate Australian compliance with US military action.   For the Prime Minister to assert that this Alliance somehow obligates the Australian Federal Government to act in such a subservient way to the US Government is galling for Australia as a proud and independent nation.   It is embarrassing that our democratic independence can be traded away so irresponsibly by our Prime Minister.

For Labor, we are responsible to the citizens and the Parliament for the national security of Australia. This means parting company with our American ally on the question of invading Iraq.  And this is what Labor has done.

It is important to note that Australia’s alliance with the US involves a mutual commitment to the United Nations.  This includes Security Council processes.  These have not been followed. There has been no subsequent resolution authorising military force in Iraq.  Resolution 1441 provides for the Security Council to consider the disarmament reports, which say more time is needed.  Through this process there is still an opportunity to peacefully disarm Iraq.

However, this Government claims that this peaceful process is futile.  In contrast, in the absence of another resolution, and without the continuing progress of the weapons inspectors led by Hans Blix, Labor cannot support this war.

And we say no because this war is not only unjustified, it is unjust. 

The Government and Opposition are at odds.  For the first time, bipartisan agreement for the deployment of troops has not been achieved.  Labor has chosen to support continuing peaceful disarmament under UN resolution 1441.  The Coalition supports an invasion of Iraq led by the US with Australia as part of the coalition of the willing without United Nations authorisation.

I know which choice is morally right.  I know which choice is in the interests of the Australian people – we should NOT be going to war.

Labor chooses the path of peace and our amendment sets out Labor’s alternative approach.

Our amendment:

·        Insists that Iraq must disarm under the authority of the United Nations

·        Asserts that without a specific UN resolution, there is no basis for military action to disarm Iraq

·        Insists there be no commitment of Australian troops to Iraq in the current circumstances

·        Says that war in Iraq is not in Australia’s interests

·        And finally, expresses confidence in Australia’s troops.

This last point is worth emphasising because the Prime Minster is trying to interpret opposition to the war as lack of support for the troops.  The truth is there is no relationship.  This is just another sneaky, manipulative effort by the Prime Minister to bully people into thinking that to oppose this war is to abandon the respect and concern for Australian Defence Force personnel who have been sent to Iraq.

Isn’t this Mr Howard all over?  Such a tactic is true to form of this manipulative, mean and tricky government.  I ask that the citizens in the ACT, and in the rest of Australia, keep their eyes and ears open to such manipulation and reject it as the shallow, divisive attempt it is to drive a wedge between Australians who feel for our troops and those opposed to the war.

My thoughts are with our troops, who have been sent to this unjustified war.  It is not their fault; it is the Coalition Government’s.  Their duty is to the executive government.  It is just that the executive government, of which Mr Howard is the leader, is wrong!  So I do blame John Howard, as he has invited all Australians to do.  I hope that people blame him at the ballot box as well as at the gates of the Lodge, as we saw with the protest yesterday morning.

There are many people from the ACT who are members of the ADF, their families as well as many retired servicemen and women.  My thoughts are also with them during this distressing time.  Again, I assure them that Labor’s opposition to this war is accompanied by our complete confidence and support of our servicewomen and men as they do their duty.

May I also add that as Senator for the ACT, I ask journalists to note that it is NOT 'Canberra' which has committed Australia to war.  I would argue that Canberra, and the ACT Government, are OPPOSED to this war and to this commitment.  Responsibility and blame for this war belong to John Howard and the Coalition Government, and not to Canberra.

I would now like to turn to the issue of Australia’s relationship with the United States of America.  A relationship which is not just about diplomatic and trade ties, Australia and United States also share very close cultural ties.  But often our closeness is expressed through diplomatic representatives.  That is why the comments by the US Ambassador to Australia were so unhelpful. 

His offensive interjections in the public discourse were naïve and partisan.  This attempt to characterise Labor’s opposition to US unilateral action in Iraq as undermining of our alliance was incorrect.  The implication being that the United States was united on the question of Iraq.  Nothing could be further from the truth.

To provide an insight into the range of views being expressed by the US Federal representatives, I would like to quote Senator Edward M. Kennedy who delivered a speech titled ‘Securing America and Disarming Saddam: Concerns about the President’s Rush to War in a Dangerous World’ on 4 March, 2003. 

Senator Kennedy said,

“All of us agree that Saddam is a despicable and deceitful dictator, but we are deeply concerned that such a war will make the world even more dangerous for Americans – not less dangerous.  Surely, we cannot afford to shatter the very coalition we need in order to combat the obviously greater and more imminent threat we face from Al Qaeda and its terrorists – the same coalition that led to the arrest this weekend of the planner of the 9/11 attack on America.

And on top of these actions, the Bush Administration quietly and stealthily changed a half century of American defense policy from one that used our nuclear arsenal for defense to one in which nuclear weapons may be used pre-emptively.  These are major changes that affect not just our own safety and security, but peace on our planet.  After the horror of 9/11, we owe it to all Americans to debate these immense changes in the way we conduct ourselves in the world.  And we owe it to our troops, to the Iraqi people, and to humanity.

Surely, we can have effective relationships with other nations without adopting a chip-on-the-shoulder, my-way-or-the-highway policy that makes all our other goals in the world more difficult to achieve.  We cannot be a bully in the world schoolyard and expect cooperation, friendship, and support from the rest of the world.

No war by America can be successfully waged if it lacks the strong support of our people.  The reason for that lack of support today is clear.  The Administration has not made a convincing case for war against Iraq, or its costs, or its consequences.

I urge Senators to read the full transcript of this speech.  It provides an insight into how hard the Bush Administration has tried to make Saddam Hussein a convenient surrogate for Osama Bin Laden.  But he has failed to prove the link between Terrorism and Iraq. 

And the Prime Minister of Australia has also failed to prove this link.

Last Thursday (13 March) we were told that John Howard would reveal ‘intelligence secrets to link Iraq with terrorism’. [1]

The best he could do was to say that ‘if terrorists ever get their hand on weapons of mass destruction, that will … constitute a direct, undeniable and lethal threat to Australia and its people’.   What an underwhelming piece of logic.

We know that no link has been found to suggest Iraq could have been in any way linked to the Bali bombings.  And not one of the September 11 bombers was from Iraq.  No one has suggested that we should bomb Indonesia or Saudi Arabia.  So why Iraq?

John Howard spoke of the atrocities inflicted by Saddam Hussein’s regime on the children and families of Iraq:

We’re talking about a regime that will gouge out the eyes of a child to force a confession from the child’s parent.  This is a regime that will burn a person’s limbs …[2]

But he did not explain how bombing by the coalition of the willing of those same suffering children and families will improve their lot.  Indeed Messieurs Howard, Ruddock and co have been accusing many of the refugees fleeing these regimes of not having a genuine case, and have sent many back into the conditions they now appear to decry.

And this supposedly ‘new evidence’ of Mr Howard’s of the crimes of the Iraqi regime, far from being new intelligence, was exposed as being lifted from a book on Iraq published last year.[3]  

Not long ago the Prime Minister was insisting that Iraqi refugees had thrown their children overboard into the sea, and said that he didn’t want in Australia the sort of people who would throw their children overboard’.  This disgusting attempt to exploit the division he had generated in relation to asylum seekers was blatant.  Later he claimed to have been misled when the truth came out that no children were thrown overboard.

So for a moment, if we were to give the Prime Minister the benefit of the doubt, how then can he possibly know that he is not being misled again?  On Iraq and its possible ‘links’ with al-Qaeda and on the ‘need’ for pre-emptive strike action, he is likely to be just as wrong as he was in the children overboard affair.  And will he again claim that it was someone else’s fault? 

Well, I don’t think he deserves the benefit of the doubt.  His record is forever tainted.

Remember way, way back when people would refer to Mr Howard as ‘Honest John’?  He was never this.  I am reminded that this nickname came about during his time as treasurer in the Fraser Government as a sarcastic reflection on the opposite attribute!   Mr John Howard will go down in history as a warmonger, aiding the slaughter of innocents, and as a willing saboteur of United Nations processes.

He will leave a legacy in the form of far greater vulnerability to terrorist attack.  This war will make Australia less safe.  It is also a legacy that, sadly, may be felt along the fault-line of racial and religious tension, at odds with Australia’s multicultural society.

This legacy will be felt by our children in the years to come. 

Where are the lessons of previous conflicts?  My generation has learnt the merits of peace and the despair of war from our parents, they themselves more direct observers of the aftermath of World Wars I and II.  What are the implications for the civilised and structured processes for resolving regional and global conflicts?  If the US, and Australia, and the UK  take their gloves off and walk away from the UN, they dispel all moral authority for requiring others to comply. What then? 

We now know that the Prime Minister effectively committed Australia to US military action some twelve months ago.  The dishonesty with which he has sought to pretend otherwise is an absolute disgrace.  Labor on behalf of the people of Australia, condemns the Prime Minister for being loose with the truth in relation to the level of commitment previously given to the United States.  The real truth is that Australia was committed nearly a year ago, evidenced by the leaked memo between the Minister Downer and the New Zealand High Commissioner, and of course the pre-deployment of ADF troops to the Gulf.

I would like to conclude by expressing my congratulations to the people, including young people and children, who have expressed their opposition to the war through many peaceful rallies. Here in Canberra they have been very well attended and the messages clear.

I ask that this energy continue as there is more reason than ever to stop this unjustified war.  I acknowledge the role of many organisations in organising for peace.  The peak body of Trade Unions locally in particular, has played a very positive role in spreading the word for peace and are to be commended.

State governments too, have opposed the conflict.  Through the leadership of the Labor Party in Government, the ACT Assembly passed a resolution which, in short, calls on the Australian Government to oppose the proposed war on Iraq and to withdraw our troops from the Middle East, because there is no clear evidence of an immediate threat to Australia or our allies.

Just today, I received a copy of a statement from the Canberra Central parish of the Uniting Church.  The Parish is “concerned that threat a military attack (especially if initiated outside the UN framework) would: put at risk the lives of Iraqi citizens, destroy what remains of Iraq’s social and economic infrastructure and thus lead to further human suffering and increase the risk of worldwide terrorism by disaffected extremists”.

The Parish is just one of hundreds of community and religious groups calling for an alternative, non-military solution to the Iraqi crisis.

Finally, Australia is in uncharted waters.  I fear for our future.  I fear for the next generation and how their attitudes to war and peace will be shaped by what they observe this Prime Minister doing.  I hope they at least sense the folly and futility of military aggression. Fear is a powerful emotion and I am determined to make my fear for the future inspire my commitment to peace.   I urge all Australians to do the same in this very difficult time.