Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

First, let me respond on behalf of the government to this motion—which the Leader of the Opposition, having moved, is now not going to participate in any longer. Let me make this point first of all: a number of the allegations that are being made by the Leader of the Opposition are quite untrue. They are utterly false. Secondly, the Leader of the Opposition has moved his position very substantially as time has gone on. Ever since the Cole commission began its hearings, we have heard from the opposition hysteria, the likes of which I do not think I have heard before in this parliament—some of the most disgracefully dishonest allegations made against this government that I have heard in 10 years.

Last week, and the week before, the opposition was saying that ministers in this government and the Prime Minister were corrupt. That is a very serious allegation. The Leader of the Opposition stood up at the Press Club and on other occasions—on 2UE, I think it was. Even Mike Carlton, who is a Labor cheerleader on the radio, questioned this allegation by the Leader of the Opposition that ministers and the Prime Minister were corrupt—in other words, that somehow we were receiving money or deliberately supporting a breach of sanctions by an Australian company in order to assist Saddam Hussein.

The trouble with using that kind of completely dishonest hyperbole—in fact, it is utterly defamatory to suggest that ministers and the Prime Minister are corrupt—is that it simply undermines the credibility of the Leader of the Opposition’s case. That is why the general community in Australia does not believe the Leader of the Opposition. The proposition that the opposition is trying to convince the public to believe is that somehow we were supporters of Saddam Hussein and wanted to get rid of him at the same time. It is perfectly obvious that that is a nonsense. With the greatest of respect, I think the opposition has a bit of a cheek in the position it is taking on this issue, because the opposition passionately opposed the overthrow of Saddam Hussein: it was an outrage that the Australian government supported the British and American governments to join the coalition of the willing and get rid of Saddam Hussein.

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