Graham Edwards (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary (Defence and Veterans' Affairs)) Share this | Hansard source

My question relates to exactly the same issue. Minister, I am appalled by the decision that the government took not to make this warlike service, and I say this very strongly in the context of the message which was delivered to the soldiers and to the families by you, by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and by the Prime Minister, when in the parliament the Prime Minister gave rise to the dangerous nature of the deployment and told the House and the people of Australia and the soldiers who were going there that we could expect casualties. Minister, I ask you one simple question: why did the government not immediately declare the deployment to be warlike and then review that warlike designation perhaps four or six weeks into the deployment? Why did the government not give the benefit of the doubt to the troops? They went there expecting dangerous situations and casualties and they went there expecting to operate in a warlike environment. Why didn’t the government recognise that up front and then take the opportunity to review that decision once things had settled down?

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