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

we would be better off if we won. We would be better off if the terrorists were defeated in Iraq. This government will never be defeatist and it will never step backwards in its determination to support the international community in Iraq. But the Leader of the Opposition leads a political party which has a candidate in Victoria called Khalil Eideh. Khalil Eideh is a man who speaks of ‘colonial’ and ‘Zionist’ plots to ‘enslave the Arab world’ and praises the work of ‘Arab martyrs’. If the Leader of the Opposition were a person of strength and courage, he would ensure that this Labor candidate was disendorsed. This is not a candidate who articulates the courageous views of the mainstream of Australia. The mainstream of Australia denounces and stands up to these people.

Labor have a candidate they are running in the Victorian election—some sort of multimillionaire candidate they are enormously proud of—who apparently talks about ‘Arab martyrs’ and how there are ‘Zionist’ plans to ‘enslave the Arab world’. I think we have heard that language somewhere else. Now we hear that language from the Australian Labor Party—the party that wants to haul up the white flag in Iraq, the party that wants to roll over in the teeth of terrorists. The Leader of the Opposition should show some courage and get this man disendorsed.

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