Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

As was foreshadowed some months ago, the progress in Iraq is that, having had a democratically elected Iraqi government, where 12 million Iraqis at risk to their lives voted on three occasions, the process in Iraq is to move to provincial Iraqi control. What that means is that the coalition, working with the Iraqi government, including the provincial government, has been working with the British forces, the Iraqi forces and all of those who are in Iraq to negotiate the arrangements under which the Iraqi people will govern themselves and be responsible for their own security. Of course there has been a detailed intelligence and risk assessment undertaken of this, and the Leader of the Opposition of all people should know that under no circumstances do we discuss intelligence issues in a public arena.

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