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

Can I thank the honourable member for Griffith for describing me as a ‘lion of democracy’. Can I thank the honourable member for describing me as a ‘champion of democracy’. Can I thank the honourable member for describing me as a ‘fearless foreign minister’. I think on all of those three points he is absolutely right, but I think the speech of the Leader of the Opposition is the one we need to focus on.

I thought the proposition put at the beginning of the Leader of the Opposition’s speech was reprehensible; that is, that the Prime Minister and I—of course we are both identified as the architects of the Iraqi strategy—have done this for popularity reasons on the back of opinion polls. Whether the Labor Party likes it or whether the Labor Party does not like it, it is important to understand in the context of this debate that both the Prime Minister and I believe that the course we are pursuing is the right course. We believe that, and we believe that although alternative courses are superficially more popular. The opposition rush around the press gallery with the latest Lowy poll and an ACNielsen poll, I think it was, on Iraq and say, ‘Look, the government’s position is unpopular.’ They are the people who have been running around saying that, not us. I accept that, but I also accept the proposition that when you are in the position of the Minister for Foreign Affairs—or, more importantly, the position of Prime Minister—you must sit down very carefully and make judgements and decisions that you think are going to be in the best interests of Australia and in the best strategic interests of the international community.

There is a great battle going on around the world, as the Prime Minister put it, for the soul of Islam. There is a battle between moderates, who are spread throughout the Islamic world and who are the vast majority of Muslims, and the extremist Islamists, particularly epitomised by Jemaah Islamiah in our own region and al-Qaeda in the Middle East. They are of course linked up. The challenge for the international community, whether they are the Western countries, Muslim countries or a combination of both, is to make sure that moderate Muslims and moderate leaders in the Muslim world are triumphant and ultimately able to suppress and defeat the extremist Islamists. There are other great challenges that the world has to face, like climate change, but in international security that is the single most important challenge.

This issue of Iraq has to be considered in that context. What can we do to assist people like President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono or President Musharraf in Pakistan—great moderate leaders in the Islamic world—or governments in countries like Turkey and, indeed, the secular community of Turkey? We have a Turkish minister here with us today. During the day I joined him in opening the new Turkish embassy. What can we do to help those great communities around the world? There are a lot of things we can do, but if we were to aid, abet and allow the Islamist extremists to win a truly great victory the consequences for that struggle for the soul of Islam would be catastrophic. It would be the greatest single thing that could happen to advance the interests of al-Qaeda and, in South-East Asia, Jemaah Islamiah.

The opposition criticises the government for saying, ‘Whatever you think about the original decision, you have to work out what you think is the right thing to do now.’ I think the Australian public would understand that that is a commonsense proposition. I know a lot of people thought it was the wrong thing to overthrow Saddam Hussein but, suffice it to say, the Prime Minister and I, and the coalition members and senators, believed it was the right thing. There was enormous support throughout the Liberal and National parties from one end of this country to the other to see the passing of Saddam Hussein’s regime, even if it did not win the overwhelming approbation of the Australian people. But we think that was the right thing to do and we believe that, if you analyse what would have happened had Saddam Hussein had a great victory, the consequences become rather apparent. But we have to deal with the here and now and, in the here and now, if we were to grant the Islamist extremists a victory in Iraq, it would be a simply massive setback in the struggle for the soul of Islam and for global security. Some people say, ‘That is what the Liberal Party here would say.’

I thought it was interesting and coincidental that the Iraqi oil minister happened to be here today. He was meant to be here yesterday but he got delayed because of a sandstorm in Iraq. He had a press conference this morning and was, of course, asked about these issues. Here is a man who, in repudiating Saddam Hussein many years ago, spent—I think I am right in saying this—15 years in the Abu Ghraib jail. The Leader of the Opposition may think he is some grand strategic analyst. That is the way he rather pompously presents himself, despite chopping and changing his position the whole time. As the Prime Minister demonstrated, if you sit down and analyse what he says you find he has a lot of conviction very weakly held. The Iraqi oil minister lives in Iraq. The Iraqi oil minister knows what it was like under Saddam Hussein’s regime because he was imprisoned by him for 15 years. His story is a rather more important story than the sort of latter-day General McClellan that we have opposite us. Those of you who understand Lincoln and the American Civil War will know the reference.

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