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

Obviously the Prime Minister does. He said this today—the Iraqi oil minister, not Abraham Lincoln:

We expect the international community to stay with the Iraqi people in this war against international terrorism because if these people are allowed to succeed—God forbid—in Iraq, then they will be a threat to the whole world.

He went on to say:

Until we overcome this insurgency, we don’t think it’s wise for the international community to withdraw their support.

The Prime Minister and I, and the members and senators of the Liberal and National parties, feel passionately about this in the teeth of opinion polling. We have seen opinion polling in the last two or three weeks showing our position is unpopular, so I was not quite sure what the Leader of the Opposition’s explosive point was supposed to be. We believe that this is the right thing to do.

The Leader of the Opposition speaks very loudly about American strategy and how President Bush is about to change his policy. The Prime Minister and I know President Bush, Condoleezza Rice, Nick Burns and various other people in the US administration by virtue of the offices we hold. We know that, although the Americans will constantly be refining, adjusting and improving their tactics, they are not about to abandon the people of Iraq, and nor are the British. No matter what quotes the Labor Party may dig out, nor are the British. Why? Because the Americans and the British know the consequences.

In the case of the Italians, which the Leader of the Opposition asked about in question time, I was in Italy three weeks ago and I discussed the issue of Iraq with the Italian foreign minister, Mr D’Alema. It is true that the Italians are leaving Iraq by the end of this year, but the Italian government’s view is at variance with the Labor Party’s view. The Italian government made an election commitment to leave, but the Italian government do not believe that international forces should immediately pull out of Iraq. That is not their view.

That brings me to the next point I wanted to make. When Mr Latham was the Leader of the Labor Party, he said that Labor would pull Australian troops out of Iraq by Christmas. The present Leader of the Opposition—who did not, in my view, hold that view—has a different position from Mr Latham’s. The position of the present Leader of the Opposition is actually more extreme than the Latham position. The present Leader of the Opposition says that, if he were to become Prime Minister, he would immediately pull the Australian troops out—but there is an extra bit to it. He wants all of the international troops to be taken out of Iraq. He has said that he would go to Washington and tell the President that the United States should withdraw immediately from Iraq, and go to London no doubt and tell Tony Blair, or Gordon Brown or whoever succeeds Tony Blair, the same thing. I only make this point: even Mr Latham did not think pulling all of the international troops out at once was going to be a great idea for Iraq. But the present Leader of the Opposition thinks it is going to be the right strategic decision. I simply could not disagree more. Regardless of what the polls might say, I could not disagree more.

What is more, we heard something more absurd from the Leader of the Opposition today. He said he wanted to see all of the troops taken out, but I wonder how many members were listening to the other thing he said—that he would then send in an aid program. So, in an environment where the Islamist extremists and the insurgents have taken over Iraq, who is going to be sent in from Australia? Aid workers. Unarmed aid workers are going to be sent into that sort of environment.

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