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

from the Leader of the Opposition and what we who have followed the foreign affairs debate through the last five years were treated to. He supports every imaginable position: troops out of Iraq because we need more troops in South-East Asia and the Pacific, but more troops can go to Afghanistan. Even the Labor Party can work out that there is a contradiction there. There is one final contradiction, which is a pretty fundamental one: why is it that it is so important to fight terrorism in Afghanistan but it does not matter what happens in Iraq? It does not matter that the terrorists have a great victory in Iraq but it does in Afghanistan? If you ask me, that is a pretty silly sort of position and it is a position not driven by strength of policy or conviction, not driven by belief and not driven by a desire to do the right thing by our country, our allies and our friends around the world; it is driven by grubby politics.

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