Steve Georganas (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about recent comments made on page 3 of the Age today entitled ‘Terrorist comparison all Greek to Howard’. These were comments made by the Prime Minister where he compared the ongoing violence in Iraq to the isolated terrorist attacks in Greece many, many years ago—a ridiculous and outrageous remark and a ridiculous comparison, may I say. The Prime Minister, when discussing the issue of Iraq, made the comment that there are many democratic countries where terrorist attacks occur, citing Greece as an example. This was a bizarre comment that has taken everyone by surprise—certainly a lot of people in my electorate, who called me today to find out what this comment was all about. The Prime Minister said:

Greece went through a 20-year period of there being terrorist attacks.

As I said, these comments outraged many people in the Greek-Australian community of my electorate, and rightly so. The Prime Minister is obviously not familiar with current issues affecting Europe and Greece and with the great pride the Greek government now takes in maintaining peace with its allies and neighbours.

I believe that the Greek ambassador was in Canberra today and that he was going to personally raise this issue with the Minister for Foreign Affairs. The Prime Minister would be on safer ground admiring his sporting cricket heroes, because he clearly shows no understanding of sensitive issues and international diplomacy. Two weeks ago we saw the statement about Obama and how the Prime Minister managed to outrage both Democrats and Republicans in the US.

The horrible and horrendous attacks currently occurring in Iraq share absolutely no likeness to those in Greece in the past or in the present. The Prime Minister was simply trying to downplay the violence in Iraq by claiming that the conflict in Iraq will continue after withdrawal—this is all at the expense of the credentials of a peaceful, democratic country like Greece. There have been no casualties due to terrorist attacks in Greece in the last few years that I am aware of, and I am at a loss to find another conflict where 3,000 people die every month. This certainly is not the case in any European country, including Greece. The conflict in Iraq is the result of a pre-emptive invasion by a third party, so how you can compare a modern-day European country, a member of the EU, like Greece with this is absolutely unbelievable. The Greek government’s only priority, as far as I am aware, is to ensure that individuals within Greece and Greek communities abroad remain safe.

In making these comments the Prime Minister is risking hindering our relationship with other nations and international communities. These comments could not have come at a more difficult time, as the Australia-Greece social security agreement is proposed to be signed later this year. For this agreement to go ahead and to be fairly debated, relationships need to be at an optimal level. The Greek community in Australia—people who identify as Greek Australians—is estimated to be as large as one million people. Melbourne is the third-largest Greek community in the world. In South Australia, in the electorate of Hindmarsh, I have over 10,000 Greek Australians who live in the electorate, and they contact me on a regular basis. I stand here representing many Greek Australians in my electorate, and I want to point out that the conflict in Iraq has absolutely no resemblance to Greece.

Each summer there are approximately 100,000 Australians in Greece, and this number drops to about 40,000 in the winter months. The frequent visits to Greece by Australians, combined with the large Greek population in Australia, have served to strengthen community ties between the two countries. Despite there being such a large number of Australians in Greece at any one time, I am yet to hear of any of them being the target of or threatened by any terrorist action in recent months or years. The majority return without any incident. The Prime Minister’s comments are an insult to the thousands of people who travel to Greece year after year and to the near-million people who are connected through their ancestry to a country that is a peace-loving and welcoming country and which has always had a great relationship with Australia through many historical ties in times of war, such as the battle of Crete and many other incidents.

I, together with members of the ALP, refute the Prime Minister’s comments as outrageous, bizarre and totally unbelievable. The Prime Minister acted irresponsibly by trying to make a political point. He wrongly suggested to the world that Greece is a security risk. This has the potential to impact on terrorism and the extent of interaction between both peoples’ countries.

See this speech in context