Joel Fitzgibbon (Hunter, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to make a brief contribution to this important debate on one of the most significant events most of us have seen in our lifetime. It is one of those events for which all of us remember where we were when those planes hit the World Trade Center in New York. I remember it very vividly. I was on my way to a 6 am boxing class at my local gym and they were talking about it on the radio in the minutes leading up to six o'clock. I had to wait till I entered the gym and saw the footage on the television screens before I understood exactly what it was that the radio commentators were talking about. They were running commentary, assuming knowledge of what it was they were commenting on, and it was hard for me to put the jigsaw together, but on entering the gym and seeing the vision on the television screens I became very aware of the gravity of the events that had taken place overnight, our time. These were tragic events, events that led to the loss of a couple of thousand lives, including 10 Australians, and events that touched Australians everywhere. Whether they were in New York on that date, in Australia or anywhere else around the world, they quickly came to an understanding of the gravity of what was unfolding in New York that morning.

It is easy for us, 10 years on, to fall into the trap of believing that terrorism began on 11 September 2001. Of course, it did not. We had been living with terrorism and terrorist threats for many, many years before that—indeed, depending on how you measure it, for centuries before that. Munich, for example, always stands out in my mind. Those who like to cast their minds back to the 2000 Olympics in Sydney will remember how tight the security was then because of the fear of a terrorist attack of some sort. So 11 September 2001 does not mark the arrival of terrorism in Australia, but certainly it is the point at which terrorism became very much part of our daily conversation.

Events in Bali, Jakarta and, to a lesser extent for Australians, London and Madrid have reinforced in all of our minds the constant presence of the threat of terrorism. Indeed, it is a very real threat. Sadly, in the course of the decades and, arguably, the centuries it has too often had its roots in religion and differences in ideology. Stemming from that are extreme views about some of those ideologies.

I am indebted—I think we are all indebted—to the work of two academics, John Mueller and Mark Stewart, who is from the University of Newcastle, for the work they have done recently on the cost of our response to September 11. Their basic thesis poses the question of whether we overreacted and overspent in our response to terrorism, and whether, in economic terms at least, that has been money well and efficiently spent. I praise them for their work. I think it is an excellent piece of work; empirically speaking, I think it is almost without challenge. But I do want to make the point that, while their work is empirically and economically sound, it really is difficult to measure the cost of a human life. It is not something that I believe economists are able to do. I think that is where their work breaks down, in a sense. Of course, the other question is: what should we not have funded in our response to the events of 2001? And what would have been the result of not funding part of that response? Importantly, I think that is something that we must keep in mind.

Throughout this debate, we remember those who are still fighting under our flag in Afghanistan. We are in Afghanistan because of the events—at least, initially—of 9-11 in 2001. That connection remains a very strong one. I think it is important to remind ourselves of the need to finish our work there and to ensure that Afghanistan does not again become a breeding ground and launching pad for those prepared to perpetuate acts of terrorism around the world, including against Australians.

I join with the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition and all those who have made a contribution to this debate. This is a very, very sad anniversary. There are many lessons for all of us to take from it. I think an important one is the question of foreign aid, and this feeds into the question we have had on our minds constantly in this place in recent days and weeks—the question of those seeking asylum. The reality is that Australia takes a very small proportion of the global flows of refugees. It is a difficult challenge for all the countries dealing with that issue but, at the end of the day, we would not have flows of refugees if as an international community, as a global community, we did more to prevent the source of problems in the first place, whether that is famine, civil conflicts or state-to-state conflicts. There are too many of those flashpoints around the world at the moment and there have been in recent years.

I find it a little bit intriguing that the same people who complain about us being too humane, compassionate and generous towards refugees are the same people who tend to oppose us investing in foreign aid. That is an obvious contradiction. I believe that, while our own foreign aid contribution has been rising in recent years—and that is welcome—in a perfect world at least we are nowhere near where we could be in our contribution to foreign aid, nor indeed are the wealthy nations we sit in conference with on a regular basis.

We must come to the understanding and realisation, without being overambitious, that the best way to deal with the flow of refugees is to ensure we do not have a flow of refugees, and the best way to ensure that is the case is to invest more heavily in economic development, in the development of governance in developing nations and in science regarding droughts, food crises and starvation—for example, in African nations. We need to ensure that we do all we can to spread democracy in developing countries and ensure we do not have despots around the globe imposing acts of terror on their own people. Of all the things we could learn from September 11, I think that rates very highly.

I take this opportunity again to extend my condolences and sympathy to all the people who were touched by September 11. By that I mean all the people who knew someone who was killed or injured in the events of September 11. Of course, collectively, we all hope and pray that we never see events like that again in our lifetime.

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