Chris Hayes (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It is a fact that since 2003 the people of Iraq have been experiencing horrendous atrocities. As you will recall, in 2003, we—as part of the coalition of the willing—went into Iraq. And it appears that apart from removing Saddam Hussein, who was no doubt a particularly evil person, this engagement has led to the unleashing of various forces between the Sunni and Shiah which are irreconcilable and do not necessarily play just into politics but are now being played out in a very brutal and fanatical way throughout the Middle East. We have more recently seen the rise of ISIS, the Islamic State, which is clearly a fanatical and brutal terrorist organisation, extending beyond Iraq and into Syria, with the aim to effect in the Middle East an Islamic caliphate.

In my electorate, I have regular contact with many of the expatriates from Iraq—the vast majority of them are refugees. I meet regularly with representatives of the Iraqi Australian Christian Association, the Assyrian Universal Alliance, the Mandaean Australian community, the Syrian Australian national federation, the Assyrian Church of the East and representatives from the Caledonian Catholic community. Quite frankly, ever since I entered politics nine years ago, they have kept me up to date as to developments in the Middle East because they always have in their hearts the welfare of their loved ones, their family members left behind, and always express to me the need to provide for their welfare.

Over the last two months, the nature of our discussions have certainly been more stark. We are now seeing the threats played out on our television sets. Whether it concerns the Yazidi Kurds in Sinjar or the Christians in Mosul, we are seeing genocide being played out at an alarming proportion. Right before our eyes, we are seeing ethnic cleansing in Iraq. It is not just applied to the Christian minorities there; it is being applied to any there, including fellow Muslims, who do not share their ideology.

This is an issue where we do have a general responsibility and we do have, in my humble opinion, a moral responsibility. After all, we were part of the coalition of the willing in 2003. It cannot be a situation where we say this is a very, very unfortunate set of developments and simply provide humanitarian relief. It is a situation where we need to be involved and certainly providing humanitarian relief to those who are most in need at the moment, particularly the Yazidis up in Mount Sinjar.

Also, we need to be providing assistance to those who are prepared to stand up against this fanatical, brutal group of terrorists. In that regard, I am talking about the Kurdish Peshmerga military, which occupy the northern end of Iraq. They are doing a fine job in standing up to this advance by Islamic State. I know their losses have been high, but they are a committed military force and one which I think we need to be supporting. I do support the efforts of the foreign minister and the Prime Minister in indicating we will maintain humanitarian assistance to the people of Iraq and additionally that we will provide military support for the Peshmerga in the form of arms and ammunition. That will enable them to fight for the people of Iraq against this blatant and evil enemy of humanity.

These are times when I think no-one in this place wants to be talking in a warmongering way, but they are certainly times when we need to reflect on what our responsibilities are as a country which is quite fortunate that we do not have these incidents being played out in our backyard. I agree with the government that we need to be taking every step possible to ensure that never becomes a reality.

Australia is a country which is very, very multicultural—I have just indicated that I have a significant proportion of expatriate Iraqi refugees living in my electorate. They are concerned not simply to bring more of their relatives to a country such as Australia; they are more concerned that we play an effort to settle down and establish normality in their homeland. I think that we do keep that responsibility and that it is only right that we do. As I indicated, as part of the coalition of the willing, I do not think the job was ever completely finalised—with Australia and the rest of the coalition of the willing withdrawing troops as we did; not that it was a popular war within Iraq. But what we are now seeing is something which is coming in to fill the void, a void which has largely been contributed to by a poor and inadequate government which was not inclusive of all peoples, by any stretch of the imagination. It has created a void for Islamic State to rise and fester. This cannot be, with the view of any degree of balance within the Middle East, allowed to succeed. It would be a calamity not simply for Iraq but for the whole region and, I would dare say, the globe.

For all of those organisations that I have mentioned, we will stay in contact with them. I know they are also talking directly to the Minister for Foreign Affairs and I do thank her for giving the time to actually sit down and personally meet with them. It is not that we can actually satisfy all of their concerns, but I think it is right that Australia does take these steps to address, as far as possible, the humanitarian needs of the people of Iraq and to also provide reasonable assistance in terms of military equipment and ammunition to the Peshmerga and the Kurdish military in their efforts, quite frankly, to stem this attempt to commit the genocide of an innocent people.

I will conclude my remarks now, other than to say that I think everything that I have heard in this debate so far indicates that, regardless of on what side of the House we sit on, we are at one on this issue.

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