Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in support of the Prime Minister's statement on national security. I would like to associate myself with the statements that were made particularly by the member for Boothby who made reference to the Australian men and women who are currently deployed to the region. I am conscious of the fact that I am making this particular statement today virtually the day after that deployment began, and I do want to wish all Australian ADF personnel a safe passage and a safe time in their duty. Our thoughts are with them.

When Australia's initial involvement in the war in Iraq in 2003 commenced, I was a very vocal advocate against Australia being a member of the coalition of the willing. It was not just me; I can say that a large number of the Australian community were also against our involvement in that war at that time. Their opposition was visible in our streets and we all remember the hundreds of thousands of people who marched in the streets of Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide and Melbourne all those years ago—pleading with the government not to commit Australia and Australian troops to Iraq. That was then and, of course, 10 years later it is very unfortunate that we are having discussions again about Australian involvement in Iraq. What is tragic is that some 10 years later a situation that we initially participated in fixing actually has not been fixed; it has been broken. Its consequences, unfortunately, are not just for the people of Iraq and the Middle East generally; they are of concern to the global community and therefore our concern here in Australia, which is why I support the current humanitarian intervention—Australia's involvement at that level at this time in Iraq. I do of course support the Prime Minister's statement and I do so in the terms that have been outlined by the Leader of the Opposition—in particular the points that this is an action that has been asked for by the government of Iraq and our involvement there is supported by the government of Iraq, that we remain within the confines of Iraq and that we are not involved in any combat on the ground exchanges.

I remember full well—I have spoken about my community many times in this place—that the decade that I often refer to as the 'September 11 decade' was a very difficult time for many of the people in my electorate. I do have one of the largest constituencies of Australians of Muslim faith and I remember well the adverse impact that the war in Iraq at that period, and in fact September 11 generally, had on those communities—in particular the impact and the ramifications of that on the women in my electorate. On many occasions in this place I have spoken about women who wear hijabs being attacked. The Muslim community came under extreme pressure and was time and time again put on notice that they had to reaffirm their loyalty to Australia, and quite frankly I think they endured quite a lot of pressure. What is important, however, is that our community rallied not only in my electorate but right across the country. We rallied as Australians to support each other. In Melbourne in particular we ran very, very intense interfaith networks. Our religious leaders took their place in leading our communities and in trying to manage and avoid unnecessary harm being inflicted upon one part of our community.

Such is the nature of our social cohesion and its strength that I believe we got through that decade successfully. It is unfortunate that we are back there again. However, as I said initially, we have a responsibility to again come together to prevent any adverse effects on members of our community. In my own case in the federal seat of Calwell, I have virtually every community from the Middle East living in Calwell. As I said, I have a very large constituency of Australians of Muslim faith but I also have a very large emerging constituency of Iraqi Chaldean Christians, who have come here under the refugee humanitarian program. They are living examples of what war does to people—its dislocation, its violence. Its whole culture is destructive.

They have come to Australia; they are thankful that they have been given the opportunity to live in Australia. However, they remain very much concerned about what is happening to their family, to their friends and to their communities in Iraq and in the broader Middle East. For them this situation is alive. It is something they cannot switch off from, it is a large part of the way in which they are trying to create a new life in Australia, and it affects the way in which they go through the settlement process. I have communities that are reeling, hurt and afraid because they have direct links to the Middle East. I have communities, on the other hand, that have been in the broader Australia community for a long time and are trying to understand what is going on internationally and how it is impacting on us. Having said that, I feel that our involvement at this point in time in Iraq is necessary and it is intended for a greater good. We are not over there to cause unnecessary grief; we are there to help, and I think that is very important. Australia, being a country in a global community, has the capacity to offer that assistance.

It is probably important to finish by simply urging all of us here in this place to be mindful of the way that we speak in relation to what is going on at the moment, because words can be just as damaging and just as divisive as physical actions. I defend the right for all of us to express our views, but we who are members of parliament and leaders in our community need to be mindful that wisdom is probably a better way of approaching the expression of those views. When we speak about our views on women wearing burqas or on other things that we do not like, we need to be mindful that we have a right to say those things but that the timing may not be very good at this point in time.

Our role as members of parliament is to bring our communities together and to recognise that there are some very difficult things happening in the world. They are impacting on Australia. We need to be able to be wise in the way that we lead and manage community debate on this issue. My plea is to my colleagues—those who have sought to express views that, by the way, have been expressed many times before. They should be mindful of what the consequences of those words that they express could be. We live in a multicultural society. It is a society of people of diverse backgrounds. I am an example of that. If our society and our multiculturalism had been the failure that some people often like to talk about, then I can assure you that I would not be standing here speaking in this chamber today. We have a lot to be proud of in this country. We have been a success story. We have the capacity to show the way to others who wish to manage their diversity—not just their cultural diversity but also their faith diversity.

I support our current action as it has been framed. I urge my colleagues to be mindful of the things that they say and the language that they use. My advice to those who have probably had no engagement whatsoever with Australians of Muslim faith is to come to Melbourne, Sydney or other parts of the country where there are large communities, and not-so-large communities, of Australians of Muslim faith and actually speak to them; enter into dialogue with people. It is at that level where you can have sensible and wise discussion about issues that we may or may not disagree about.

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