Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last night, I checked the Iraq update page of the Prime Minister’s website in search of details about the latest decision to move the 450 Australian troops now stationed in Al Muthanna province to the air base at Tallil. I know how much time, effort and money is put into updating websites, so I thought clicking on the ‘latest news on Iraq’ link would provide me with some answers. And what did I find? The latest news on Iraq was an entry of 20 June 2003—a speech made by the Prime Minister at the welcome home parade for Australian forces deployed to the Middle East. I could not believe my eyes when I read the entry for 4 June 2003, where the Prime Minister was speaking on the issue of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to John Laws on 2UE. The Prime Minister said:

I would counsel a little patience ... on the part of people who are jumping too quickly to conclusions.

Three years on, where are the weapons of mass destruction? I am a patient person, but when will the Prime Minister admit he took Australia to war on a false basis and then changed the goalposts on several occasions? We all know that the stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction that were used as the justification for the invasion of Iraq did not exist. Why does the Prime Minister’s website omit significant and important historical facts? Where is the reference to the parliamentary committee’s report of 1 March 2004 that shows the government used intelligence assessments to suit its own political ends? And what about the conclusion of the Iraq Survey Group back in September 2004? It said that it ‘found no evidence of WMD or post-1991 WMD production’. Where is the honest acknowledgement that our nation was taken to war based on a lie—

Ian Causley (Page, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Throsby will withdraw the word ‘lie’.

Jennie George (Throsby, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Environment and Heritage) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

based on the untruth about the weapons of mass destruction? Where is the government’s clear mission statement for our troops in Iraq and its exit strategy? Remember: we were told the deployment would be for months and not years. And why is there no reference to the number of Iraqi civilians who have died in the war, now estimated on the Iraq Body Count website to be between 38,475 and 42,889 civilians?

Given yesterday was the third anniversary of the last news item on the Prime Minister’s website, why has the Prime Minister stopped updating the Australian community on our involvement? Is it the same patience and restraint urged by the Prime Minister about WMDs that has prevented him from informing Australians visiting his website of any news from Iraq since 20 June 2003?