Robert McClelland (Barton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Does the foreign minister recall saying on 5 July 2004 that the Iraqis were making ‘sound progress’? Does he recall saying on 19 September 2005 that the situation in Iraq was ‘headed in the right direction’? Does the foreign minister acknowledge that, with 100 civilians dying every day in Iraq, Australia is now effectively bogged down in a full-blown civil war? As the minister and the Prime Minister got Australia into this hole, when will they stop digging?

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. The answer is a series of yeses and noes, but I make this point in answer to the last part of the question: we will, along with our allies, pass the responsibility for security in Iraq over to the Iraqi security forces when they have the capacity to maintain a reasonable degree of security in that country. The alternative strategy is the Labor Party strategy. The Labor Party strategy is for all of the coalition forces to withdraw from Iraq and to create not only a human rights catastrophe but also an enormous boost to the extremists and insurgents.

Julia Irwin (Fowler, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mrs Irwin interjecting

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The minister will resume his seat. The member for Fowler has been warned and she continues to interject. She will remove herself under standing order 94(a).

The member for Fowler then left the chamber.

Alexander Downer (Mayo, Liberal Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The very heart of this debate today is the proposition that the honourable member for Barton—and, above all, the Leader of the Opposition—is putting, and that is that the coalition forces should withdraw from Iraq and leave Iraq to the terrorists and the insurgents. I believe, and I think most Western governments believe—including some who do not have troops in Iraq—that if a withdrawal of that kind were to take place it would be a catastrophe in the struggle against terrorism. The Leader of the Opposition says that he would not only pull out Australian troops; he would also go to Washington and urge the United States to surrender in Iraq as well. As the national intelligence estimate demonstrated, this would be a major triumph for the extremists, the terrorists and the insurgents. This government will not surrender.