Alex Somlyay (Fairfax, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Is the minister aware of calls to reduce Australia’s commitment to the war on terror? What is the government’s response?

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

I appreciate the honourable member’s question. This government has determined that Australia should play its part in the war against terrorism. I think all of us felt very deeply about the Australians who were killed in Bali and in other incidents. That just reinforced our determination to strike back at terrorists and to defeat terrorists. One of the areas where we make a contribution is in Afghanistan. It is still a very dangerous environment, particularly in southern Afghanistan. We expect there to be, to use a phrase, a spring offensive from the Taliban in the first few months of this year.

I welcome the decision by the British government that they will deploy 1,400 more troops to Afghanistan, bringing their total in Afghanistan to 7,700. And I am proud of the contribution the 550 Australians are making in Afghanistan. Can I just say—we have said this before—that the government has sent a scoping team to Afghanistan to inform our Defence planning on possible changes and possible increases to our force structure in Afghanistan. We are committed to helping the Afghan people, as we are the Iraqi people, to free themselves of the scourge of terrorism. I noticed on 22 February that the Leader of the Opposition supported an increase in Australian troops to Afghanistan. This is what he said:

We’ve always taken a constructive, bipartisan approach to the war against Osama bin Laden and the Taliban ...

Apparently not al-Qaeda in Iraq—but, in any case, if they are in Afghanistan, he is against them. This was an interesting statement by the Leader of the Opposition. He supports more troops being sent to Afghanistan but, six days earlier, in an interview on Channel 7, he said that we should be withdrawing our troops from Iraq because they are needed back here in our region. This is what he said:

We have other alliance responsibilities in our region. You’ve got the Solomons ... you’ve got problems in Tonga, you’ve got problems in Fiji, who knows what’s going to happen in parts of New Guinea—we have limited military resources ...

The Leader of the Opposition, yet again, is trying to have it both ways. How can a member of the House of Representatives argue on the one hand that we should bring troops back because we need them in our own region but support sending more troops to Afghanistan? You do not have to be a Philadelphia lawyer to work out that there is a stark and embarrassing contradiction.

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Danby interjecting

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

Order! The member for Melbourne Ports!

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

But this of course is what we have been treated to for the last two months—

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Danby interjecting

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

Order! The member for Melbourne Ports is warned!

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

from the Leader of the Opposition and what we who have followed the foreign affairs debate through the last five years were treated to. He supports every imaginable position: troops out of Iraq because we need more troops in South-East Asia and the Pacific, but more troops can go to Afghanistan. Even the Labor Party can work out that there is a contradiction there. There is one final contradiction, which is a pretty fundamental one: why is it that it is so important to fight terrorism in Afghanistan but it does not matter what happens in Iraq? It does not matter that the terrorists have a great victory in Iraq but it does in Afghanistan? If you ask me, that is a pretty silly sort of position and it is a position not driven by strength of policy or conviction, not driven by belief and not driven by a desire to do the right thing by our country, our allies and our friends around the world; it is driven by grubby politics.