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

Today I rise to speak on behalf of the many constituents living in my electorate of Calwell who currently have family living in Iraq, or family members who have been forced to flee Iraq as refugees. My electorate of Calwell is home to over 5,000 Iraqi Australians. They represent a number of different ethnic and religious groups, all of whom share a strong commitment to Australia.

Whenever I speak with members of the local Iraqi community, our conversations invariably turn to the fate of those family members left behind in Iraq. These conversations bring into sharp focus the untold tragedy of what is happening in Iraq and the effect this war is having on Australia’s own Iraqi community. More than anything else, they are a sobering reminder that innocent civilians are always the first casualties of war.

There is little doubt today that the war in Iraq is increasingly unpopular, both here and overseas. In March 2003, the Howard government was among the first to offer its support for the US led invasion of Iraq. At the time, antiwar rallies held in many of Australia’s capital cities attracted record crowds, reinforcing what numerous opinion polls were saying, namely that the majority of the Australian public was against the war and adamantly against any Australian involvement.

For those of us who opposed the war, who questioned the accuracy of intelligence reports linking Iraq to weapons of mass destruction, who pointed out the absurdity of attempts to link Saddam Hussein with al-Qaeda, and who warned of the tragedy that would unfold if we went to war before all diplomatic efforts were exhausted, history has unfortunately proved us right, just as it has proved the Howard government horribly wrong.

We now know that, in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion, the Howard government was given ample warning that Australia’s involvement in Iraq was likely to make us more of a terrorist target, that invading Iraq would likely act as a recruitment tool for both established and newly emerging terrorist organisations and that regional instability caused by an invasion was likely to increase petrol prices. Any cursory knowledge of Iraq’s political history and demographics should have been enough to alert the Howard government to the dangers of civil strife and disintegration if the political vacuum created by the collapse of the Iraqi regime was not filled immediately. Whether through incompetency, neglect or the Howard government’s willingness to abdicate Australia’s independence in determining its own foreign policy, this government chose to ignore all the warning signs. And, by announcing Australia’s involvement in the war, it also chose to ignore the will of the Australian people.

The fact that the Minister for Foreign Affairs keeps changing his mind when it comes to pinpointing the exact reasons why Australia went to war in the first place is testament to the ill-conceived nature of Australia’s involvement in Iraq. Initially, our involvement in Iraq focused on its non-existent weapons of mass destruction. Since then, the justifications used by the foreign minister for our involvement in Iraq have included ‘regime change’, creating a beachhead of democracy in the Middle East, protecting Japanese army engineers working in the south of Iraq and ‘security overwatch’. This was, of course, before the defence minister announced that Iraq was actually about oil, a faux pas of gigantic proportions that was quickly retracted by the minister and avidly talked down and denied by the Prime Minister.

Notwithstanding the confusion as to the reasons for Australia’s involvement in Iraq, the Howard government’s preferred approach has been to shut down all debate on Iraq completely by maligning opponents to the war as either terrorist sympathisers or supporters of Saddam Hussein’s regime. This is not the response the Australian public expect when it comes to responsible government.

The damage that our involvement in Iraq has done to Australia’s international standing and to its international reputation is, I believe, comparable to the damage that has been done to Australia’s international standing as a result of this government’s intransigence when it comes to climate change.

The Howard government’s support for the invasion of Iraq fell far short of the international norms and standards used to justify the war. The invasion of Iraq was not authorised by the UN Security Council, it did not fall under the terms of humanitarian intervention and it did not amount to an act of self-defence against an immediate and present danger to Australia’s security and sovereignty. In effect, what the Howard government has done is undermine Australia’s role as a middle power in international affairs, one that pursues multilateral solutions to international problems. It has damaged Australia’s reputation in an international system where reputation remains a vital asset, especially in negotiations. And, through its intransigence and hostility, the Howard government has managed to ostracise the one organisation that a middle power like Australia should be promoting at every possible opportunity for the sake of its own international interests—namely, the United Nations.

Further adding to the charade surrounding the government’s approach to Iraq are the weekend’s revelations that the Prime Minister has written to the Iraqi Prime Minister, Nouri al-Maliki, warning him of a possible Australian troop withdrawal if his government does not do more to curb the violence in Iraq. In the lead-up to an election campaign, and given the unpopularity of our involvement in Iraq, we now find the Prime Minister trying to create the conditions for a possible Australian troop withdrawal from Iraq by blaming the Iraqis for the bloodshed and chaos this war has created.

Australia’s involvement in Iraq has cost the Australian taxpayer some $2 billion. According to AusAID figures released last year, the money Australia has committed to humanitarian aid and reconstruction projects in Iraq amounts to less than one-tenth of this figure. We have spent 10 times more on the invasion of Iraq than we have on helping Iraq get back on its feet, and now we see the Prime Minister trying to pin Iraq’s misfortunes on the Iraqis themselves. This is hypocrisy of the highest order.

The Prime Minister has never tired of misusing Iraq to suit his own political interests and, in the process, he has shown complete disregard for Iraqi civilian life, for the rule of international law, for the will of the Australian people and for Australia’s international reputation.

Iraq is now disintegrating before our eyes. Its civilian population live in fear. Each day adds to the sober headcount of numbers dead, maimed and wounded. Lives are destroyed, children are traumatised and civilians are targeted. Anywhere from 400,000 to 600,000 Iraqis—with some estimates putting that figure a lot higher—have been killed so far. The war has resulted in two million people being internally displaced, and it has created a further two million refugees who have fled across Iraq’s borders.

Recently, a young Assyrian woman named Sophie—who is a constituent of mine—came to see me about her first cousin Aadam, who fled Iraq with his family in late 2006. They now live in Syria as refugees. Before the war, Aadam worked as an industrial chemist in one of Iraq’s oil refineries. Shortly after the war began, he also started work as a consultant for an American company that became involved in the oil refinery where Aadam was employed, following the 2003 invasion. It was not long before Aadam started to receive death threats. Sophie painted a picture of an honest man in Iraq who worked hard to provide for his family and who became caught up in a war he played no part in starting. Each week, Aadam had to live with the pressure of trying to balance the need to provide for his family against the threats he received as a result of his work.

Like so many other Iraqi families who have been affected by the war, Aadam’s story ends tragically. In early June 2006 his eldest son Ninos, who was completing his final year of computer engineering at university, was killed by a bomb that had been placed under his car. Distraught at the death of his eldest son and fearing for the safety of his remaining four children, Aadam and his family fled to Syria, where they remain today. Though recognised by the UNHCR as refugees who face persecution if they return to Iraq, Aadam’s application for a humanitarian visa to live in Australia has been rejected by the Australian government.

There are a hundred similar stories to this one among Iraqi-Australians. They recall the true horror of war and the loss of innocent life. They highlight our failure to provide for the welfare, security and protection of Iraqi civilians. In relation to Australia’s role in the war, they show the extent of the Howard government’s failure to honour its obligations to the many Iraqis who have been displaced and whose lives have been destroyed as a result of this war. The Howard government has a moral and legal duty to help those suffering in Iraq, through its overseas aid program and through Australia’s own humanitarian and refugee visa program. Anything short of this is unacceptable.