Jason Wood (La Trobe, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister advise the House on the government’s policy towards political reconciliation in Iraq? Are there any other approaches?

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

First of all, I thank the member for La Trobe for his question and also for his interest. As was made very clear by the international community around the time of the so-called surge—the enhanced forces being sent by the United States to Iraq—this had to be supported. It was important that it was supported by greater efforts towards reconciliation by the Iraqi government. The Prime Minister’s letter, which was published in the newspapers over the weekend, is a follow-up to conversations he, the Prime Minister, had with Prime Minister Maliki back in March and that I had with Prime Minister Maliki back in June. When I saw Prime Minister Maliki in June, I made it very clear to him that we thought the process of reconciliation was moving too slowly. I would have thought that for observers of Iraq it was clear that that was the case, and I think it entirely appropriate that the Australian government should do what it can to try to accelerate that process. I did make the point to Prime Minister Maliki in June that I thought it would be valuable to have a high profile reconciliation conference of the key sectarian leaders in Iraq. I am, by the way, pleased to hear that a conference of the sectarian leaders is to proceed in Iraq. I think that is a good development and it is very much hoped that it brings successful results.

I would hope that all members of this parliament would support that particular proposition. After all, we were reminded only yesterday in the newspapers that back in 2003 the Leader of the Opposition went to Iraq, came back and wrote to our Prime Minister. He said that Australia should put its shoulder to the wheel, that we should do what we can to help the people of Iraq. That was in the old days of Kevin03. We went to Kevin04, and then it was ‘troops out by Christmas’. Then there were a few variations through Kevin05 and Kevin06. Kevin07 is a very interesting issue. In Kevin07, the Labor Party apparently now has the view that some troops should remain in Iraq—that under Labor around 1,000 of the defence personnel involved in Iraq would remain if Labor was elected. But, over a period of time, perhaps the best part of a year, the Overwatch Battle Group—the 500 or so in Southern Iraq, in Tallil—would be withdrawn.

The Overwatch Battle Group is doing a fantastic job. They have been training Iraqi soldiers. And Australians, by the way, have either directly or indirectly trained about 15,000 soldiers in the Iraqi army, so it is a very impressive record. The Overwatch Battle Group also provides backup support should Iraqi forces get into difficulties in that part of Southern Iraq. I visited them myself fairly recently. Yet, this morning, I heard on the radio the Labor candidate for Eden-Monaro, ex-Colonel Kelly, say that their presence was only symbolic. Here are 500 Australian soldiers risking their lives in a dangerous environment, and the Leader of the Opposition’s candidate for Eden-Monaro—and I have heard this coming from the member for Hunter and the member for Barton as well, and the Leader of the Opposition has endorsed this position—is saying that those soldiers’ role there is only symbolic; it is a flag-waving exercise. I do not know how that has gone down this morning with the Australian soldiers in Tallil, but I would like the House to know that there are a lot of us who think that is a deeply offensive thing to have said about the Australian soldiers. They do a dangerous job and they do a critical job.

In conclusion, let me say this about the Labor Party: if the Labor Party thinks it is wrong to have any troops in Iraq, that we should be out of Iraq and it is all a terrible thing, the Leader of the Opposition should have the courage to say so. He should have the courage to say, ‘If you vote Labor, all of the troops will be out of Iraq because Iraq’—as he says—‘is a debacle, a bad thing and a catastrophe.’ That is what he should do. He should say, ‘We would pull all of them out.’ The interesting thing about the Leader of the Opposition, and this is a real character issue, is that he cannot quite bring himself to say that because it might be controversial. The trouble is that, at the end of the day, political leaders are expected to believe in things—or at least something. And the Leader of the Opposition, I am afraid, is very short on beliefs and very long on stunts.