Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Will the minister advise the House on progress on the implementation of the government’s election commitment to withdraw troops from Iran? From Iraq—

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

Dick Adams (Lyons, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You did not quite get there, did you? You always had it on the agenda but you did not quite get there. Will the minister advise the House on progress on the implementation of the government’s election commitment to withdraw troops from Iraq? What community support is there for the government’s actions?

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

Mr Wood interjecting

Harry Jenkins (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for La Trobe will be sent somewhere!

Stephen Smith (Perth, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I am asked about the government’s election commitment so far as troop withdrawal from Iraq is concerned and the community support for that. Members would of course be aware of the government’s election commitment to withdraw the combat forces, the combat troops, from Iraq—the so-called Overwatch Battle Group—and to do that by the middle of this year. Members will also recall the fierce criticism that that election commitment was subject to by the then government, by the Liberal Party and by the Leader of the Opposition, who was then Minister for Defence. There was a stark contrast between the approach of the Labor Party to withdraw troops and the approach of the Liberal and National parties, who said that this would be a disaster of mammoth proportions, that this would split the alliance. I am pleased to advise that the government is implementing this election commitment, in consultation with the United States and the United Kingdom, and that implementation is on course and going very smoothly.

The Prime Minister and the Minister for Defence raised this matter when they visited Iraq in December of last year. I raised this issue and spoke to the Secretary of State and other officials when I was in the United States in January, and recently the Minister for Defence and I, when we hosted the AUSMIN conference here, discussed the matter further with the United States. Our approach to withdraw at the end of the current rotation with minimum disruption has been welcomed by the United States.

I am asked about community support. There is widespread community support for the implementation of the government’s election commitment in this respect. It is so widespread it is spreading to areas previously unthought of. Despite his trenchant criticism of the government’s election commitment, recently the Leader of the Opposition said:

... our position is that the combat troops would actually be withdrawn at the end of June also ...

One policy before the election; a different policy after. One position before the election; a different position after. We know that the Liberal Party and the Leader of the Opposition have lost their way. We know that the Leader of the Opposition has lost his way. But there is one area where the widespread community support for the government’s election commitment has not spread: John Winston Howard. In a speech recently in the United States, he said, ‘The implementation of the government’s election commitment was disappointing and could lead to a tragedy.’ Despite the fact that overwhelming and widespread community support has not spread to John Winston Howard, the government will persist, the government will continue. The government will not be deterred from implementing its election commitment. The government will stay the course in the implementation of its election commitment to withdraw troops from Iraq. Unlike the Leader of the Opposition, unlike the Liberal Party, there will be no cutting and running from the previous position—as there was cutting and running by the previous Prime Minister, John Winston Howard.