Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move the following motion:

That this House:

(1) express its disapproval of any future deployment to Iraq of Australian combat forces;

(2) call on the Prime Minister to make a clear public statement today ruling out any future deployment to Iraq of Australian combat forces; and

Andrew Nikolic (Bass, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You don't rule out military options—you should know that!

Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The motion goes on:

(3) call on the Government to instigate a Royal Commission into Australia's involvement in the invasion of Iraq and subsequent 11 years of war—

Mr Nikolic interjecting—

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Bass.

Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Speaker, I would remind my colleagues that this is a deadly serious issue.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You have the call.

Mr Nikolic interjecting—

The member for Bass will desist. The member for Denison has the call.

Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The motion continues:

and in particular the conduct of the main Australian protagonists for this unmitigated foreign policy, security and humanitarian disaster, including then Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

Mrs Bronwyn Bishop (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is leave granted?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is not granted.

Andrew Wilkie (Denison, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Then I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Denison from moving the following motion forthwith:

That this House:

(1) express its disapproval of any future deployment to Iraq of Australian combat forces;

(2) call on the Prime Minister to make a clear public statement today ruling out any future deployment to Iraq of Australian combat forces; and

(3) call on the Government to instigate a Royal Commission into Australia's involvement in the invasion of Iraq and subsequent 11 years of war, and in particular the conduct of the main Australian protagonists for this unmitigated foreign policy, security and humanitarian disaster, including then Prime Minister John Howard and Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

There is an urgent need to suspend standing orders and address this issue. There is an urgent need to understand what Australia's intentions are at this point in time and, indeed, how we got ourselves into this mess in the first place.

There is an urgent need for this parliament to debate this matter. Someone listening to the broadcast today would think that this parliament has little interest both in what is happening in Iraq today and the fact that we are part of the problem by the way that we joined in the invasion of that country 11 years ago. We are not talking about a third Iraq war. We are talking about perhaps the end game of the second Iraq war—the Iraq war that we helped to cause 11 years ago when we joined in the invasion of that country along with the United States and the United Kingdom.

There is an urgent need for this parliament to take a leadership role on this issue and to assure the Australian public that we are exercised by these matters. But if members of the community listened to question time today they would rightly believe that we think it is of little consequence, when there is no greater international problem or crisis than what is happening in the Middle East right now. The news services are reporting today that in the last 24 hours more towns in Iraq have fallen to the jihadists. The United Nations is reported as saying today that it is in fact true that hundreds of Iraqi civilians and service men and women have been murdered by the jihadists. The US is reported today as saying it will send hundreds of troops back into Iraq, not out into the bush where the jihadists might be but into the centre of Baghdad to protect the embassy. There can not be a more telling and dramatic admission that that country is in crisis than the United States feeling the need to send hundreds of combat troops to the centre of Baghdad to protect their embassy.

There is an urgent need for us to debate and to address this issue. The situation is spiralling out of control terribly quickly. While the march of the jihadists might indeed be arrested over coming days, weeks and months, there is just as equally the prospect of a nightmare scenario. What if the jihadists are victorious and capture Baghdad, and Iraq becomes a terrorist state? What if Iraq fractures into any number of smaller unruly states? What if it becomes a failed state? What if Iran becomes heavily involved, backing the Shiah administration in Baghdad? What if Saudi Arabia becomes heavily involved, backing the Sunni insurgents? There is a broad range of nightmare scenarios that would make the 11-year-old Iraq war so much more of a disaster than it already is.

The parliament must address these issues. Everyone must come in here, including the Prime Minister and the foreign minister, and assure us that we will not again commit Australian troops to the conflict in Iraq. The community understands this, but it is not clear that the government understands this, that no good will come from Australian combat troops going back into Iraq. We helped to start, 11 years ago, a process that is continuing to run its course. We alone cannot arrest that course. Even if the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia were to recommit hundreds of thousands of troops—to what end? At best it would delay the day of reckoning—unless, of course, people are suggesting we form a new Roman Empire, that we go in there for a thousand years, which would of course be ridiculous. So do we go in for six months? Do we go in for 12 months? Do we go in for five years? Why would we do that? We will just delay the final reckoning.

In my motion I also address the issue of a royal commission. If the current crisis in Iraq should be doing one thing, it should be reminding us of the folly of Australia joining in the invasion 11 years ago and being such a part of the war for most of those 11 years. Let us not forget the history of this place. Eleven years ago the then Prime Minister and the then foreign minister made the pitch, the official case for war, that Iraq had a massive arsenal of weapons of mass destruction, that Iraq had active links with the broad Islamic terrorist network of Osama bin Laden. Within months the official case for war was debunked. Then how it changed. It became a humanitarian mission. Well, then, why didn't Australia push in the United Nations 11 years ago for a motion to intervene on humanitarian grounds? Of course it did not. Then it became about regime change, even though a week or so before the invasion the then Prime Minister said to the National Press Club that he could not possibly countenance an intervention which was to do with regime change.

This war was based on a lie. Anyone who still would disagree with that needs to read the history. This war was based on a lie. We recklessly started something that we should never have started. If there is one single most important reason why Iraq is on the cusp of collapse in 2014, it is that a small group of countries, including our country, invaded that country 11 years ago and started a war that has lasted for 11 years and then made mistake after mistake after mistake along the way—by dismantling their government and their administration, by dismantling their defence force, by doing just about everything we could do to create the environment for this potential end game that is being played out now.

So many important issues were covered in question time. So many important issues will be addressed by my colleagues in this chamber today. But what on earth could be more important than the fact that in a country somewhere in the world today perhaps thousands—I suspect certainly hundreds—of people will die. They will die because we, along with other countries, created the circumstances for this anarchy. There could be nothing more important than us debating this. There could be nothing more important than assuring the Australian community, the vast majority of which 11 years ago opposed this war. Remember those protests in February 2003? Tens of millions of people took to the streets around the world. Hundreds of thousands, at least, took to the streets in this country. The then government ignored that. They cannot ignore the concern in the community now. Listen to the talkback radio. Look at the letters in the newspaper. Talk to the community in your electorate. There is no stomach in the Australian community now for us going back into Iraq. No good will come of it.

There is an urgent need for the government right now to rule out sending Australian combat troops back into Iraq. There is an urgent need now for the Prime Minister to clarify his comments of the last couple of days, which certainly left open the possibility of us replying with a yes to any US request for military assistance. Let the government and the Prime Minister be strong enough to stand up and say, 'Yes, there is a problem here. We need to look at it.' We need to have a proper inquiry, not with narrow terms of reference but broad terms of reference, as a royal commission, and find out why we got ourselves into this mess in the first place. Why did we contribute to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Iraqis? Why did we help contribute to the creation of an environment in that country where it is now on the brink of collapse, where the administration in Baghdad might be victorious? It is equally possible that that regime will collapse, that we will have a terrorist state, and we will have a self-fulfilling prophecy. A place where there were no terrorists 11 years ago may well be taken over by terrorists, and we will be part of the reason for that, and that is shameful. We need to find out what went on. We need to hold people to account. We need to change our processes. And we need to make sure we do not make the same mistakes again.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion. The invasion of Iraq was based on a lie and we should not put further Australian personnel in harm's way in furtherance of that lie. This motion must be passed and the standing orders must be suspended because this may be the only opportunity this parliament gets to debate the potential deployment of Australian troops overseas in Iraq. At the moment we have a lack of clarity about the government's intention and we also in Australia, unlike many other Western democracies, have no requirement for the parliament to debate and approve declarations of war or the deployment of our forces overseas.

Given the atrocities that people right around this country are seeing on their screens every day and every night and the urgent need in the Australian community to understand exactly what is happening and how best to respond, we have to have this debate to ensure that we avoid the mistakes of the past. If military intervention were a cure-all, we would not be seeing these atrocities now. We were told last time, on the basis of a lie, that invasion in Iraq and joining in would create a democracy in that country and would remove weapons of mass destruction—weapons which we were never found.

People knew at the time—and we, the Greens, said this at the time—and people certainly understand now that we went to war on the basis of a lie. People want us to avoid making that same mistake again. What worries me greatly is that when it comes to requests for Australia to get involved in a war, this Prime Minister, like previous prime ministers, cannot seem to say yes quickly enough. There is very grave concern amongst people that there will be a deployment of Australian troops and they will be put in harm's way when that might, in fact, make the situation worse.

If you want any indication of the folly of further military intervention there now, look at the fact that there is currently discussion underway about potentially having Iran as a partner in some military exercise. This is the state that we were told was part of the axis of evil and now, apparently, it is justifiable to openly consider working together with this state to intervene in Iraq. If that does not tell you the folly of believing that we here in Australia can assist in the peaceful resolution of severe and horrific problems on the other side of the world simply by military intervention, then nothing can.

This provides us with the opportunity to take stock. It provides the Australian parliament and the Australian community with an opportunity to say that a mistake was made back in 2003, mistakes have been made since then and we now realise that military intervention will not bring about democracy in countries like Iraq. I heard a 16-year-old former Iraqi refugee on the weekend say that she had watched as her schoolmates were arrested and then killed. She and her generation view Australia, the United States and our allies as an occupying force that is making things worse. As she, in tears, pleaded for understanding about what was going on and for assistance in defeating terrorist activity in her country, she also said: 'Please, do not believe that going in and invading will somehow help us. Just look at the history and understand that, if you want to help, help us create democracy, do not help us descend into another war.' There is a very real risk that, unless this motion is carried, Australia will make things worse.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Minister for Education) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I appreciate the seriousness of the motion moved by the member for Denison and I appreciate the sincerity with which both he and the member for Melbourne have spoken on this matter. On behalf of the government though, I make it perfectly clear that, while this is a serious issue and there may well be a time for debate down the track about the whole issue of Iraq in the Middle East, today is not the day. There is government business and there is the matter of public importance that the government and the opposition, I am sure, wish to get on with.

We were not given any notice about this, not that I blame the member for Denison or the member for Melbourne for that. I say, with great respect to them, that today is not the day to suspend the standing orders to debate this motion. It places ministers and the government in a very difficult position, because no-one could speak to this motion without revealing the deliberations of the National Security Committee and other deliberations within the government at a time that is, as you have pointed out, extremely sensitive and serious in Iraq. The government will not be supporting this motion. I will not delay the House any further.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, Deputy-Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question before the chamber is that the motion be agreed to.

A division having been call e d and the bells having been rung—

As there are fewer than five members on the side of the ayes in this division, I declare the question negatived in accordance with standing order 127. The names of those members who are in the minority will be recorded in the Votes and Proceedings.