Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In addressing the question of Iraq and the extraordinary activities which we have seen carried out at the hands of the extremists of ISIL, I want to begin with history, taking us back a decade. In the wake of September 11, in the wake of the Bali bombings, in the wake of the Madrid bombing and in the wake of the London attacks, I remember the discussions in this House. On 30 March 2004 I said in relation to the extremist offshoot that was a perversion, an abasement and a rejection of the majestic religion of Islam that was the predecessor of ISIL, al-Qaeda—and who would ever have believed that the term 'less extreme' could ever be used in relation to al-Qaeda—had this world view:

… al-Qaeda is seeking to establish a Taliban-style Islamic caliphate across the world. That is its objective. It is a clear, 100-year vision and it is an objective which it seeks to bring about through jihad or holy war. There is no capacity to reason, talk or negotiate. Everything that we try is rejected. We are infidels in their mind, and so too are all of those moderate Islamic states which reject the notion of a Taliban-style globe. That is the situation we face today. The strategic objective of al-Qaeda is very clear. It is to bring down the core Islamic states of Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and Indonesia by destabilising them and breaking down the structures in those societies. In order to do that, it seeks to break down Western connections, to frighten away Western engagement, to break down resolve within those societies and to cause fragmentation.

Sadly, a decade later, those sentiments remain true. They have, however, been transferred from al-Qaeda—which remains a clear and present danger, a manifest international threat—to, extraordinarily, an even more barbaric and extreme psychopathic regime.

The world has a very dark side. We saw it in the last century at Tuol Sleng, outside of Phnom Penh in Cambodia, under the Khmer Rouge. It is highlighted at the Jewish Holocaust museum Yad Vashem and by the monument to the murdered Jews of Europe only a few hundred metres from the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin. We are seeing a replay of that dark side today as genocide is carried out across the borders of northern Syria and northern Iraq through the activities of ISIL and their psychopathic regime that glories in human brutality. They use the weapon of modern mass communication to broadcast and display with an almost unimaginable malice the atrocities they have carried out. They then use the weapons of modern mass communication to broadcast and to display, with a sense of malice that is almost unimaginable, the atrocities they carry out. We have seen, all too sadly, the beheadings and the crucifixions. We have seen the executions of Western journalists in the most medieval fashion. But these things are played out on a grand scale in relation to their own people.

The greatest victims of ISIL have of course been the Islamic people. For the most part it is Sunni on Shiah, but there is no compunction about Sunni-on-Sunni violence; there is no compunction about Sunni-on-Christian violence; there is no compunction about violence against Yazidis. There is no religious barrier to it; it is a totalitarian, authoritarian and genocidal regime. It is also a regime that is utterly at odds with the teachings of Islam. Women are treated as sex slaves. They are subject to the most horrendous crimes. There is a glory amongst the ISIL fighters in the degradation of all humans who are not one of their kind. There is no religious basis to this; it is an utter perversion of a great, grand, majestic world religion.

Against that background, I wanted to address where we are at now. Obviously, Australia, in my view, has to be part of an international coalition under the emerging right to protect, which is ensuring that genocide is simply not allowed to be carried out on our watch. But it is occurring now. Let us not gloss this over. We are witnessing an unfolding genocide. It is not yet on the scale of Cambodia or Rwanda or of what occurred in post-1948 China or in Stalinist Russia, but it is emerging towards the scale of what we saw in the former Yugoslavia, which was a catastrophic failure of Western will.

We see here that it is time for the world to intervene. I say that not just for reasons of national security, although they are of and in themselves sufficient to justify any action. I say this for reasons of simple, common, base humanity. I witnessed the activities in Rwanda. Shortly after the genocide there, I was present in Rwanda. I spent time as a chief election observer in Cambodia as that country was attempting to recover. I have lived in Israel and visited the monuments of Yad Vashem and other holocaust tributes as well as having seen Dachau and, only recently in Berlin, the recollections of this most profound of perhaps all the holocausts during the Second World War. This cannot be allowed to stand in the 21st century.

It is a deep, powerful responsibility. It is not without its risks. As a coalition not just of the West but, hopefully, of Middle Eastern states and others, we need to take action. These fighters are being drawn in by the prospect of virulent glory. They are being inspired by the ability to, with a sort of sick madness, project the atrocities to the world in the hope of attracting some and scaring others. This is the moment when the world stands up. This is something which on our watch we must be part of. We must do it, of course, in a sensitive way and a cautious way so as to protect our utterly indispensable, invaluable Australian men and women who serve.

But no mistake: there is nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Everybody has tried to engage, but at times there are elements of hard security that are indispensable. In my view, as I wrote in March 2004 in an opinion piece in the Herald Sun, there are four steps that must be taken to discredit and defeat this extremist stream. Firstly, we need to encourage broadbased economic development, along with greater democratisation of wealth in the Islamic world. Secondly, we have to encourage and assist those who would teach tolerance in Islamic schools and communities rather than extremism. Thirdly, we have to engage in joint policing and intelligence, not just with the West but also with the predominantly Islamic states. And fourthly, there has to be a hard security answer. There is no way around it. You cannot negotiate, you cannot talk down, you cannot have sense prevail amongst those who are engaged in a genocidal, virulent, psychopathic cause. That means that there are risks, but let us be clear that the risks of inaction are far greater than the risks of action.

So, we have a duty to Australians to ensure that the security threats we have seen of recent days are addressed at source. We have a duty to the world to ensure that a movement that could cause immense damage is stopped. But we have a duty to the Christians, the Yazidis and the Sunni and Shiah of northern Iraq to take steps to protect them. (Time expired)

David Coleman (Banks, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to express my strong support for the Prime Minister's statement on Iraq. In security matters, of course, there are two key areas where good governments should focus: words and actions. Words matter because they shine a light on what we know to be true. By speaking plainly, we make it clear that we will not allow unconscionable acts to be swept under the carpet. Some things just have to be said so that barbarism cannot hide in the shadows. But actions matter even more, because without actions statements on security matters can become jarringly hollow. Our government has moved strongly to call the actions of ISIL for what they are. The evil perpetrated by this group ranks among the great horrors perpetrated by mankind. ISIL has committed indiscriminate mass murder. It has attempted to wipe out entire populations based on their ethnicity or religion. It has systematically subjected thousands of women to violence and sexual slavery. It has conducted depraved public exhibitions of murder designed to terrify and intimidate. Our Prime Minister has spoken strongly and forcefully against these horrific acts.

But we know that words on their own are not enough. We need to act to tackle this appalling terrorist army. We have done so. By providing humanitarian assistance to the Yazidi people during the siege of Mount Sinjar, we helped to save the lives of many people. Of course, the situation for the Yazidi people remains extremely difficult. But we know that the delivery of humanitarian supplies and air strikes by the United States allowed people to survive who would otherwise certainly have perished. We should be proud of that. As we move into a new phase in the conflict with ISIL, it is entirely right that Australia plays its part. It is not a Western coalition fighting ISIL; it is a coalition against evil. To not act would see ISIL expand its territory further, get access to more weapons—and potentially more sophisticated weapons—and give it a greater base from which to plan attacks around the world. No modern terrorist group has ever created such a record of destruction in such a short period of time. The speed of the advance of ISIL demonstrates that it will take substantial international commitment to stop it. We must be a part of that commitment. The tiny group of Australians who support ISIL are of course not reflective of any part of our society. We all want to see the killing stop. The actions that the government is taking will mean that Australia plays its part in stopping the rise of this appalling group.

Don Randall (Canning, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I too would like to rise to support the Prime Minister's statement on Iraq and our action in the Middle East in this particular theatre of war. I have always had an interest in this region even as a young person. This area that we are talking about is the cradle of civilisation. This is the land of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers which was once considered to be the cradle of civilisation. This is the area of civilisation back in history where the great city of Babylon was between the two great rivers. This was the city of Nebuchadnezzar, one of the great kings of our historic past. So this region has been an area that the world has focused on for many civilisations.

However, the problem with this region is that it has always been divided along either ethnic or religious lines. These ethnic and religious lines are the reasons why the various groups have always been at war or had tensions with each other. In contemporary eras we now talk about the fact that both the Sunni and Shiah Muslims are bitterly opposed to each other. It always makes me wonder that somebody who is a follower of one particular religion can allow themselves to be so bitterly opposed to another because of what is deemed to be a reasonably small inflection in the interpretation of that religion. As we know, this comes from some of the teachings in the Koran. We are not just isolating this to the Muslim religion. We have seen atrocities in Northern Ireland between the religious forces, between the Catholics and the Protestants. So we are not just talking about one group of religious supporters and another. This is not anti-Muslim. This is about people who have decided to become barbaric and destabilise not only that part of the Middle East and that part of the world but the world in general.

It is not in any way surprising that this destabilisation also flowed from a number of other factors. We recall the Arab Spring of several years ago starting in Tunisia, and then in Egypt which is still going through upheavals as a result. We know that eventually Syria became part of the Arab uprising and under the Assad regime this marked the genesis of this ISIL campaign. The Assad family have been ruling Syria for many years, sometimes brutally. The regime has certainly been warlike to its neighbours and the Assad family have ruled Syria with an iron fist. They are from a minority group within Syria. Eventually the majority of the Syrians rose up and said that they wanted a regime change. We have seen now the so-called freedom fighters—or the terrorists, depending on which side of the ledger you come from—in Syria fighting. We have seen some pretty brutal things in Syria, where accusations have been made that the Syrian regime gassed its own people—a horrific thing to do to your own people.

We know that we were in Iraq with the former coalition to stop Saddam Hussein. That was about regime change and we could commentate on that all day. It is my belief that we and the Americans left Iraq too early and that is one of the reasons why Iraq is in the situation it is, because they needed a leader who would heal Iraq, not cause further divisions. Because of the strong conflict between the Sunnis and the Shiah, we have the situation where the Shiah under Nouri al-Maliki did not go out of their way to be inclusive and the Sunnis now under a number of clerics have risen up. Thank goodness there has been a change in leadership just recently, because now there is a move towards trying to bring the two groups together.

However, this situation has created a climate for ISIL to flourish. We have seen some horrific things which every other speaker has spoken about. But to try to be as barbaric as they have been is an obvious strategy. We have seen the beheading of James Foley, a US journalist. We have seen the beheading of Steven Sotloff, an Israeli-US journalist. We now see David Haines, a British aid worker, has been executed, and another aid worker is about to be executed if you listen to their websites and their public announcements. Peter Neumann, a security expert, says

ISIS looks at this as a low-cost strategy—

these beheadings.

They are seeing that in order to capture the world's attention and recruit people, they no longer need to take down the World Trade Towers or hit the Pentagon.

These beheadings get the same sort of attention, and they have.

The problem with this is that there is genocide. There is a distinct move towards trying to rid themselves of anyone who is not part of their fanatical group, and it is much based upon religious lines—fanatical religious lines. The true Muslim faith does not preach this sort of hatred, but we saw for example, just recently on Mount Sinjar, ISIS besieging 40,000 Yazidis and demanding that every one of them be killed unless they converted to their Muslim faith. Thank goodness that the Kurdish helped break these lines and that we have now supported—along with some of the other partners that are being put together, led by the United States—not only food drops but bombings that stopped this absolute wipe-out of one small group of people.

So we are beholden, as a responsible nation in this world, to see that movements like this do not continue. They are well resourced because, as I said, of the breakdown in Iraq where the Iraqi army, which was left with a massive arsenal of weapons and machinery, just run away from it when they came along. This is an army that some people say has 20,000 people. Others estimate it could be 50,000 people. That is going to be the magnitude of the commitment. Well, Australians are very good at what they do, and we are joining this coalition to stop ISIS in its tracks. It will not be easy. It will not happen overnight. But we owe it to the freedom of the rest of the world. And everyone here previous to me has quoted Edmund Burke, so I will not do it again, but it is true that evil prospers when good men do nothing.

The Australian troops that will be going over there are brave men and women that are going to make a difference. We should make a difference to people who want to live in freedom and who want to live without persecution, and we need to help show them a better way. So, obviously, I support the Prime Minister's statement.

Kelly O'Dwyer (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to support the government's position in relation to the ongoing situation in Iraq. As events over past months, and as recently as last week, have shown, we are living in an age where the peace and security of individuals is being threatened in Iraq, here in Australia and around the world. This extremist threat is not new but has been around for decades, most acutely highlighted by the al-Qaeda attack on the twin towers in 2001, which killed 10 Australians, and the Bali bombings of 2002, when 88 Australians were brutally murdered by al-Qaeda linked terrorists. As a result of the United States led coalition actions in Afghanistan and Iraq, together with the vital work of our security services, thankfully we have been spared further related terrorist atrocities here in Australia.

While the threat has not gone away, with the increasing instability in Syria over recent years and a fledgling democratic government in Iraq, ISIL have separated from al-Qaeda and become the predominant threat to individuals not part of their stream of Islam and to nations around the world. ISIL, by conquering large tracts of land both in eastern Syria and northern and western Iraq, have built up a wealth of capital from oilfields, together with funds raised from kidnappings, piracy and wealthy supporters around-the-world. When matched with their ultraviolent jihadist tendencies and a commitment to the world domination of an Islamic caliphate, ISIL are a danger which we cannot ignore.

We have seen over recent months the images of beheadings, possible genocide of non-Islamic groups in Iraq, rape and forced marriages, in addition to mass executions by ISIL. As the events of last week are likely to show, ISIL is not only a danger to peace in the Middle East but also intent on threatening the safety and peace of Australia and the Western world.

I look back to the al-Qaeda attacks of the early 2000s. Al-Qaeda were able to launch attacks on the Western world by taking control of Afghanistan, together with the Taliban. As was notably seen with the attacks in London, al-Qaeda were then able to use Afghanistan as a training base for their leading terrorists, who were able to return to their home countries, where, together with a small number of radicalised individuals, they were able to then carry out mass atrocities.

It is clear that ISIL are now following a similar model but with the added help of social media and an increased speed of communications to aid their murderous terrorist intentions and to spread fear. This is therefore a threat that we as a government have to take seriously, both to defend the freedoms of Australia and to protect the liberty and security of individuals around the world threatened by ISIL. The only way to defeat radical extremists is to oppose them and to join forces with like-minded nations and groups to defeat them. While this is a fight that will not be easy to win, action is required to make the world and Australia safer over the long term.

The United States has been building up a coalition of nations to oppose ISIL. Last week's debate in the Security Council, initiated by Secretary of State John Kerry, demonstrated unambiguous support from around the world to support the new elected Iraqi government in its fight against ISIL. Indeed, I understand that Australia is one of more than 40 nations that have indicated their support for the elected Iraqi government in its fight for survival against ISIL. As a nation with a strong military arm but also, sadly, a nation which has around 100 citizens who have decided to join with the murderous ISIL group, it is important that Australia is prepared to deploy aircraft and special forces to the effort to fight ISIL and support the democratic government in Iraq.

Alongside the military effort, it is also important to provide humanitarian relief. Australia has already contributed to the international airdrop effort in northern Iraq, committed in June to a $5 million aid package and offered to resettle 4,400 Iraqis and Syrians fleeing the violence who are now eligible for special humanitarian visas. In addition, last week the foreign minister also committed a further $2 million to the United Nations Population Fund specifically to provide reproductive and health support services to women and girls who have been brutalised by ISIL.

This is a fight which does require a strong and united coalition to fight against terrorists and extremists. It has also seen support from many Middle Eastern countries and from others, including France, through air strikes. This united and strong action will need to be confirmed again later this week at the UN Security Council, chaired by President Obama, so that, alongside humanitarian and military intervention, we can starve ISIL of fighters, arms, ammunitions and funds. This is an effort that will not be easy or short. Sadly, it may even encourage some terrorists to use it as an excuse to commit further atrocities—not that they have needed this excuse in the past to commence such action. But it is an effort that is required because we are facing a terrorist group which hates us, hates Western freedoms and hates anyone who does not want to live as it lives. We therefore need to continue to stand up to ensure that we can live in a peaceful and pluralist democracy.

I commend the government's actions and thank those serving in the armed forces, together with their families, for their service. This is a difficult time for us as a nation. At such time, it behoves us all—particularly members of this place and other community leaders—to remain calm and considered in our approach to the recent increase in the terror alert and in events both abroad and here at home. At such a time, community debate remains important. We should not shy away from discussing important issues of national security even though they may be difficult and confronting. Every community leader should seek out the facts and act to chart a path through present uncertainties together and with respect.

I reiterate that recent concerns about our own safety are about crime and not about religion. No-one is above the law in this country. Everyone in this country has the right to live their own lives within the rule of law, free to practise their religion and free from persecution. Common sense informs us that no group within our community is homogeneous. Australian society is made up of many diverse groupings of people who, in turn, form communities and our nation. Those who stand up for the rule of law and human decency should always be applauded. We should recognise those people who draw on our common values, underpinned by our nation's laws, to bring people together and who clearly label evil where they see it.

I commend prominent Muslim advocate Dr Jamal Rifi for his comments reported over the weekend where he said that the Muslim community, the broader Australian community and the federal government are on one side and extremism and racism are on the other. He rightly noted that anyone who feels that they have been improperly dealt with by the police are able to make a formal complaint, as in Australia our police must act within the law. In his work bringing Australians together, such as at the barbecue in Lakemba on 15 September—which I note was attended by Hon. Scott Morrison, Minister for Immigration and Border Protection—Dr Rifi deserves our full support.

However, those that seek to divide us, or indeed undermine our way of life, should resolutely be condemned. We should never be silenced from speaking against what is wrong. Individuals, in some cases self-appointed, or organisations which promote or condone hatred and violence against innocents can never be tolerated. If, in the face of the threat from such groups, we lose our nerve to out evil, then those who do not value our free society will have their victory and we will have been silenced into submission. I am gravely concerned by the claims made by Mr Uthman Badar, the face of Hizb ut-Tahrir, that the recent raids in Sydney and Brisbane are apparently in his mind an example of the police targeting Muslims as scapegoats. Worse still, Mr Badar uses this sensitive time to fan the flames of unrest amongst Muslim people, to actively promote distrust in police and our laws and, in so doing, in our democratic system of government. In doing so, he encourages division between Australians both in the Muslim and broader Australian community.

What does Mr Badar hope to achieve by promoting disaffection in Muslim Australia? I suspect it is power. However, power is just the mechanism to promote principles. And what are the principles that he holds dear? Mr Badar refuses to either condemn the murderous cult of ISIL nor discourage young Australians from travelling to Iraq or Syria to join forces with it. Let us be clear. These people are terrorists. They murder innocent people: Iraqis and Syrians. They murder people for being foreign journalists or bringing aid. They do this in the most barbaric manner and then broadcast their act to the world to give added power and potency to their crime. They stand for the exultation of death rather than the preciousness of life. They stand for power by might and fear rather than that derived from those democratically appointed by the people and the rule of law. In short they are an extremist cult defined by the loose notion of that which they oppose. They have shown no limits in what they will do in pursuit of power. Every Australian—every human being—should hold them in the strongest condemnation.

The Prime Minister in his statements and actions has outlined a responsible path, one that unites us as a nation and one that safeguards our citizens. I commend the Prime Minister's statement to the House. Our freedoms are precious. We should do all that we can to defend them.

Natasha Griggs (Solomon, Country Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In his autobiography, former CIA boss George Tenet provides an insight into life in the Middle East from one of the strongmen who subjected tens of thousands of his citizens to cruelty and brutality on what can rightly be described as an industrial scale. The former Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, under interrogation after his capture by US troops, reluctantly admitted his country did not have a stockpile of chemical and biological weapons or weapons of mass destruction—a key factor behind the coalition of the willing's invasion of his country in March 2003. 'It is a tough neighbourhood', Tenet quotes Saddam as saying. Saddam was more concerned about how Iran, the country against which he waged a bloody, decade-long war during the 1980s, would respond if it learnt Iraq in fact did not have weapons of mass destruction.

Over the past few months, life in Iraq for up to 7 million people has gotten a lot tougher of course. The capture by ISIL of towns and cities in Syria and Iraq, and the appalling human toll this has wreaked, is a tragedy of global proportions. Revelling under its black flag, and even blacker heart, ISIL is creating an abattoir where the demented fantasies of thousands of seriously evil individuals are playing out in the name of religion. No religion, no god, would ever condone the sort of violence that is currently underway in the territory currently under ISIL's control.

For civilised people not to respond to the barbaric actions that have been reported over recent months would be a grave and unforgiveable failure of responsibility. It is for this reason that I very much support the Prime Minister's clear-minded resolve and determination to support the United States and approximately 50 other nations who have committed to degrade and destroy ISIL. The Greens say they fear our involvement and that it would lead to a quagmire, but avoidance and appeasement surely is not the answer.

Former United States President Bill Clinton cited as a significant foreign policy failure his hesitation at involving America in the atrocities being played out between feuding tribes in Rwanda in the 1990s. The President had earlier been burnt by the death of United States military personnel in Somalia and was extremely reluctant to become involved in another ill-fated conflict in Africa. The President blinked and millions died.

Appeasement against psychopaths has a long history of failure. For the civilised world to adopt a similar position with ISIL would be dangerous. These people will not stop in Iraq and Syria. Given half a chance they would spread their poison throughout the entire Islamic world. But to charge in with all guns blazing would also be a mistake. The global coalition that has rallied behind the United States is developing a considered approach to dealing with this regime of terror that shows complete and utter disregard for human life.

I will briefly focus on two aspects of ISIL's horror regime, but there are many more that could be picked out. I was sickened to read recently about the fate of potentially thousands of women, Muslim and Christian, who are being held by Islamic State fighters and are being sold off as brides against their will. These women and the children at the centre of the storm are innocents who should be front and centre in the minds of those who criticise the large body of opinion in support of trying to put an end to this horror.

The very public executions of two foreign journalists and an aid worker over recent weeks have been designed to drive a wedge between Western governments and their people—a horrible bargaining chip that is as vile as it is shocking. But an unintended consequence is that it could also stem the flow of information out of the territories currently occupied by ISIL, which would allow these people to carry out their abhorrent cruelty out of sight of the rest of the world. My thoughts are with those journalists and others who have provided a flow of information out of Iraq and Syria and who are now in the clutches of the ISIL barbarians.

Even in the few short weeks since the Prime Minister delivered his opening address in the Iraq motion, the grounds have shifted substantially. While I wholeheartedly support the position that the government has taken in response to the Islamic State, the caliphate, and the innocent millions at the centre of this madness, I also support moves this government is making to ensure and secure innocent Australians here at home.

Last week's revelations of an ISIL-inspired terror plot to decapitate an innocent Australian makes me feel sick to the core. That there are people in our community who are prepared to exhibit such disregard for human life has nothing to do with religion. These people are nothing more than criminals and they should be and will be treated as criminals. I say to these people, 'When you are identified by our security agencies and when you are captured by our police forces, you will pay the price that your mindset and actions so richly deserve.'

In Darwin and Palmerston our diverse ethnic community is at the heart of a tight-knit social fabric that binds us together. One of the greatest pleasures of my job is the citizenship ceremonies I conduct each month which give me the privilege of being able to meet with and talk to the people from a range of backgrounds who choose to make the Territory home—those who come here to join us, not to change us. The pleasure these people have in becoming citizens is for me very touching and extremely rewarding. These people are welcomed and embraced by our country.

The malcontents and ingrates pictured on the front pages of Australian newspapers last week are trash who lack the courage and capacity to become valuable citizens of this great country. They are scum and should be treated as such.

While it is extremely sad that Australia is again taking up a defensive position in Iraq, I am heartened by the recent elevation of a more conciliatory and inclusive leadership in that country, which I hope will bring all of its citizens together. Defence Force representatives from the electorate of Solomon played key roles in the battle to liberate Iraq and then began the reconstruction after the 2003 ousting of the Saddam Hussein regime.

I am sure I speak for all those Australians who served in the Middle East on that occasion in saying that the path to unity can again be rebuilt. Only a unified position will put an end to what is going on in the Middle East, and I commend the steps taken by the Prime Minister and by Foreign Minister Julie Bishop in playing a lead role on the world stage in combating this evil.