Chris Bowen (McMahon, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The week before last, I visited Iraq for a two-day trip, and I welcome the opportunity to report to the house. I had wanted to go to Iraq for a long time as a representative of so many Iraqi Australians in this place, having worked very closely with the Iraqi Australian community in my electorate, particularly members of the Assyrian and Chaldean communities as well as the Mandaean community, the Assyrians and Chaldeans being the Christian indigenous people of Iraq.

I first visited Baghdad. When I visited Baghdad I was struck by the scale of the task of rebuilding Baghdad before the people of Baghdad and the international community all these years after the liberation of Iraq from the Saddam Hussein regime. Baghdad is still, it's fair to say, in a very bad way and needs very considerable support to rebuild. I met with the vice minister for foreign affairs, Mr Nizar Al-Khairalla, in Baghdad and discussed with him the importance of ongoing international support for Iraq and, of course, received an update from him and other interlocutors on the recent Iraqi election and the implications thereof for Iraq.

I had dinner with His Beatitude Louis Raphael I Sako, the Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church, and I have noted previously in the House that this week he is being made a cardinal of the Catholic Church in his capacity as Patriarch of the Chaldean Catholic Church.

I did then visit, in Iraq's north, Erbil, a home of many Australians of Iraqi heritage. There I met with His Holiness Mar Gewargis III, the Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East. I had a very lengthy conversation about him about the Christians of the Nineveh Plains and the potential for the rebuilding of the north.

I visited the Hashem displaced persons camp, which is run by the UNHCR and several charities. I've visited many refugee camps over the years as a former minister for immigration. I know what to expect at these places and, even though I know what to expect, they nevertheless remain shocking. I met with a particular family in that camp who had been forced out of Mosul, Mosul of course being effectively destroyed by the scourge of ISIS. I met with the father, the mother and the two children. I had a very good conversation with them. I asked them a simple question: 'Can you return to Mosul?' The father said to me through the translator, 'There is nothing left.' Their house has been destroyed. Their entire city has been destroyed. Schools have been destroyed. There is nothing left—no future in Mosul.

There are hundreds of thousands of people who are in a very similar situation to that family and, of course, while we celebrate the fact that ISIS is on the retreat, that ISIS is on the verge of defeat—certainly in Iraq—the scale of destruction that they have caused will last for a long time. It is not just the physical destruction, the destruction of important historical artefacts et cetera, but also the human destruction that they have wrought: the people they killed, the women they have raped, the families still suffering today, the little boys I met whose school was destroyed and no longer exists, their home destroyed. They're living in an old steel container from a container ship. They've made it very nice; they've got cushions, curtains and electrical wires up connecting the microwave, but that is their home, and they have little prospect, little plan for them to have a more permanent arrangement. As I said, I've seen these things before. I've visited many refugee camps around the world, but, when you're there and interacting with those people, it's nevertheless shocking indeed.

But I must say that, at the same time, I saw hope and cause for optimism. In Erbil in particular the security environment was better than Baghdad. It was possible to walk around Erbil without the sort of protection that a visiting Western politician needs. I understand I'm the first member of parliament to visit the north of Iraq for very many years. That is understandable; it has not been safe to do so. In Erbil, I saw a thriving city. It had an economy that was very troubled. Construction which had been previously sought was not happening. Nevertheless, there was cause for hope. Iraq has artefacts and buildings which are older than the pyramids. It has the capacity for a tourism market, for people to go and visit the great religious and historical sites, but, until it is secure, the Iraqi economy won't improve.

I want to thank the department of foreign affairs, the minister, the secretary, Ambassador Joanne Loundes and the deputy ambassador, Dr Chris Watkins, for facilitating the visit and for assisting me. It would have been simply impossible without their assistance. Despite the fact that I have no Iraqi heritage, it was nevertheless an emotional visit for me, having represented so many Iraqi Australians in this House for so long. I thank all those who made me feel so welcome on my visit to Baghdad and Erbil.