Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Infrastructure) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm picking that, in about five minutes time, for the next hour we're going to hear a lot about national security. That seems to be the theme from the government at the moment. But it would be remiss of me not to remind the House and, hopefully, the people listening that those opposite are the party of Menzies, of Pig Iron Bob. Those opposite are the party of Prime Minister Menzies, who advocated appeasement nine days after Hitler invaded Poland. Nine days after Hitler invaded Poland, Menzies, their great cult hero, advocated a peace deal with Hitler.

Those opposite are the party that took us into Vietnam, where 521 Australians lost their lives, on a lie. This is the party that took us into the second Iraq war on a lie about weapons of mass destruction, leaving a whirlwind that's still being wreaked on the Middle East now.

This is the party of Peter Reith, of 'children overboard'. This is a party that will stoop to anything to use national security for petty political advantage. They love to be in uniform. We saw it recently up in Townsville, where a certain person had to ride in an LAV to get through the floods. They are a party that cloak themselves in patriotism, that hide behind the ADF at any opportunity, that leak intelligence briefings when they have the opportunity. But, in the end, so much from them is hypocrisy. They cheapen the words 'national security'. They cheapen patriotism. They actually undermine national security every single time they use it for petty political advantage. (Time expired)