Ross Lightfoot (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I do not think that in almost the decade that I have been here I have heard a more anti-American or un-Australian speech from anyone in this place. I want to disassociate myself from that speech by Senator Allison—that limp-wristed, hollow-chested, unwashed, left-wing rubbish that she has just spoken about. I find that speech absolutely and totally appalling. Let me go through some of these items that Senator Allison has brought before us as a matter of importance today.

She spoke of the need for the Australian government to develop its own plan to withdraw all Australian troops not involved in personal security roles as soon as practicable. I guess she changed ‘practicable’ from ‘possible’ at some stage. Of course there is always a plan to withdraw the troops—when the job is done. Senator Allison did not mention Saddam Hussein once, one of the most heinous killers this world has ever seen. She railed against America and Australia and those allied troops and those young men and women that went to Iraq to defend the rest of the free world. She talked about the Western democracy with all its flaws; has she talked about Saddam Hussein and the people that he has killed, the people he has been responsible for? Has she talked about the democracy that we are trying to establish in that part of the world? Has she talked to other people that come to this country from Iraq? Today in this country we have the Minister for Foreign Relations, the Hon. Falah Bakir, who is in this house at the moment, from the Kurdistan Regional Government—not in the chamber, but in the house. If she wished to talk to him, he would tell her something about Iraq. He would tell her about his own relatives that have been slaughtered in Iraq. He would tell her about the thousands of people that have been slaughtered there.

I have been to Iraq on several occasions and I must say that I have learned to have a great affinity and in fact a great affection for Iraqi people, knowing as I do that which they have suffered. I do find this one of the more disturbing speeches that I have heard from the left-wing rhetoric of Senator Allison. It was a disgraceful speech, one I am appalled by, and I am ashamed that it should have been spoken in this house. Senator Allison spoke of and condemned America and Australia, but she did not condemn Saddam Hussein. Hasn’t Senator Allison heard of that killer? Hasn’t she got something bad to say about the 20 or 30 years he spent in power and the hundreds of thousands of people he was responsible for killing? She never mentioned once his invasion of Kuwait and the tens of thousands of people that were maimed and lost their lives in that particular takeover of Kuwait by Saddam Hussein. She never mentioned once the appalling war between Iran and Iraq where thousands upon thousands of young men and women lost their lives in a conflict that ended in both parties drawing apart with no ground gained and nothing lost, an abortive situation there.

What does Senator Allison believe we should do to defend democracy, to defend our colleagues who have always come to our aid—the Americans? Does she honestly believe that after the appalling thing that happened on September 11 we should have done nothing? Does Senator Allison believe that the damage being done to Iraq is coming from people inside Iraq? She must know, if she reads anything at all about the truth of the Iraqi war, that the allies, of which Australia is a significant part, are attempting to rebuild the country. We are not in Iraq to fight and kill people. We are there to defend democracy, to re-establish the democracy that has been missing from Iraq for generations. We are there to assist in the rebuilding of Iraq and in the re-education of the Iraqi people, who suffered for so long under Saddam Hussein—but I heard no condemnation of that by Senator Allison.

I have been to Iraq and I have seen its magnificent renaissance, not around Fallujah or Tikrit or the green zone or the so-called Sunni triangle but in the state in the northern part of Iraq known as Kurdistan. Great things are happening there. There are more children at school in Kurdistan now than there have ever been before in Kurdistan’s history. For the first time in generations, in perhaps 100 years or more, Kurds are safe and secure within the boundaries that have been set by international recognition. There are new hotels being built in Kurdistan, particularly in Irbil and Sulaimaniyah. There are also new universities being built in those towns, Sulaimaniyah and Irbil, as well as in other places. There are more female university students than male students in the three universities in Kurdistan. There is a whole new world opening up. That new world opened up because Australia and America came to the aid of a people who were suffering the most appalling actions, hundreds and thousands of them losing their lives each month.

I have been to Iraq several times and I intend to go there again early next year, making it my fourth trip. I have been to Baghdad too. There are things that need to be done, but there are things that are impossible to do because of the insurgency. But these insurgents—these killers, these people who kill in the name of God—do not come from inside the Iraqi borders. They come from Pakistan, Iran, Saudi Arabia and, to a lesser degree, Yemen, Syria and Turkey—all of the countries that abut Iraq. They do not come from inside Iraq. They are people who are trained to kill. They are people whose brains have gone. They are people who, if there is a God, will never get into heaven under any circumstances. These people who kill in the name of God are condemned to hell forever. They certainly will not get any rewards.

But Senator Allison did not say any of those things. She did not condemn Saddam Hussein, who—I might use the expression ‘God willing’—will shortly be despatched from this earth. She said that the Iraq Study Group appointed by the Bush administration is ‘tipped to recommend’. What does she mean by ‘tipped’? Does she have inside information? I do not think she has. I do not think any decent person who had inside information on Iraq would talk to Senator Allison. That she would use something as emotional and ambiguous in this urgency motion quite surprises me, even coming from Senator Allison.

She went on to say that the UK had announced its intention to hand over security in Basra next year. But Basra and Umm Qasr, in the south of the country, are not under threat like areas around the capital, Baghdad, or the birthplace of Saddam Hussein, Tikrit, or Fallujah, with its radical mullahs. Basra is a place where security could easily be handed over. And, once the job is done, all of the foreign troops—American, Australian and others—will be withdrawn. They will stay there until then, by invitation of course. South Korea has 3½ thousand people in the northern part of Iraq who are there at the invitation of the democratically elected Kurdistan Regional Government. There are lots of things to do in Iraq. Once the job is done, our plan is to withdraw. That has been said many, many times. To say, at the beginning of this motion, that there is no exit plan is completely and totally misleading.

Senator Allison also said that a poll by the University of Maryland in the United States found that 71 per cent of Iraqis want the US out of Iraq. What does Senator Allison mean by that? What was the standard of this alleged poll? Who did it question? Where was it done? Did it poll expatriate Iraqis? Did it poll Iraqis who are sympathetic to some other cause? Did it poll people who alleged they were Iraqi? How can Senator Allison have any credibility with a motion of this type and on this scale?

Lastly, Senator Allison said former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld suggested that the US should consider ‘an accelerated draw-down of US bases’. Having been in the Army, I do not know what she means by that. The language, the interpretation and the words, to me, are strange—very strange. I understand what she wants to do: she wants to discredit Australia and the United States by bringing forward this motion here today. The motion has no credibility. It is appalling. I feel very sorry for the people of Iraq and I assure them that the sentiments that Senator Allison expressed here today have nothing whatsoever to do with the vast majority of people in Australia.