Kerry Nettle (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

We have seen a number of estimates for how many Iraqis have died. They range from 150,000—the figure put out by the Iraqi government that this government supports—up to 650,000. Wherever you choose to put it, the Greens say that it is, at the very least, 150,000 too many Iraqi lives. That is why the Australian Greens have been consistent in our position in opposing this war in Iraq.

What we need now is some honesty from the Australian government. I asked the Chief of the Defence Force at estimates whether or not we were losing the war in Iraq, and he did not give the same honest answer that I think we saw overnight from the US defence secretary. What we are seeing in the United States is an acknowledgement of the policy failure and an acknowledgement that we are losing the war in Iraq. I will be moving a motion tomorrow on behalf of the Australian Greens which calls on the government to acknowledge the inevitable, take off those ideological blinkers and see what the rest of the world has seen: Iraq is a disaster. (Time expired)