Rod Kemp (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The position of the Labor Party is clear. They believe that, despite the allegations and charges that have been sworn against him, David Hicks should be brought home. They do not believe that he should face those charges. I agree that the Australian community has a variety of views on this but, to my mind, when the Australian community learns more fully the nature of the charges that have been sworn against David Hicks I am not sure that Senator Carr will be speaking with the majority voice.

All of us agree that this matter has taken too long. The Prime Minister, Attorney-General Philip Ruddock and the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, have made it clear on a number of occasions that these delays are of great concern to the government. The Prime Minister said at the end of last year:

I am not happy about how long it has taken and we will be putting increasing pressure on the Americans to stick to the timetable they have given us.

Let me stress that the government is concerned about the delay and will continue to press for a resolution of the allegations against Mr Hicks. Indeed, on 23 January this year the PM said:

The decision was taken to formally convey to the Americans our view that he ought to be charged by the middle of February.

As the Attorney-General said on Saturday:

The swearing of charges is a timely development that meets the Prime Minister’s recent call to charge Mr Hicks before mid February. However, the Government remains anxious to ensure that his case is dealt with expeditiously and fairly, and will continue to press the United States.

The Prime Minister reiterated only last night that the government will continue to press the Americans to conclude the matter quickly.

In contrast to what Senator Stott Despoja said, the idea that the government has ignored the health and wellbeing of Mr Hicks is quite wrong. The government has provided consular assistance to Mr Hicks to monitor his welfare, and Australian officials have visited him on 18 separate occasions. I understand that he refused to speak with our consul general during the last two visits; however, the consul general remains available to assist him. I believe it is unfortunate that Mr Hicks has refused to speak to the consul general.