John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on the war in Afghanistan and to say that I support what the Australian soldiers are doing there. It would be lovely to live in a perfect world, a world where we do not have wars, where we do not have attacks on countries and where we do not have deaths or the destruction of families and all that goes with war. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world.

Last night when I turned on the television, the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! was on. It is set during the Second World War and it is about the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. At the end of the movie, when the Japanese have had the huge success—if you could call it that—with their attack on Pearl Harbor, having caught the Americans unaware, asleep, a Japanese character says, ‘I think we have woken a sleeping giant’.

I know that many in Australia these days are critical of our American colleagues and friends. But we should look back at what America did during the Second World War; the Battle of the Coral Sea was the turning point of the Second World War. Make no mistake about it: without the Americans, we could well be under Japanese dictatorship today and perhaps not have a parliament like this. Australia was really under threat, the Japanese had progressed down to New Guinea, Port Moresby was in their sights and the magnificent battalion, the 49th battalion I think it was, went up there as a home guard. Many of the roughly 450 soldiers could not even load a rifle let alone actually shoot properly. They were just not trained. But the typical Australian courage was there—450 Australians fighting more than 4,000 Japanese week after week.

It was a terrible war with millions killed, as we all know. It was also a war in which we came very close to defeat at one stage. We saw the turnaround in 1944, luckily. We thought that perhaps that was the end of wars. But Australia went on to participate in Korea, Vietnam, East Timor—many conflicts. We supported the United States in those wars, and we know that as our big brother they would support us.

I hope that in the years to come Australia’s relationship with neighbours like Indonesia grows bigger and better, stronger and stronger. But I also know that, if that were not the case, with Australia having just 22 million people it would be very difficult if we did not have strong allies like the United States of America. I hope that our friendship continues to grow with our neighbours and that we can live in peace for hundreds of years to come.

When I watched Tora! Tora! Tora! last night, I was reminded of another attack on America, 9-11. And I thought of the thousands of people killed and the destruction of those families. Could you blame America for going after those who caused such destruction? Of course not. We are fortunate that the United States is a country that prides itself on democracy and freedom. They are not dictators; they are on our side when it comes to beliefs. They believe in what we believe in. They went out to rid the world of terrorism.

Debate interrupted.