Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Hansard source

Australia takes very seriously the issue of the treatment of detainees and has made clear its commitment to ensuring that detainees are treated humanely and with dignity and respect and in accordance with all of the Australian obligations under domestic and international law. The issue of detainee management in Iraq arose under the previous government and was a matter handled by the previous government. Ministers of this government have no personal knowledge of those matters, including the specific role and function of Major O'Kane.

The issue of detainee management in Iraq was the subject of the 2004-05 Senate budget and additional estimates hearings of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Defence throughout 2004 and 2005. Australian policy towards the treatment of detainees in relation to the war in Iraq was also examined by the inquiry in 2005 by the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee into the duties of Australian personnel in Iraq. Noting the extensive inquiries that have already been conducted into this matter, the government does not propose to initiate or conduct another inquiry into these issues. The government, therefore, on that basis, does not support this motion.