Scott Ludlam (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to table the document.

Leave granted.

Just to be clear, what I sought leave to table is an article by NAJ Taylor. There is a certain amount of editorialising at the top that you will just have to forgive and you will probably profoundly disagree with it. The remainder of the four-page document is simply verbatim transcripts of the State Department cables. I will table that now, Minister, and then I might come back to this topic once you have had a chance to look at it.

I want to come to another matter that we have had a brief engagement with. I am not sure whether or not you were at the table, Minister. It is around Australian air support during the Iraq conflict. One of our most important contributions to the shock and awe campaign that took us into Baghdad in that year were FA18 Hornet aircraft on air combat patrol and strike missions. We also flew Orion surveillance aircraft, C130 Hercules and B707 lift operations, but it is the FA18 missions that I want to refer to specifically. My understanding is that our FA18 aircraft did not use cluster munitions in Iraq but that we did fly close support for US ground forces who were firing these weapons indiscriminately into urban areas. Could you please confirm whether or not that is the case?