Barry O'Sullivan (Queensland, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I commend the opposition, the Australian Labor Party, and opposition leader Mr Shorten, and join the remarks made by Senator Conroy in acknowledging that it is a responsible and very appropriate position the Labor Party has taken with respect to this very complex and vexed question.

When I came to this place I promised myself I would make every effort not to buy into raw politics wherever I could. But I have to confess I am finding it increasingly difficult to stare down the devil of temptation. I have to say that the position taken by the Greens on this issue completely confounds me. Had Australia—and other free nations—adopted this sort of position during the course of the Second World War, the argument would be that we should not have attended and we should not have participated—that we should have sat by, idly, whilst 5.7 million people of the Jewish faith were subject to the most horrific genocide that has ever been reported.

In modern times, governments have taken similar attitudes where, in my view, they have been too slow to respond. All of us can remember the events in Somalia, the Balkans, recently in Syria, Afghanistan and Cambodia. Indeed, if the argument being presented by the Greens were to be adopted, the USA would not have responded to the horrific events with the World Trade Centre incident.

It defies logic that, at this point in time, while there are tens of thousands of people who are confronted with this behaviour by the Islamic State, we could be discussing finite matters about whether we attend it or we do not. We ignore the fact that there are 11,000 nationals across the world from free nations like Australia who have taken up arms in this. Australians born to this soil—to this country that you suggest we need to hold proud—are over there decapitating citizens in the Middle East. Not one word from colleagues in the Greens, not one word, with respect to that behaviour—