Peter Whish-Wilson (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I know that Labor has the right to split this motion, but fundamentally—and I need to get this on the record—we completely disagree with the government that there has been a proper, independent inquiry into the Iraq war. The Chilcot inquiry was a proper, independent inquiry into the Iraq war in the UK, and its findings were damning. They were damning. We've never had anything like that in this country.

My reason for asking the Senate to consider taking the two together is that—and I respect the fact that the Labor Party did vote against the Iraq war, as did this Senate, may I say, and that is in the motion—we are still sending our proud men and women in uniform off to fight in the Middle East, in this ongoing mess, this debacle, that we are seeing unfolding before us. Until we actually learn from the Iraq war, unfortunately, Labor will continue to support our troop deployments and our force deployments in the Middle East.