Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I think it's QED on the US alliance point, which is the point I was making at the start of my answer. But what I would say to you is that the security agencies serve the national interest, and that they are subject to oversight from ministers and, increasingly, from entities like the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence Services, which I served on. And that is a good thing; they should be subject to oversight. But, ultimately, political decisions are matters for which politicians take responsibility, and I think that Labor's position in relation to the coup—the overthrow of the Allende government, a duly-elected government—and the subsequent dictatorship can be demonstrated by Labor history.