House debates Matters of Public Importance
National Interest
Peter McGauran Gippsland, National Party, Deputy Leader of the House
3:42 pm
The reason I am bringing this up is that it is a matter of national interest that this man does not enter parliament. Mr Eideh has written to the President of Syria and declared:
... the danger and threat from the Imperialist and Zionist is increasing on our Arabic world in general, and particularly on our Arabic Syrian country.
… … …
We owe our complete loyalty to and are working to protect Syria.
He finishes by pledging to the President of Syria—a dictator, Dictator Assad:
Loyalty, absolute loyalty to your courageous and wise leadership and we pledge to continue to be faithful soldiers behind your victorious leadership.
That is a man who, if the Leader of the Opposition is serious about the national interest, will not enjoy Labor Party preselection. That same person gave a speech in 2002, reprinted in the Sydney Arabic newspaper—
No comments