John Howard (Bennelong, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I seek the indulgence of the House to make a few remarks to mark the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attack in the United States. This fifth anniversary is an occasion for both remembrance and reaffirmation. It is an occasion to remember the tragic loss of life, which included some 10 Australians. It is also an occasion to mark what an extraordinary change in the affairs of the world that terrorist attack ushered in.

It represented a cruel, unprovoked, premeditated attack on the United States. It was designed to inflict the maximum possible damage and death. Its purpose was to terrorise the civilian population of that country and hopefully cow the resolve and the will of the American people. None of those objectives have been achieved. It is true that there is greater apprehension now, understandably, all around the world about the possibility of terrorist attacks, but the determination and the resolve of the people of the United States as well as the people of many other countries, including Australia, to stand firm against the threat of terrorism denies the goal ultimately sought by the terrorists. We Australians sadly lost some of our country men and women in that attack. Again, of course, and in much greater numbers, Australians died in the two Bali attacks in 2002 and 2004.

The most important observation to make today is that fighting terrorism is a cause that involves us all. It is not just for the United States. It is not just for the United Kingdom or what used to be called the West. It is not just for Australia. It is for the entire world. If terrorism is to be defeated ultimately—and it will take years; let us not delude ourselves—it will require the marshalling, the commitment, the resolve, the resources and the spirit of men and women all around the world. It will involve the commitment of all faiths as well as people of no faith at all.

Very particularly, it will involve and require the commitment of people of the Islamic faith. The most blasphemous thing of all about terrorism as we understand it in the modern world is its obscene invocation of the sanction of Islam to justify the murder of innocent people. Nothing could be further from the goals of the great religions of the world than to have the faiths attested to by those religions used as a justification for wilful murder.

So, as we in this place remember the events of 11 September, we remember those who died and we remember the courage of the police and firemen of that great city of New York and all the other people who worked so hard to bring assistance and comfort to those affected by that attack. Let us not only remember but let us reaffirm our determination to resist, with all the means available to us, both physical and spiritual, the depredations of terrorism. Terrorism is a threat to our way of life. The attack on 11 September was not just an attack on the people of the United States; it was an attack on the free people of the entire world. In our responses, let us understand the grim reality that, whereas in so many other cases prevention is better than cure, in relation to terrorism there is no cure. The only effective antidote against terrorism is to prevent it occurring in the first place. That is why the emphasis that countries have placed on stronger intelligence services and the greater investment in those intelligence services is so very important.

We only have to be instructed by the experience of the plot that was apparently discovered in the United Kingdom recently. If all the reports are to be believed—and I have no reason to disbelieve them—that particular exercise could have involved the deaths of tens of thousands of innocent people. It was aborted by excellent intelligence work by the relevant British agencies. We have much to ponder on, five years on from 11 September. But the most important lesson from it, and one that all of us must understand and embrace, is that this is a fight for all of us; it is not just a fight for a few.

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