Kim Beazley (Brand, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I want to offer a few words of support to the remarks the Prime Minister has made and to say how much I appreciated the opportunity to be with him, my colleague the shadow minister for foreign affairs, some of the Prime Minister’s ministerial colleagues and the ambassador, Robert McCallum, at a small ceremony a couple of hours ago at the United States embassy. It was a modest thing but it was a poignant and moving small ceremony. It was a privilege to be a part of it—a small part of what is an enormous memorialisation of that appalling day five years ago across the United States. The way in which citizens of the United States have supported each other and the families of those who were tragically killed on that day made them feel part of society and they told their stories and ensured that children understand what happened to their parents, where that is relevant.

It really is inspirational to see a community determined to support itself emotionally, physically and spiritually, ensuring that a cataclysmic event like that which could have so winded a society in fact strengthened it. It was a terrible tragedy, a vicious crime, but the United States as a community has emerged not only stronger, harder and more determined as a result of the experience it has been through but also more affectionate and regarding of others’ concerns and needs. For those who are allies of the United States it is inspirational to see that.

I was very glad that five years ago the Prime Minister was in Washington in the United States when this event occurred. It enabled the Prime Minister to speak for all of us with our friends and allies in the United States and to state how determined we as Australians all were to ensure that this thing was seen through to the end. Shortly after that, the parliament decided that the ANZUS treaty would be invoked and we went to war. These are not small matters. These are serious matters, and that state of conflict basically then focused on Afghanistan, and it persists there and is not yet solved. Australian soldiers and service personnel are, of course, fighting and struggling in this conflict.

We know that, as a result of our experience over these last five years, only through vigilance and courage will we win the battle against those who seek to destroy our society and the societies in which they are largely located. We know they may break our hearts, but they cannot diminish our resolve and our spirit. There have been wins and losses over the last five years. In many ways, our police and intelligence services are much better prepared now than they were. They are far more knowledgeable and far more effective in their mutual cooperation. They are obviously capable of disrupting the plans and patterns of activities of terrorists and have done so on numerous occasions.

There have, nevertheless, also been appalling atrocities—and the Prime Minister referred to them. Two of them, of course, very deeply affected Australians much more so than even September 11, enormous although that effect was. They are challenging our spirit and resolve and, basically, we are coming through on the front of spirit and resolve. They are also challenging our intellect and, in many ways, our cleverness and our capacity to understand the true nature of what it is we are up against. We are up against a challenge to the character of our society, and we understand that and we are pushing back. We are also up against a challenge, a battle, for the hearts and minds of the Islamic world. That is the main objective of the people who have done us so much damage. There is a spiritual struggle now in the Islamic world to ensure that those in mainstream Islam succeed in beating off a challenge from what the Prime Minister described as a ‘blasphemous interpretation’ of the noble faith of Islam.

We must recollect in everything we do, whether it be here or how we operate internationally, that that core feature of the struggle is important to us as well. We have allies in the Muslim world and we need to listen to them. We need to make certain that as well as us being victorious they are victorious. That is a very deep challenge and a very difficult one. Not everything we have done since September 11 has necessarily achieved, supported or enhanced those objectives. We have to be resolute; we have to be effective; we have to be forthright; we have to be clever.

This is a challenge that will outlast, I am afraid to say, the political careers of both the Prime Minister and me. It is a challenge that will go on through several generations. I can only hope that we get better and better at meeting it, that we have the same reserves of courage, resilience, love and affection that have been shown by survivors of September 11 five years ago, and that we hold up the way in which the families most deeply affected by it have been so magnificently supported.

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