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

I totally reject the claim that is implicit in the Leader of the Opposition’s question. As I told the Leader of the Opposition in reply to an earlier question, at the time we decided to join the United States and the United Kingdom in the coalition operation in Iraq in 2003, we believed, as did the shadow spokesman, the member for Griffith, that it was an empirical fact that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.

I would remind the Leader of the Opposition that this country was a terrorist target long before the coalition operation in Iraq. I would remind the Leader of the Opposition of the words that were in Samudra’s laptop on 13 October 2002 before the attack that claimed the lives of 88 Australians in Bali. This is what Samudra said:

As long as Coalition forces do not leave Afghanistan, there will continue to be casualties from your countries, wherever they may be.

Thus spoke the words of somebody convicted of involvement in the attack that claimed 88 lives.

Is the Leader of the Opposition suggesting, on the basis of that, that we should leave Afghanistan? Is the Leader of the Opposition suggesting that the foreign policy of this country should be dictated by terrorists?

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