Brendan Nelson (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Barton for his question. Yes, I am aware of those allegations. The Australian Defence Force currently has 1,400 troops deployed across the Iraq theatre. We are currently working with 150,000 American troops, with British troops and with the 300,000 people in the Iraqi security forces. Prime Minister al-Maliki, democratically elected by 12 million brave Iraqis, is trying to deal with a very difficult and complex environment in Iraq. Part of that complexity is the religious tension between the Shia, the Sunni and the Kurds. It also involves terrorist elements that are seeking to foment violence within the country. Moqtada al-Sadr, of course, is one of the key players within Iraq. We also have fomenting of violence to some extent from some of the neighbouring countries. I can tell the member for Barton that one of the things that this government is very committed to is seeing that we will remain in Iraq. When I was in Baghdad, Prime Minister al-Maliki said, ‘You, Australia, were with us from the start,’ and I said to him, ‘And we will be there supporting you, your government and your troops to support a democracy—

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