Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

We live in troubled times. The deeply disturbing images and terrorist taunts coming out of the Middle East are a chilling daily reminder that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. More than ever before we need to stay strong and be united in the face of evil that is IS, ISIL or ISIS. These Islamic militants—madmen—want to be called a state. This is not a state. A state protects its people and builds things on behalf of its people. It does not systematically slaughter innocents. It does not engage in ethnic cleansing. It does not commit genocide.

ISIS tears down, destroys, murders, practices barbarism and brutality; it hates. When events such as those callously unfolding at present in Iraq and Syria occur, Australia faces tough choices. We can, if we choose, simply sit back and say: 'That is happening more than 10,000 kilometres from us. It has been going on for centuries and it is someone else's problem.' In one sense, that is a valid argument. You hear this sentiment expressed often: 'Why should we worry? Why should we even care?' We have an obligation to do something. The Commander of the Australian Joint Task Force in the Middle East, Major General Craig Orme AM, CSC, often says about the continuity of our presence in the Middle East, 'To have a friend, be a friend.' In other words, we cannot, as the Greens would have us do, pack up and quit—cut and run—especially now. We have to stay the course, as difficult as it might prove, and help put that region and its people back on a peaceful footing.

Much of our commerce, energy and trade lines—particularly by sea—and those of our major trading partners emanate from that region, albeit a part of the world in great turmoil. It is a key economic region for so many reasons; besides, having an ongoing base in the Middle East is both principled and warranted. To do nothing is to allow ISIS to grow and its hideous actions to multiply. We must act and play our part. We also need to honour the sacrifice of those who have fallen in recent times. We have lost 41 of our best and bravest in Afghanistan since October 2007. Sombre ramp ceremonies with flag draped coffins are not the way the Australian Defence Force wants its heroes to return. It is certainly not how deceased soldiers' families want their beloved boys to come home. Sadly, sometimes that is the awful cost of war, defending an ideal, protecting those who need our military support, restoring peace and doing what is just and right.

There are those who question our involvement in Afghanistan. Being there in early August to see the progress made was indeed an eye-opener. More than 100,000 university students, and tens of thousands more children, mostly girls, are attending school. Higher life expectancy and increased gross domestic product—Afghanistan is improving in all the key areas. Things that those in western countries largely take for granted since the war on terror began. This would have not been possible without western intervention and the ADF's help. We can stand proud as a nation for what we have achieved on behalf of those Afghans who want what we want: health, wealth and freedom. We can stand proud for what our wonderful men and women who so stoically wear the ADF uniform have accomplished in driving the Taliban out of so many areas and into hiding.

We can stand proud for having the courage and the decency to not stand back and say: 'That is happening more than 10,000 kilometres from us. It has been going on for centuries and is someone else's problem.' It is easy to be passive, turn our backs and pretend as though we do not see the pain and suffering being endured—admittedly half a world away—by others who desperately need our help. Sure, we do not know the names of those who are hurting; we never will. Those trapped on Mount Sinjar and others too. In August 2014, as many as 50,000 Yazidis fled to the mountains following attacks by ISIS forces on the city of Sinjar, which fell on the third day of that month.

The Yazidi refugees faced what a relief worker called a genocide. He saw what looked like hundreds of dead bodies from his Iraqi Air Force helicopter evacuating the trapped refugees. 'You can imagine what it is like when you land amongst 5,000 people and can only take 10 or 20, and everyone tries to get on the helicopter,' Mirza Dinnay told the British Broadcasting Corporation. Stranded without water, food, shade or medical supplies, the Yazidis had to rely on airdropped supplies of water and food. I attended the 12 August meeting at Camp Baird, the Australian domestic compound at Al Minhad Air Base, south of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, in which the first airdrop was arranged. The mood in that room that afternoon was tense yet determined. They knew of the desperate plight of those in northern Iraq. They knew what had to be done and how to do it. They were also well aware of just how dangerous the mission would be. Flying large military aircraft low enough to drop off supplies, whilst avoiding surface-to-air missiles, takes skill, pluck and luck.

But our ADF personnel are the best trained in the world. American Army generals hold us in the highest respect for our capability, professionalism and spirit. It is ingrained in our uniformed men and women. It is the Anzac way, forged at Gallipoli, honed at Kokoda. A week after the capture of Sinjar, Kurdish Peshmerga and officials had saved some 30,000 of the refugees by opening a corridor from the mountains into nearby Syria and from there into Iraqi Kurdistan—with the help of the Kurdistan Workers' Party, commonly referred to by its Kurdish acronym, PKK. Yet, as Major General Orme, an inspirational leader, was chairing the meeting to organise the food and supplies airlift, thousands of helpless and hungry men, women and children remained stranded on Mount Sinjar. Three hundred Yazidi women were taken as slaves and more than 500 men, women and children were killed—some beheaded or buried alive in the foothills—as part of an effort by the Islamists to instil terror generally and specifically to desecrate the mountain the Yazidis consider sacred. A witness reported that Yazidi girls raped by ISIS fighters committed suicide by jumping to their deaths from Mount Sinjar. Missions to airdrop food and supplies including medicine were successful. Thank God for that. Our planes returned to base safely. Thank God for that. How good are our people doing these mercy runs? How good are they?

Recent videos showing the executions of United States journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff and British aid worker David Haines, wearing orange garb and kneeling beside their black-masked ISIS killer, are simply outrageous, atrocious. Australian Attorney-General Senator George Brandis said the latest killings show why Australia is engaged in the international fight against ISIL. Senator Brandis told ABC television:

It just serves to demonstrate—not that it's really necessary for there to be more evidence—how barbaric and evil these people are. This is a problem for the world and that is why we in Australia are engaged. We need to be engaged … this terrorist entity, ISIL, is a fundamental threat to the Western world in particular.

Immigration Minister Scott Morrison said Australia would not be intimidated by the killing, and we will not. We need to be alert but not so fearful that we change the way we go about living our daily lives.

I must say I despair when I hear the Greens, locally in my electorate of the Riverina and here in Canberra, questioning the position our nation is taking in response to the escalating Middle East crisis. To the Greens I say this: start putting Australia first instead of knocking and mocking all the time. To suggest the government is doing anything other than what is in the nation's best national security and long-held global partner interests is, I would argue, beyond the pale. Strong words I appreciate, but consider the narrative the Greens have been running in recent weeks. Greens Tasmanian Senator Peter Whish-Wilson was way off the mark when he said:

I think we need to find better words than 'terrorist' and 'terrorism' because, to me, this implies a very one-sided view of the world.'

And this:

We use that word because it is a very simple word to use and it demonises people.

No, Senator, we use that word because that is what they are: terrorists, heartless killers, butchers, people who have no regard for human life—not their own and certainly not others'. You would think, given the sensitivity of the situation at present and Senator Whish-Wilson's unwise words, that his leader, Senator Christine Milne, would distance herself and the party from such a statement—but no, alas, quite the opposite. The Greens' only member in the lower house—one too many, I might add—the member for Melbourne, did not do himself any credit after the 23 September Narre Warren shooting of a terror suspect by uttering:

We have to ask the serious question what is it that makes someone, a teenager, so disaffected with their own country that they want to kill people.

I mean, seriously? The Australian public should feel safe and secure in the knowledge our police, security services and governments are taking every possible step to ensure the safety of the community. What we do not need now is the Greens and their empty, un-Australian rhetoric, which does not represent the view of the majority.

The media also has a role and a responsibility to play, and headlines such as that online at The Sydney Morning Herald of 14 September, 'Fools rush in: Tony Abbott joins a war without definition', when cabinet committed 600 Australian military personnel and more aircraft to the Middle East conflict as tensions escalated, are not helpful or patriotic. Throughout the course of Australian history, from the Boer War to Baghdad, our involvement in international conflict has been a test of the national character and our true mettle, and it will be so again.

See this speech in context