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

My question is to the Prime Minister. I refer the Prime Minister to an opinion poll conducted by the US State Department in Iraq last month which found:

Majorities in all regions except Kurdish areas state that the Multi-National Force-Iraq (MNF-I) should withdraw immediately, adding that the MNF-I’s departure would make them feel safer and decrease violence.

When will the Prime Minister take his own advice and give thought to the views of the Iraqi people?

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

In case the Leader of the Opposition has forgotten, the normal thing in a democracy is for the expression of the will of the people to be through its elected government. I am fascinated; I know the Leader of the Opposition is very poll driven. If I had taken notice of every opinion poll that I have read on certain issues over the last 10 years, I would not have pursued taxation reform. I know it was a free vote but I might have taken a different view on constitutional change. I might have taken a different view on the sale of Telstra. I might have taken a different view on a whole lot of things but, unlike the Leader of the Opposition, I am not poll obsessed or poll driven. I am obsessed with the long-term welfare of the Australian people.

I know that it is in the long-term interests of the Australian people not to give a victory to the terrorists. I happen to think it is important not to enliven JI in Indonesia. I do not want the leaders of JI running around saying, ‘We forced the Americans, the Australians and the British out of Iraq.’ I do not want them doing that because I think they might be able to use that argument as a recruitment weapon. I do not want young Indonesians joining JI; I want them remaining opposed to radical Islam and supporting moderate Islamic leaders like President Yudhoyono. It is plainly therefore not in our interests to do what the Leader of the Opposition wants to do. He can read all the opinion polls he likes. In the end, we will make our judgements based on the authentic expression of the democratically elected government of Iraq.