Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I wish to make a personal explanation.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Does the honourable member claim to have been misrepresented?

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yes.

David Hawker (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Please proceed.

Lindsay Tanner (Melbourne, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Finance) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On 9 January this year I published an article in the Herald Sun entitled ‘The question is the same as it always was: why are we in Iraq?’ On the following day the Minister for Foreign Affairs published a rebuttal. In his rebuttal he claimed that I had stated in my article that ‘concepts such as freedom and democracy mean little to most Arabs and Muslims’. I said nothing of the sort. The relevant section of the article read as follows:

According to John Howard, Australian troops are in Iraq to help build a free, democratic society, based on the rule of law.

…     …         …

Unfortunately, most Arabs and Muslim don’t quite see it that way.

They think we’ve got different motives.

In their eyes, our flowery rhetoric about democracy and freedom means little.

They judge us by our actions, not our words, and we keep giving them plenty of reasons for being cynical.

It is abundantly obvious, Mr Speaker, that the foreign minister’s characterisation of my words is completely false.