Kevin Rudd (Griffith, 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 calls by Vice Admiral Ian McDougall, former Chief of Navy, and General Peter Gration, former Chief of the Defence Force, to withdraw Australian troops from Iraq. Are these former Australian military commanders the people his Minister for Defence was referring to last night when he said anyone arguing that we withdraw from Iraq is supporting the interests of al-Qaeda and other terrorist networks?

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

Can I answer that question by saying that I personally have a very warm regard for both of those gentleman. They have on occasions, certainly in the case of General Gration, disagreed with the government stance on foreign policy, but I am sure they have done so out of deep conviction and I in no way impugn their patriotism, their dedication and their commitment to Australia.

In relation to the Minister for Defence, the Leader of the Opposition went right over the top this morning when he made the outrageous claim that the defence minister was imputing proterrorist sentiments to anybody who was arguing for a withdrawal of American forces. What the Leader of the Opposition is trying to do is to conflate a description of the consequences of something with an allegation that the person advocating a course of action shares the sentiments of terrorists. The Minister for Defence did nothing of the kind. It is quite outrageous of the Leader of the Opposition to suggest otherwise. My charge is not that the Labor Party is sympathetic to terrorists—I would never allege that for a moment; my charge is that the consequences of the policies you are advocating would be to destabilise Iraq and threaten the security interests of this country through a defeat of the United States in Iraq. That is my charge and you know it. Why won’t the Leader of the Opposition state his position?