Melissa Parke (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister inform the House of the importance of today’s election in Pakistan to both regional and international security?

Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Fremantle for her question. Today are the first parliamentary elections in Pakistan for six years. These elections were scheduled for 8 January but were postponed because of the tragic murder-assassination of Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto on 27 December. Benazir Bhutto was a woman of great courage. She refused to be cowed by the extremists, and she paid the ultimate price for that with her life. The government is pleased that these elections are proceeding. The government has consistently urged its counterpart in Islamabad to return to the democratic processes in Pakistan as quickly as possible.

There are of course difficult circumstances on the ground in Pakistan. The political environment is tense, and the physical security within that country represents huge challenges for those wishing to exercise their democratic right. A suicide bomber over the weekend killed over 40 people and injured more than 100. I condemn unequivocally this suicide attack, as I condemned unequivocally the murder of Benazir Bhutto. Extremists behind these attacks cannot be allowed to succeed in derailing Pakistan’s elections.

The critical challenge for the future is to see extremism marginalised in Pakistan, and the challenge for the democratic process in Islamabad and more widely across Pakistan is to ensure that that occurs. That can be assisted by there being a free, fair and transparent democratic process through the conduct of these elections. That will be important for a full restoration of confidence in the political and electoral processes of that country on the part of all the citizens of Pakistan, whatever their religious beliefs and whatever their political beliefs. In a small way, Australia is making a contribution to voter education campaigns through a program run by the Asia Foundation.

This is not just a matter for Pakistan itself, though primarily the exercise of the democratic right to elect the next government of that country is of first relevance to the people of that country; it is also pivotal for the future of regional and international stability. What happens in Pakistan through these elections and the government which emerges from it will fundamentally shape so much of the global community’s war against terrorism and what happens in the adjacent country of Afghanistan, where we currently have troops deployed.

This therefore is not simply a passing election of remote or marginal consequence or interest to the Australian people. This country, Australia, has a deep strategic interest in the outcome of these elections in Pakistan and what flows from those elections. We have 1,000 troops next door in Afghanistan, and their future and the future of their operations are deeply shaped by events in Pakistan and therefore will be deeply affected by events which proceed from this election. Also, in the wider war against terrorism, the fact that al-Qaeda has been able to safely base its operations in the border regions between Afghanistan and Pakistan and in the north-west of Pakistan itself will in turn be affected by what happens with the electoral process and its outcome in Islamabad. Also the outcome of the Pakistani elections will shape the future of the relationship between Islamabad and New Delhi, India and Pakistan representing nuclear weapons states within our own region. It will also, of course, affect radically the lives and aspirations of more than 100 million Pakistanis themselves in a rapidly growing country with a rapidly increasing population and will shape so much of their future as well. For democracy itself the successful conclusion of these elections is important intrinsically because of the future of the democratic project across wider South Asia.

These elections therefore go to the core interest which we have as international citizens but specifically when it comes to our strategic interest with our troops on the ground deployed in Afghanistan and the wider war against al-Qaeda and terrorist organisations. We the government and the people of Australia will be watching carefully the outcome of events in Pakistan in the days ahead and hopefully the successful and peaceful conclusion of that democratic process.