Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Will the minister update the House on international efforts to protect civilians and bring an end to the Gaddafi regime’s violence in Libya?

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

I thank the member for Blair for his question. The international community has been justifiably horrified by the brutality meted out by the Libyan regime towards its own people. That is why the international community has welcomed the action agreed by the United Nations Security Council in New York last Friday to protect the Libyan people from the brutality of their own regime, and that is why the Australian government has welcomed the action of the UN Security Council. The Libyan regime has forfeited any claim to international legitimacy because of its murderous behaviour towards its own people. Its actions in this campaign will be recorded as among the more barbarous actions by any state in the world’s modern history.

There are two critical parts to the UN Security Council’s resolution of 17 March 2011. The first empowers member states to use all necessary measures to create a no-fly zone over Libya. The second empowers member states to deploy all necessary measures to protect the Libyan people under threat of attack by the Libyan regime. Further, following on the passage of this by the UN Security Council last Friday, two days later, on 19 March, the US, France and the UK commenced military actions against the Libyan regime in accordance with the provisions and authorisation of UN Security Council Resolution 1973. These actions, we are advised, will be followed by further actions by other states, including Arab states. Had the international community not acted in the manner it has over the last three days, today we would instead be witnessing the butchery of Benghazi, because those citizens would have been left to their own devices.

This will be a difficult military operation. It has been described by the US military spokesman as phase 1 of a multiphase military operation. The political outcome, of course, will be uncertain. Had the international community not acted in solidarity and support, the people of Libya would have been left to their own fate—having dared to raise their voices in the name of freedom and the rest of the world having joined in and cheered them on as they moved towards Tripoli—and, had the world community started to go silent, we would have learnt nothing from the experiences of Rwanda, Darfur and the Balkans. Instead, the international community did act.

Australia, for its part, is now the third-largest contributor to the humanitarian effort globally, after the United States and after the European Union, in support of those fleeing Libya right now, and we will continue to maintain our effort into the future. The government elsewhere is monitoring closely other developments in the Middle East, across North Africa and in Egypt, as well as in Jordan, Yemen, Bahrain and other Gulf states. On these matters, most recently in Bahrain, I spoke with the Bahraini foreign minister last night expressing Australia’s concern about violence in that particular country.

Australia’s interests remain seized by these events. These events in the Middle East impact the ability of terrorists to operate across the Middle East, they impact on Iran’s freedom of manoeuvre across the Middle East and beyond, they impact on the Israel-Palestine peace process, they impact on the ability to develop pluralist democracies in the Arab world and they impact on the global economy through inflation and the price of oil. For these reasons Australia’s national interests are seized, our values are seized and our diplomacy will remain active.

Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On indulgence: military intervention in another country in most circumstances should be the last resort, but when Colonel Gaddafi ordered the Libyan military to attack his own people, when he brought in foreign mercenaries to kill and terrorise Libyans and when he threatened the people of Benghazi with no mercy, the United Nations Security Council had to endorse action and protect the Libyan people. The coalition supports the United Nations Security Council resolution and we commend Foreign Minister Rudd for his consistent advocacy on this issue.