Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Here we are, being told by the Australian Greens that this is an urgent matter of great principle, yet we have the laughter and the stupidity of those sorts of points of order indicating that the Australian Greens do not take this matter as seriously as they have asserted by moving a matter of urgency.

But I go back to the point that one of the great civilising features of our society is that we don't believe in the lynch mob, that we do believe in the rule of law, that we do believe that a person should be convicted only on the basis of evidence and not on the basis of mere assertions. And let's be very clear about the report in which the senator—I will delete the word 'honourable', and I must say I feel more comfortable in just referring to him as a senator—says that there is credible information. As a result of credible information, you go through the process of investigating to ascertain whether or not the credible information can be proven, and the report itself says that many of those things that they have found have not been put to a standard of proof—not even on the basis of the balance of probabilities, let alone beyond reasonable doubt. All they're asserting is that there is credible information.

Let's also be clear that, in this motion, we are being told that the military chain of command needs to be held to account for their role. What did the inquiry find? I quote:

The Inquiry has found no evidence that there was knowledge of, or reckless indifference to, the commission of war crimes, on the part of commanders at troop/platoon, squadron/company or Task Group Headquarters level, let alone at higher levels such as Commander Joint Task Force (CJTF) 633, Joint Operations Command, or Australian Defence Headquarters. Nor is the Inquiry of the view that there was a failure at any of those levels to take reasonable and practical steps that would have prevented or detected the commission of war crimes.

But here we have the Australian Greens, despite this finding, coming in and demanding the resignation of certain people higher up in the defence forces. On what basis? On the basis that they know better than the inquiry—they know better than everybody else. According to the Australian Greens, these men should be required to resign from their positions. Why? Because the Greens say so—not because of an inquiry finding anything. In fact, the inquiry found the exact opposite of that which the senator is asserting to us and the nation—that these matters—