Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) | Hansard source

I withdraw those, Senator Lambie. What I was attempting to observe is that I think—and I may have misunderstood you—that if you and I had a chat about, particularly, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq we would come to an agreement that the lives lost in those wars should not have been lost and that the sacrifice given by the men and women killed in those wars did not actually turn out to be for the cause of Australian freedom. That was not what they died for. To say that every single individual named in those spaces died to protect our freedom—God, I wish it were true! I wish that we could say that every single person that gave their life for Australia had done so because they had been asked to take an action that would keep us safe or uphold our values. But that is not the case, and it is a crime that that is the reality of this country and that, for hundreds of years, we have sent men and women overseas to die, and so many have come back injured and psychologically harmed in the deepest of ways, and there was no need for it. They were sent overseas by politicians to die, because to do so suited the political purposes of the government of the day. I wish that were not the case, but it is the reality of our history.

So the Greens will not be supporting this motion today. These questions and topics are deeply important. It is our responsibility to engage with these subjects with the nuance, balance and perspective expected of us by the Australian community. That is the reason we will oppose this motion today.

Honourable senators interjecting—

You may well disagree with it and you may well be unhappy with it, but it is important that when we discuss these issues we do not engage with the reflexive and reactionary approaches that are so often the hallmarks of our political discourse and decision-making around the topics of war, because, when we do this and when we engage in these conversations in such a way, we create the very context that makes it so much easier to end up sending Australians overseas to die for causes so much less valuable than their lives.