Ross Lightfoot (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The role of a democratically elected government is to govern efficiently and effectively and to make decisions based on accurate and relevant information and not necessarily popularity. If governments were to start making their decisions based on popularity, Australia could face an ineffective and unproductive administration. That is exactly what would occur should a Beazley led government be elected next year.

Australia has had an enviable history of military involvement since before Federation. Our nation has been served proudly by the men and women of the Australian defence forces. For the Leader of the Opposition to suggest that the efforts of these men and women have been counterproductive and pointless is nothing but shameful. In reality, those who have represented our nation have made a huge impact upon the lives of all Iraqis.

Mr Beazley’s recent comments regarding the withdrawal of troops from Iraq are embarrassing and profligate. For a potential leader, his statement is unprincipled and, I believe, malevolent. To suggest that, should he—Mr Beazley—become Prime Minister we would simply walk away from an unfinished job, because it is too hard, undermining the efforts that have been achieved to date by the ADF in Iraq, is not the Australian way.

Mr Beazley should look into the deep suffering eyes of the Kurds, the Shia and the Sunni, as I have. Or go to Halabja, Mr Beazley, and look at the museums of photos of death and destruction. Australian troops will be withdrawn from Iraq only when our job is finished, and not before. That is the same view that the British chief of army, Sir Richard Dannatt, has. He allegedly said that British troops should be out now, but he actually said that British troops would be out soon. We all want our troops out of Iraq or wherever, but only when the job is done.

Whilst the security situation in Iraq is volatile and often dangerous, particularly in and around Baghdad and the Sunni triangle, major improvements have constantly been made. In July last year, for instance, Al Muthanna became the first of Iraq’s 18 provinces to be transferred to the full control of the Iraqi government, with security provided by the Iraqi security forces, not the coalition.

One of the tasks that Australian soldiers have undertaken is the training of Iraqi soldiers, and over 1,600 members of the Iraqi national army are involved in the provision of security in Al Muthanna. It is encouraging to see the Iraqi national army taking over more of the day-to-day responsibility for providing the security and defence of their own nation. These young men and women have a new pride in their nation. They have stepped up to the mark and taken on this dangerous but necessary responsibility.

Despite the constant media reports of the daily suicide bombings that are occurring, and they are tragic, developments and progress are being made in Iraq. Since 2005, Iraqis have had the opportunity to vote in three national elections, the first of which I attended in January 2005, which saw record turnouts, the creation of a draft constitution and the reconstruction of major infrastructure. Schools, hospitals, roads, bridges and courthouses are all being developed, resulting in some form of normality for Iraqis. Some 36,000 teachers have been trained and 700 judges have been appointed to the courts so that Iraq can have control over its own judicial system. Electricity grids and water supplies have been restored and the International Monetary Fund has estimated that Iraq’s real GDP is over 10 per cent per annum. There are many more children at school now than in the pre-invasion period.

Australia has been blessed with good fortune. Our nation was formed without civil war and without violence. We have had democracy thrust upon us, so much so that we often take it for granted. We see the changes that are slowly occurring in Iraq. Civilians who for decades lived oppressed lives and in constant fear are now edging closer to democracy in an incredible occurrence, something in which our nation should be proud of being involved.

It is all too easy for the Leader of the Opposition to offer his pathetic pacifistic capitulation to the worst evil this world has known and to say what he would do when at the end of the day he will probably never have to make any tough decisions. We have seen time and time again that Mr Beazley has been unable to take a stand on a tough issue. Recent polls have shown that the war in Iraq is not popular. This is hardly surprising, as no-one ever wants to go to war or an unnecessary conflict if it can be avoided. Unfortunately, in this situation that was not the case. The inability of the United Nations to take a stand and to force Iraq and Saddam Hussein to answer to their concerns about weapons of mass destruction and other concerns left the coalition of the willing no other choice but to take action.

Mr Beazley, in another example of his weakness and lack of ticker, has jumped on these polls and tried to appease the Australian public by making populist statements in an attempt to earn some form of support. It obviously does not matter to the mawkish Mr Beazley that now is not the time to cut and run from Iraq. Withdrawing from Iraq now would be a victory for terrorism outlets throughout the Middle East, and the most repulsive, devilish, godless killers would feel justification for their foul malevolence.

There are sections in Iraq that obviously do not want foreign troops on Iraqi soil. There have been over 2,700 deaths and 21,000 wounded soldiers. Just over 100 Britons, and men and women of the defence forces of many other nations, have lost their lives in the contribution to the democratisation of Iraq. Although not now in direct combat, Australia has lost two members of its Defence Force. These men have given their lives to the cause of liberating another nation and attempting to free persecuted people. Pulling out of Iraq, leaving the Iraqis to fend for themselves and not completing the job does not honour the sacrifice they have given. Their lives have not been given in vain. It is important to ensure that we as a nation and as part of the coalition remember that the 3,000 other lives lost have not been without reason, that there is a greater cause for this tragic loss. The Beazley decision is reminiscent of the then Whitlam government ignoring our troops, who returned to an ignominious reception, in 1975. We cannot allow that to happen to our Iraqi troops.

Since the downfall of Saddam Hussein’s regime in 2003, over 270 mass graves have been reported, with 53 confirmed mass graves having their contents identified. Some of these graves have been confirmed by organisations such as Amnesty International, the UN and Human Rights Watch, which state that while some graves contain dozens of bodies others contain thousands. The common factor among them is a bullet hole in the back of the skulls. In a media statement earlier this year, Human Rights Watch stated:

We estimated that as many as 290,000 Iraqis have been ‘disappeared’ by the Iraqi Government over the past two decades. Many of these ‘disappeared’ are those the remains of which are now being unearthed in mass graves across Iraq.

Iraq has more forced disappearance cases than any other country. Tens of thousands of Iraqis have been reported missing in the past decade. This is on the same level as Nazi Germany in World War II, yet it does not seem to arouse the same level of horror or concern amongst us.

Whether the initial reasons for entering Iraq are the same reasons that now remain is irrelevant; you just have to look at the brutal and lethal antics of Saddam Hussein. The people of Iraq were subjected to his rule for far too long, and the fact that they have now been liberated to a significant degree means they are no longer forced to fear the brutal regime under which they lived for so many decades.

Let me turn very quickly to the campaign against the Kurds in Iraq. From 1987 to 1989, Saddam Hussein’s bestial onslaught included mass summary executions, unsolved disappearances, arbitrary jailing, ethnic cleansing and the destruction of some 2,000 villages in Kurdistan. Those people who dared to form minority groups within Iraq were terrorised with the use of mustard gas and nerve gas. Under Saddam Hussein, 5,000 to 10,000, some say over 100,000, Kurdish men, women and children were murdered. I have seen the modest town of Halabja, on the western side of the Zagros Mountains, and I was very moved by what I saw.

It was not just the Kurds who had to fear Saddam Hussein but also other Iraqis. Today, just three years after the fall of Saddam Hussein and his regime, Iraq has moved from a nation where the words ‘freedom of speech’ did not exist to a nation that has over 50 commercial television stations, over 100 radio stations and nearly 300 independent newspapers and magazines.

To me and millions of Australians, a template could be taken from the northern part of Iraq-Kurdistan to the Sunni triangle of Tikrit, Fallujah, Baghdad and the south, and with it the major cities of Um Qasa and Al Basra. The Kurds live in relative peace and are developing their homeland: roads, schools, hospitals, airports, hotels and housing estates are flourishing. Mineral exploration is being undertaken, dams are being built and universities are free and open to all: men and women, Shia and Sunni and Christian and Jew. Kurdistan is flourishing, but what must never happen again is the subjugation of the Kurds. For the first time in memory, generations of Kurds have secured their homes, land and jobs, but most of all they have secured their freedom and they have a future. I thank the Senate.