Sean Edwards (SA, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to speak on a matter I would much rather not, but it is a matter first-order importance. It concerns a scenario of absolute moral clarity and it is a challenge to the way in which we respond to it that says everything about the kind of people we are. National security is the first responsibility of government, and so we may judge a government by how it performs in this duty. Likewise, our moral compass and sense of what is right and wrong are at the very core of our individual selves, and so our own characters must be judged against this measure.

How we respond to the butchers, the rapists and the torturers of Islamic State is by all means a matter of national security. But more than that, what we choose to do about a group that would behead a six-year-old girl, cut in half a five-year-old boy, summarily execute hundreds in a day and enslave women and girls to sexual servitude is a reflection on our national character.

We are a nation not intimidated by—and not even fundamentally changed by—a decade as targets of Islamic terrorism. The values that built Australian society are just too strong to be shaken by bombs. Respect for the freedom and dignity of the individual; equality of men and women; freedom of religion; commitment to the rule of law; parliamentary democracy; a spirit of egalitarianism; and equality of opportunity for all—this is a formula with which we built a country and these are the values we hold central and so much so we are prepared to spend the blood and the treasure that we do in the fight against those who threaten them in Australia or elsewhere.

Now we dispatch Australian forces in the defence of strangers, in the defence of these values and in the defence of those who cannot defend themselves. We do this not because those people are our countrymen or our trading partners or our co-religionists or because we are culturally aligned with them in any way. We are not. We do this because of our values. Those members of the Australian Defence Force who we send are in effect our values ambassadors. For Australians on this matter there is no moral ambiguity; there is only an obligation to stand up and to act.

Some in this place still need to decide whether they want to stand on the right side of history or the wrong side. To its credit Labor supports the government on this matter in the knowledge of what must be done. But not everybody in the political and media landscape does. Those with the privilege of a public platform must understand the responsibility that comes with it and the danger that comes with misusing it. Some in the press gallery accuse the government of targeting Islamic State merely as a convenient distraction from domestic politics

An earlier contributor, Senator Sue Lines, even accused the Prime Minister of 'scaremongering' over national security in order to deflect attention from local affairs. Greens Leader, Christine Milne, lets her party's rampant anti-Americanism trump good sense when she says that, if Australia follows the US into Iraq, Islamic State propagandists might accuse us of conducting a Western imperialist campaign against Islam. The enemy will lie shamelessly in the fulfilment of its goals. But Islamic State propaganda carries no truck with this government. We will do what is right, regardless; but the Greens would have us, perhaps, cower in the corner. Some have raised the threat of retaliation, if Australia stands up against the Islamic State, as a reason not to do so. ASIO says this is wrong. I say, if the threat of violence by tyrants is the product of doing what is right, then we will take those threats in triplicate.

The Fairfax press published a piece titled 'Fools rush in', in which the author opined that we would be better off 'biding our time' in the hope that someone else steps in. It argued that the fact that we did not invade Syria two years ago is somehow incongruous with us stopping the evil of Islamic State now. It is hard to know where to start with that kind of logic. Flippant, intellectually dishonest or lazy commentary perpetuates the lie that a stance against Islamic terrorism is a stance against Islam. This is the very same lie which jihadist recruiters themselves use, as they seek to draw the easily led and the feeble of mind to their cause. That message is being reinforced by sections of the media. But worse, that message is being reinforced by people whose words have resonance in the Islamic community.

On the day Islamic State released its video of the beheading of US journalist James Foley, 60 Australian Muslim leaders released a statement condemning the Prime Minister of Australia. On the day we learned of the beheading of US journalist Steven Sotloff, the Australian National Imams Council released a statement condemning—wait for it—the Prime Minister of Australia. When just over a week ago, an 18-year-old known terror suspect, Numan Haider, attempted to murder two counter-terrorism police officers in Melbourne, and was consequently shot dead, Islamic Council of Victoria's secretary Ghaith Krayem condemned the police. To protesters assembled in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba, following the 18 September anti-terrorism raids, Hizb ut-Tahrir's Wassim Doureihi said: 'Even if a thousand bombs went off in this country, all that it would prove is that the Muslims are angry and that they have every reason to be angry.' At an Islamic conference in Melbourne last weekend, spokesman Mustafa Abu Yusuf is quoted in the press, calling on Australia to '…stop the demonisation of our kids that marginalises them, from the Prime Minister down—so that they feel wanted as part of the general Australian community'. He said Islamic State's actions were 'abhorrent, but it's no more abhorrent than any other of the horrible things that have been committed in the name of whatever'.

Words are weapons, and words like those license violence. To some ears they might even encourage it. In response, I will borrow a phrase used in a different context by Chief of Army, Lieutenant General David Morrison: 'The standard you walk past is the standard you accept.' People the world over want to come to Australia because of the society we have created on the back of the values that we have inherited—the same values and the same society that we must continue to defend. People like Sydney Lebanese community leader Dr Jamal Rifi understand this. So do the thousands who attended his community BBQ in Lakemba recently, which was themed 'Muslims Love Australia'. Thank you, Dr Rifi, for doing that. It certainly was a turning point in the commentary, which was becoming somewhat concerning within the community.

Islamic State, left unchallenged, is a threat that goes beyond geographical boundaries, and it is a threat to all races and religions. Indeed, the majority of its victims have been Muslims. We must unite to fight this evil, for evil does not reach greater heights than this. Mr President, I urge the Islamic community and the Australian community to get behind this government in condemning the murderous reign which is Islamic State; to support the cause of now over 40 nations; to entrust them with what is right and good; and to protect the rights of women and children in these regions. It is a terribly complex area. It has been a terribly complex area for hundreds of years. However, abject terrorism, tyranny and terror must not be tolerated in any way, shape or form. I thank the chamber for the opportunity to raise this.