Ms HOARE (6:28 PM) —Like others before me, I welcome the opportunity to put on the record my position in relation to the world situation and the situation in Iraq, although I am still quite disturbed that the situation has arisen. In my second term as a member of parliament, I knew upon my election that I might need to face this issue one day. But I hoped—as we all would have hoped—that that day would not occur at all, yet alone so soon. There are only a couple of members and senators still in this parliament who actually participated in the previous debate in 1991 when the then Prime Minister, Bob Hawke, committed Australian troops to the Gulf War. I am aware how that position happened: the air attacks occurred and then the position was brought both to the Labor Party caucus and to the parliament prior to the ground attack. My immediate predecessor and father, Bob Brown, the former member for Charlton and Hunter, was a minister in the Hawke government during that time. So it is with difficulty that I speak in this debate.

There has been recent mention in the media of disagreements which occur between members of parliament and their children in relation to particular policy positions. My family was not immune from that particular circumstance in the early 1990s. As I said, my father was a minister in the Hawke government, and I think at that stage he supported the UN sanctioned conflict in the Gulf. I completely disagreed with the particular stance he took at that time. Families were not immune from the situation 10 years ago, and they are not immune from it now.

We have heard the discussion about how no new evidence has been provided to this parliament or to Australians by the Prime Minister or the Minister for Foreign Affairs in relation to Saddam Hussein's amassed weapons of mass destruction. The evidence that has been provided is the same evidence that was available when the UN inspectors were expelled from Iraq in 1998. I wonder why the Prime Minister did not see fit to have a debate on invading Iraq in 1998, as he has seen fit to have a debate on a possible Australian invasion of Iraq in 2002 when there has been no new compelling evidence to suggest that anything is different.

The member for Franklin referred earlier in this debate to members of his family and their reaction over the past 12 months, particularly following the events of 11 September 2001 in America. My family also had experience with that. My parents had planned a trip of a lifetime to Canada and the United States in October 2001 but, following the September events, they cancelled their trip. They did not cancel it because they were under threat of terrorist attack as tourists in America; they cancelled it because of some of the statements that President Bush made following those attacks. You would remember that one of those statements was that if any aeroplane veered off course in United States airspace it would be shot down. My parents had this particular fear about travelling in America. The whole unilateralism of Americans, led by their President, following September 11 made it quite uncomfortable for people to be amongst the patriotic fervour that was around at that time.

Over the past few weeks, the media have been interviewing people in relation to a possible invasion of Iraq, and I would like to mention some interviews which were reported in the Newcastle Herald, my local newspaper, on Saturday. Eight people were interviewed in relation to whether they thought that Australia should be involved in any military attacks on Iraq; six of them were young people. The six young people said that, no, they did not believe Australia should be involved in any military action in Iraq. Two older people, who looked as though they were pensioners—they were over 55, at least—were the only two out of those eight who agreed that Australia should be involved in a war in Iraq.

There was another article published in the Sun Herald last week which contained interviews with young people who were applying to join the defence forces. This was quite a frightening expose of their responses. One of these responses was from Mikah Thurling, a 19-year-old from Wauchope, who applied to join the Navy. She said:

This is from a young person who has applied to join the defence forces. She would go to Iraq because `it's another place' and she is `really into travelling'. I think the parents of some of these young people need to sit them down and talk to them about the horrors of war and talk to them about the horrors of Vietnam. My colleague the member for Cowan mentioned that he was attending a dinner for TPI veterans this evening. Maybe these young people need to go along and talk to these people. This is not about world travel; this is about war. This is about killing people. This is about destruction of property and destruction of lives.

I have a report here that I want to briefly refer to. It is a report from a humanitarian mission from the United Nations which went to Iraq following the Gulf War to assess the humanitarian needs there. These are people who are fairly experienced in this particular area but, in their summary of findings, they said:

That is about the humanitarian needs after the war, not to mention the human cost that is involved. Australia has a unique opportunity at the moment to stand up as a humanitarian citizen of this global economy and provide medical and evacuee aid in case a war happens. (Time expired)