Dr STONE (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage) (6:27 PM) —On 17 September last year, I made a speech in this place about Iraq and about our need to take seriously the failure of Iraq over 11 years to disarm and abide by the United Nations' directive at the end of the Gulf War that they remove their weapons of mass destruction. Of course, this was a requirement that Iraq unconditionally accept under international supervision the destruction, removal or rendering harmless of its weapons of mass destruction, ballistic missiles with a range of over 150 kilometres, and related production facilities and equipment. Iraq was supposed to do that within 15 days of the original resolution being passed back in 1991.

I rise here today to again speak on this Iraq situation. I could, in a sense, read out my speech of last year, because nothing has changed. We continue to have a rogue state that bluffs, threatens and counter threatens. We have the world continuing to be most concerned about terrorism and about the fact that there is much succour gained by terrorists who have an anti-Western bent when they look at the success of the Iraq regime in ignoring and defying that resolution over those 11 or 12 years.

Back in September when I last spoke, we were already well aware of the 11 September 2001 event when the planes were used to kill thousands of civilians in the United States in that extraordinary terrorist act of barbarism. It shocked the world. But my speech was before 12 October 2002, when the terrorist attack took place in our near neighbourhood, in Bali, and our own Australians were killed and maimed by a terrorist cell that I believe drew a great deal of inspiration and succour from the Iraq regime.

I do not think for a minute that we can stand up in this country and pretend to ourselves that we will ever have the same sense of national security that we once had when we thought that no-one would step into a place of recreation and visitation, a place where people were simply having a drink and a good time, and be targeted by terrorists who hated them because they were Westerners, Australians, and saw them as the enemy.

In the speech I made on 17 September 2002, I also decried the behaviour of the opposition, the Labor Party. Even then they were already in a frenzy about trying to make sure that they squeezed every bit of opposition in Australia to our taking a stand, being there with like-minded nations and insisting that the time had come for Iraq to be accountable for their actions and, indeed, to respond to the original resolution.

Sadly, in the first two weeks since we recommenced this parliamentary sitting, we have seen no change in the Labor Party. They are trying to wring the hearts and minds of Australians by constantly declaring that we have committed to war—that our troops have been deployed to an inevitable and brutal war that we have already committed ourselves to, simply on the basis that the United States is there before us. Day after day, anybody listening to our Prime Minister, to our Minister for Foreign Affairs or to any of our cabinet members as they speak in response to questions—anybody who has listened to our country's leaders, our John Howard-led Australian government—will know that that is totally offensive and a lie.

Our Australian government has joined with other United Nations Security Council members in absolutely deploring the continuation of Iraq's refusal to cooperate. Like other like-minded countries, we have been concerned at the relationship between our own domestic security and the growing boldness of terrorists as they continue to operate across the world. Like other like-minded nations, we have said, `Enough is enough,' and that Iraq must realise that they simply cannot continue as they have done—bluffing, feigning, pretending to cooperate, refusing the sort of real cooperation which would reveal exactly what has happened to their weapons of mass destruction and biological warfare.

If you boil down carefully what members of the opposition are saying in quieter moments or when the Leader of the Opposition places some of their thoughts on record, the government and the opposition share the same views right now about the Iraq situation. Both the government and the opposition are pursuing a diplomatic and peaceful solution. No-one wants war in this country. No-one has ever wanted war in this country. No-one in their right mind would ever wish upon their sons and daughters and future generations the maiming, killing and psychological anguish that are associated with warfare—especially the sorts of warfare that we know are possible with the methods of mass destruction that Iraq has collected unto itself.

Our government has chosen to strongly support the United Nations Security Council's insistence that Iraq finally comply. We have tried to up the diplomatic pressure by also pre-deploying some of our Defence Force personnel for two reasons. Firstly, we want to show that, while we are a small country and the numbers of our pre-deployed defence personnel are few, we as a small nation are still serious about our intent when we say, `Enough is enough.' Secondly, we want to make sure that if, tragically, Iraq finally refuses to cooperate and the United Nations Security Council determines that there has to be conflict, then we have given our troops—our Navy, Air Force and Army—the best possible chance to be prepared for the part they may play if our government further commits their activities. Any right-minded Australian citizen understands that situation.

What worries me, though, about the opposition trying to wring every sense of outrage out of the Australian public by repeating endlessly, and pretending, that what we have done is to commit to war right now—and only because of some sycophantic relationship with the United States—is where that sort of posturing and cheap political stunt pulling leaves a lot of our Defence Force personnel. In about two weeks time I will have the privilege of giving to some of our national servicemen the medal that we struck to commemorate and acknowledge 50 years of national service in this country. It will take place at Echuca, a beautiful place on the Murray River that has committed, generation after generation, a significant proportion of its brightest and best to whatever conflict Australia was committed to. Among those national servicemen will be a significant number of Vietnam veterans.

On the one hand, there is absolutely no similarity between the Vietnam conflict and the conflict that potentially could occur if Iraq refuses ultimately to disarm. On the other hand, there is a shocking similarity between the rhetoric and the sorts of attitudes that the opposition is engendering in the minds of the Australian public and what happened to our Vietnam veterans. They marched back to an Australia that called them `baby killers'. They were told to take their uniforms off on the planes, to get into civvies and to try to disappear into the crowds in Melbourne and Sydney to avoid the accusations that they had somehow betrayed their country by participating in what we understood was to be the liberation or the protection of the South Vietnamese from the communists from the north.

They are already saying to me, `Let's make sure, in the emotional, heightened fervour that the opposition is trying to drum up for political point scoring—the `say no to war' stuff that is going on—that it does not rebound on our magnificent Defence Force personnel.' We need to make sure that if, at the end of all this, a United Nations resolution means we have to commit to war—if we do decide as a nation to do our part to try to bring about a better world—that our forces can march back proudly to this country, be received into the bosom of the citizenry and be treated as heroes should be and not as the Vietnam veterans were.

I put it on the shoulders of the opposition that they must behave responsibly at this time. They know that we are not warmongering. We are not committed to a war at this point; we are simply preparing in this country for what may be an eventuality. We are a free nation with a very strong sense of the need to do all we can for world peace. Our small contribution can help to make Iraq understand that we will stand by our moral code. I want to ask the opposition to think a little further than they do each day in question time. It might make good copy—it might make a good headline—but there are thousands of Australian Defence Force personnel who already are fearful of the outcomes from the sort of nonsense that is going on.

I think Australia can stand bravely with the like-minded free democracies and populations of this world. If any rogue state ignores the United Nations Security Council resolution in the way that Iraq has, what message are we giving to countries like North Korea, which similarly seems to think that if it blusters and bluffs it may get away with a regime that puts the world order under threat? I am proud to say that our government will make the hard decisions if they are necessary. It will make decisions about maintaining domestic and international peace and good order. It will welcome back our Defence Force personnel no matter what role they have played. I invite the opposition to be a little more ethical and to be morally stronger when it comes to trying to use the current debate simply to change the popularity polls in a short-term grab. They are being dishonest by repeating, day after day, a mantra that they know is political spin, not truth and reality.