Dr STONE (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for the Environment and Heritage) (3:54 PM) —On Tuesday, 18 March our Prime Minister announced that Australia had joined a coalition, led by the United States, which aims to disarm Iraq, destroying its prohibited weapons of mass destruction. Today in this parliament we are debating that issue and a motion moved by the Prime Minister which describes why we are committing troops to assist with the coalition—which will try and disarm what numerous commentators, and in fact most Australians, agree is one of the most tyrannical regimes in modern history.

Our commitment to the gulf region is not new, particularly in relation to this Iraqi regime. For example, since 1990 Australian Defence Force personnel have been deployed in the gulf to enforce sanctions—in 1991 for Operation Desert Storm, in 1998 to support Operation Desert Fox and throughout that time as an almost continuous presence with the multinational interdiction forces. We as Australians are not the type of people who say, `What's it got to do with us?' `Surely the Iraqis have nothing to do with the Australian population,' I hear echoed from the other side of the chamber. I even hear it, sadly, from time to time from those who march in the streets, holding up placards saying `No war'. They say, `What is this to do with the Australian population?'

We have never been a nation that simply looks for individual or collective self-interest when it comes to responding as a nation to another country's needs. In the case of Saddam Hussein, his regime—as I said before—is one of the most tyrannical in modern history and one which over the last 12 years has defied resolution after resolution passed by the United Nations Security Council demanding that it disarm. It demands that Iraq disarm not only in the interests of its own regional security in the Middle East but also in the interests of international global peace and security.

Australia has always proudly stood up when there has been a call to arms—when diplomatic solutions seem to have failed. We have done that for the last 100 years. As the member for Murray, an electorate in northern Victoria, I am particularly proud to say that generations of people in that electorate have marched off to war when diplomatic solutions have not been there. They have fought in theatres of war all over the world. In many instances we could not say, `Vietnam is of direct relevance to us?' or `Korea is of direct relevance to us?' No, but we felt that our presence and our support for our allies was going to bring about a greater world peace and was going to relieve the citizens of those countries from serious deprivation of their human rights.

Right now, in Australia, I am afraid that we have a typical response whipped up by an opposition which is desperate for some sort of `score on the board'—playing on the natural fears of any family faced with the prospect of sons and daughters going off into places of danger. My own son and daughter-in-law are in the defence forces, and I understand only too well the sacrifice our defence families make. But they are proud Australians and they see it is their duty. They have volunteered on behalf of this nation to go out and represent us in trying to bring about world order or indeed in trying to defend us directly if our own shores are threatened. I am concerned that the frenzy and hysteria which the opposition is attempting to whip up is going to create the shameful atmosphere that greeted our Vietnam veterans when they returned from that war. Even though the majority of Australians supported the Vietnam War at that time, there was a very vocal minority who gave those Vietnam soldiers such a vile return that many of them still suffer the psychological consequences.

In my electorate of Murray we have some 3,500 Iraqi refugees from torture or trauma who were the direct victims of Saddam Hussein. They can tell any Australian what it was like to live under that regime and why the liberation of friends and relations still in that country is so important. I am very proud that we are not just talking about joining our allies in trying to rid Iraq of its weapons of mass destruction; as our motion, our government's commitment, spells out, we are also determined to win the peace, along with the allies.

We are determined to make sure that the country of Iraq is rebuilt so that the citizenry can experience democracy and access to education and health services—so that they are not impoverished and are not maimed and killed if they express some opposition to the ruling regime. We will be there. We are committed to helping the Iraqi people, through humanitarian assistance, to build a new Iraq at peace with itself and its neighbours. And, as our motion says, we extend to the innocent people of Iraq our support and sympathy during the military action to disarm Iraq of the weapons of mass destruction.

I am proud that Australia stands beside a number of countries—30 in all—who have agreed to be part of the coalition for the immediate disarmament of Iraq. I want to read out the names of these countries because you will see that none of them can be immediately associated with a direct benefit or consequence as a result of the Iraqi situation. Their citizenry presumably are not screaming in the streets, `What has it got to do with us?' Here are the 30 countries who have joined with us in the coalition for the immediate disarmament of Iraq: Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Japan, Lithuania, Nicaragua, Romania, Turkey, Albania, Colombia, El Salvador, Ethiopia, Iceland, Korea, Macedonia, the Philippines, Slovakia, the United Kingdom, Australia, the Czech Republic, Eritrea, Georgia, Italy, Latvia, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Uzbekistan. The coalition forces will be led by the United States.

Amongst these countries are some of the poorest in the world, countries who themselves have experienced in very recent times the oppression of a dictator like Hussein. Each country is contributing in the way it can and in the way it deems most appropriate. Mr Richard Boucher, who released this list today, also referred to another 15 or so countries who are going to cooperate should Saddam resort to the defensive response of using weapons of mass destruction. I am proud that we stand beside these other nations big and small. Some of them are global powers, but some like Estonia and Eritrea are poor nations, yet they are willing to do what they can to support a population which has experienced some of the most tyrannical oppression in modern times. Saddam Hussein has not only ensured that his region is at any time threatened with biological, nuclear and chemical warfare; this is a dictator who has also destroyed the environment, who has destroyed whole cultures—for example, by draining their homelands, the swamps of his country—who has created a nightmare in terms of environmental sustainability for his country and who is no less a destroyer of human rights.

I want to assure the 3,500 Iraqi refugees in the electorate of Murray that we will do all we can to bring the same peace and future possibilities for Iraq's children that they have found in our great country as a result of us opening our arms and our doors to them when they sought refuge. They join with the rest of us—those on this side of the parliament at least—in hoping that the war is short, that the Iraqi regime is disarmed and then, as we move into a new era of peace, that we rebuild that country and support all of those who have long suffered. There have been 17 resolutions passed by the United Nations Security Council without advancing any hope that Hussein would actually obey the resolutions. Resolution 1441 of 8 November 2002 made it absolutely clear that the Security Council was united in its condemnation of Iraq, given its failure to disarm. Do the people marching in the street right now honestly think that an 18th resolution would achieve anything different? Clearly not. Now is the time to stand up and be counted, and Australia, as always, because of its moral and cultural commitment to a world of peace, is going to be there to assist.