Dr WASHER (2:19 PM) —My question is to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister update the House on Australian plans for assisting the Iraqis rebuild their country after Saddam?

Mr DOWNER (Minister for Foreign Affairs) —I thank the honourable member for Moore for his question. Next week I will be going to Washington to discuss the issue of Iraq with the United States government. Obviously, a substantial part of those discussions—but not all of those discussions—will be on the post-conflict arrangements. I expect that I will be seeing Secretary of State Colin Powell and Condoleezza Rice, and I will also have discussions with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund while I am in Washington.

I also intend to visit New York before the end of next week to talk with the United Nations Secretary-General, and the secretariat more generally, about the post-Saddam Iraq situation. In terms of the United Nations, it will be very important for the United Nations to put behind it the rancour we saw in the lead-up to the military disarmament of Saddam Hussein. There is no question that the United Nations will need to be involved in post-conflict Iraq. It will certainly need to be involved at the humanitarian level. It will need to assist with transitional arrangements to ensure that broader transitional arrangements work, and it will need to be involved with the process of rebuilding Iraq including, very importantly, the mobilisation of international funding for Iraq. After all, Iraq will not just have suffered from military conflict but from sanctions which have been in place for more than a decade and from the simply abominable regime of President Saddam Hussein.

We also believe that the United Nations should have a role in the administration of Iraq and that possibly there should be the appointment of somebody such as a special representative of the Secretary-General. There is, for example, one in East Timor at the moment. Although East Timor is an independent country, there is still present there a special representative of the Secretary-General. There is a variety of different ways that that position can operate. If a new Security Council resolution is required to achieve these things, then let me make the point that the Australian government believe it is enormously important that the Security Council not be politicised by some of the council members and that the Security Council ensure that it addresses—

Opposition members interjecting—

Mr DOWNER —I would have thought it was obvious that the Security Council should address the difficult humanitarian situation in Iraq and there not be any political gameplaying on the Security Council. After hostilities cease, rehabilitating Iraq will be an enormous and pressing task, as I have mentioned. We will do all we can to support the Iraqi people's efforts to establish sound political and economic institutions based on the rule of law and democratic principles. We are focusing on assisting Iraqis to build the capacity to govern themselves. Assistance to governance will help to provide sound policies, stable institutions and the accountable systems that are a prerequisite for sustained growth and reduced poverty. We will also be assisting to create an environment conducive to private sector growth and investments in infrastructure and human capital.

Our role does not end there. We will also continue to assist efforts to work with the United Nations, as well as the United Kingdom and the United States, in a number of other different ways. We have deployed officers from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and AusAID to participate in contingency planning for post-conflict Iraq with the United States Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance. That office is based at the moment in Kuwait. Agricultural and economic experts will join the same office shortly. These experts will later be placed in Iraq itself to directly assist the Iraqi people in their reconstruction efforts.