Mr PYNE (Parliamentary Secretary to the Minister for Health and Ageing) (4:23 PM) —On 7 May General Michel Aoun returned to Lebanon after spending 15 years in exile, from 1990 to 2005. An extraordinary series of events led to the arrival at the airport in Beirut of General Aoun, a former Prime Minister of Lebanon and a former chief of staff of the Lebanese security forces—a series of events that is noteworthy for this House this afternoon.

The passing of resolution 1559, which I will return to later in more detail, by the United Nations Security Council in September 2004 established the beginning of a chain of events that led to the end of a 29-year occupation of Lebanon by Syria. It led to the end of the establishment of puppet regimes by the Syrian government in Lebanon from 1990 to 2005, in direct contravention of international law and resolutions of the United Nations Security Council and in direct defiance of the entreaties of the Western world, entreaties that were led in particular by the United States, France, Australia and Great Britain, amongst other countries. Resolution 1559 also set in train acts of parliament passed by the United States Congress and motions passed by the House of Commons in Great Britain calling on Syria to fulfil its obligation to the international community, as required by its membership of the United Nations, by following the strictures of resolution 1559.

On 14 February, the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri, was killed in Beirut in a bloodthirsty and callous assassination. Rafik Hariri was a great man of Lebanese politics who had tried in his own way, even under the occupation of Syria, to establish a slightly more independent regime for the good of the Lebanese people. He had attempted to make a Lebanon for the Lebanese rather than a Lebanon as a plaything for Syria and other Middle Eastern politicians and terrorist organisations. I am pleased that the member for Melbourne Ports is in the House this afternoon because I am sure he will agree with much of what I am going to say about Lebanon today, and I know that the minister at the dispatch box will too.

The assassination of Rafik Hariri on 14 February was followed by a gigantic series of rallies across Lebanon, particularly in Beirut, led by young people, students and ordinary Lebanese family members who wanted to bring about liberty, freedom and democracy—real democracy—in their homeland. It led eventually to the withdrawal by Syria of its military apparatus on 26 April, which we hope will lead to free and fair elections on 29 May, only a few weeks away, over a rolling period of Saturdays, as is the constitutional set-up in Lebanon.

The return of General Aoun on 7 May ended a very unhappy 30-year chapter in the history of Lebanon: from 1975 to 1990, a civil war between the various groups that make up the extraordinarily multicultural and ancient history of Lebanon; and, from 1990 to 2005, the exile of Michel Aoun and many of his supporters and others who escaped from Lebanon rather than exist under the total domination of Syria. As members of this House will know, in 1976 Syria invaded Lebanon under the pretext of defending and supporting its interests in Lebanon and stopping the civil war. The civil war continued until 1990, when Syria put aside all pretext of protecting the Lebanese people and took total control of Lebanon, ousting the government of Michel Aoun and the Lebanese people.

In those 29 years of Syrian domination, many communities in Lebanon—Christian, Druze and patriotic Muslims who want Lebanon for the Lebanese—kept the fire of freedom alive. The diaspora played an important role in the period from 1990 to 2005 and included people who over many decades left Lebanon voluntarily. As most people in this House would know, many Lebanese have been coming to Australia since the 19th century and before the Second World War. But many more came in the period from 1975 to 2005, leaving a bright, exciting, affluent economic powerhouse in Lebanon that had been destroyed by civil war. They went to Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain and, in particular, the United States. Michel Aoun, with many of his followers, went to France. From exile, they kept the flame of democracy and liberty alive for the Lebanese people. The role they played in bringing about resolution 1559 and in applying pressure on the United States Congress to pass the Syria Accountability and Lebanese Sovereignty Restoration Act in 2003 is a matter of historical record. The support that they provided for their own compatriots still in Lebanon fighting for freedom, whether they were Christians, Druze or patriotic Muslims, is also a matter of record. I know from those in my own electorate and other communities from Lebanon now in Australia that a great deal of support was provided over that period to ensure that the people in Lebanon knew that they were not alone. We can be proud of the role that Australia played in that, through housing and supporting Lebanese expatriates. I am certainly proud of it.

Resolution 1559 was passed in September 2004, and it would probably be useful to read five of the sections of the resolution. In the resolution, the Security Council:

Many of these calls by the Security Council have been fulfilled. Syria has removed its military apparatus from Lebanon. But my supporters from the Lebanese community in my electorate want to make sure, and I think all the Lebanese people want to know, that the entire Syrian apparatus in Lebanon is removed from Lebanon—not just the military apparatus but those people they secreted into the Lebanese intelligence services, those people they trained as part of the Lebanese military and security forces for the future, those people they established as the leadership of the clergy in Lebanon and those people they established in political parties in Lebanon as puppets of the Syrian regime. What the Lebanese people I know want to make sure of, and what the Lebanese people around the world want to make sure of, is that there is a true removal of Syrian influence from Lebanon and that Lebanon will be left to the Lebanese people to govern in the way that it was for many years before the grotesque invasion of that country by Syria in 1976.

Syrian forces have been withdrawn but non-Lebanese militias have not been disarmed. We call for Hezbollah and the Palestinian militias to be disbanded and to play no military role in Lebanon. Certainly they may well play a political role in Lebanon, but we deplore armed militias operating as thugs in any democratic country and we want to make sure that the Lebanese people can conduct free and fair democratic elections without the spectre of violence hanging over their heads in the form of militias.

It is also true to say that the war in Iraq has played a fundamental role in the freedom of the Lebanese people. The support that Australia has given to Israel over the last 50 to 60 years and the support that the Australian people and the government gave to freeing the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein have lit the fire of democracy in the Middle East and given great impetus and inspiration to the Lebanese people, who rose up through a series of demonstrations to demand freedom, liberty and democracy. I salute the return of Aoun to Lebanon, and I salute the chance for freedom and democracy in Lebanon for the Lebanese people. (Time expired)