Mr KEENAN (2:52 PM) —My question is addressed to the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Would the minister inform the House on progress in providing a secure environment for the development of democracy in Iraq? Are there any alternative views?

Mr Wilkie —Try and tell the truth.

The SPEAKER —Order! The member for Swan is warned!

Mr DOWNER (Minister for Foreign Affairs) —First of all, I thank the honourable member for his question. He is a member who has very strongly supported the contribution Australia is making to the developing democracy in Iraq. The fourth rotation of the Australian Army Training Team in Iraq is in Al Muthanna province, in the south. So far they have trained around 900 members of the Iraqi Second Brigade of the 10th Division and have also provided some basic training for another 650 in Tallil. The third rotation of the training team in Iraq was in Taji, which is north of Baghdad. They trained around 1,000 Iraqis in logistics. I understand that was a huge success and that, through two advisers, it is still providing support to the Iraqi Army Services Support Institute.

The first and second of the training teams that we sent have completed their tours, during which they trained the Fourth Brigade and Eighth Brigade of the Iraq Third Division. Australians should be proud of the simply outstanding job that the Australian Army, and Australian Defence Force generally, is doing in Iraq to train the Iraqis to take responsibility for security in that country. Our objective on this side of the House is perfectly clear: to see the continuation of the democratic process and, increasingly, the capacity of the Iraqi security forces to take control of security in their own country. When those jobs have been completed, the transformation of Iraq from a brutal and cruel dictatorship to a liberal democracy will be great news not just for the people of Iraq but for the Middle East. Through the Middle East there will be an emerging trend towards democracy, and that emerging trend will contribute to greater peace in that very troubled region.

It is a simple point: we are very proud of the role—and it has been in controversial circumstances—that the government has played in helping to make this possible. It has held Australia in good stead around the world. To have adopted the position of the Leader of the Opposition, and the opposition more generally, would have meant simply to have allowed Saddam Hussein to remain in place, which would not have been in the best interests of the Iraqi people, the Middle East or Australia.