Senator WONG (2:13 PM) —My question is to Senator Hill, the Minister for Defence and the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs. What information can the minister provide to the Senate on reports from the International Committee of the Red Cross that power and water supplies in the southern Iraqi city of Basra have been out of operation for the past 48 hours? Can the minister confirm, as the Red Cross has stated, that the main water-pumping station is in the area within the control of US forces and that, without immediate restoration of water supply, there is an immediate risk of humanitarian disaster in Basra? What contingency plans do US or coalition forces have in place to deal with cuts in essential services such as power and water? And what action will the Australian government take to ensure that Red Cross engineers have immediate access to restore power and water supplies to Basra?

Senator HILL (Minister for Defence) —It is an unfortunate reality during wars that essential services are often lost and innocent people suffer as a result. In this particular conflict, a great deal of effort is being made to avoid civilian casualties and to avoid, as much as possible, discomfort to innocent communities. The quarrel that we have is certainly not with the Iraqi people—they have suffered enough under Saddam Hussein. Our quarrel is with Saddam Hussein's possession of weapons of mass destruction, which he has used on his own people before and has used on others. I also have heard that some essential services are down in Basra. The city is still the subject of conflict. I am sure every effort will be made to return those essential services as quickly as possible.

Senator WONG —Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. Can the minister confirm that, if the United States reported aim of isolating and laying siege to Iraqi cities remains the strategy, the looming humanitarian disaster in Basra is likely to be repeated in numerous Iraqi cities as the conflict moves towards Baghdad? What contingency plans do coalition forces have for dealing with the provision of essential services to the Iraqi population and to hospitals and medical services?

Senator HILL (Minister for Defence) —Mr President, I tried to make the point to Senator Wong—obviously it was not convincing—that every effort is being made to avoid suffering by innocent Iraqi people. Our objective, albeit an incidental objective, is to benefit the Iraqi people from this conflict, to give them a chance of a better life subsequent to the conflict. Thus, I again give her my assurance that every effort will be made to minimise such consequences.