Page 32 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 12 February 1991
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Many were suspicious that they were leading towards conflict anyway. Their worst suspicions were borne out in the end and they did lead to conflict. I think many Australians now believe that the sanctions were never intended to work; they were merely a way of joining people in the lead-up to a conflict. As those of us who have been involved in any negotiations would understand, once one sets a deadline in any discussion or negotiation without ambit it is very likely that you can predict the outcome.
All of those issues are sad parts of history now. I think that what we all have to do is to ensure that we support the movement to peace and that we do not rush off supporting silly motions like this that only respond to support for the issue of war. That is all this motion does.
Mr Speaker, there is a chief economic drive for wars that involves raw materials, land for surplus population, wider resource bases and economic self-sufficiency. This has been evident in the Middle East conflicts for many years. These motives not only help to explain the annexation of Kuwait, though they do not justify it, but also explain the massive Western response to it. I think everybody should agree to that.
Mr Speaker, to conclude, I think the only answer for this conflict is a lasting plan for the Middle East that must address all of the problems that I have raised in the course of this debate; responses which, if looked at with the aim of peace, will result in peace, and a long-lasting one. I think that this motion that has been moved by Mr Jensen responds only to the need to justify war.
MR COLLAERY (Attorney-General) (3.58): Mr Speaker, I support the comments of my leader, Mr Kaine, and I endorse the comments of the Archbishop of Canterbury-elect this morning at the twenty-third service for the opening of the Federal Parliament when he acknowledged that there comes a time to throw off oppression. I am reminded, Mr Speaker, of the May 1939 debates in the Australian Parliament. There are some famous quotations from May 1939. You will find them in Hansard, but I do not have the references to hand. In that Parliament, during that sitting, the then External Affairs Minister, Mr Gullett, referred, among other things, to "Hitler's and Mussolini's shining genius and patriotism for their people". Sadly, within the space of 18 months, that very man's son had been killed in Syria, fighting beside his brother.
Really, what I have seen today worries me. There was absolute consternation on the Labor benches, Mr Speaker - you saw it; we all saw it - when this motion was introduced.
Mr Wood: Rubbish!
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