Page 39 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 12 February 1991
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the best ways of doing that is basically to let the allied military get on with the job rather than to put needless political restraints on them which will perhaps only complicate the matter. I think it is very important that a conflict such as this be resolved as speedily as possible.
Mr Speaker, I think our sympathy in the Assembly should go out at this stage to the persons involved in this struggle - to the allied service men and women and the people of occupied Kuwait who have been brutalised by this vicious regime that has taken them over. That well respected body Amnesty International, of which many members of this Assembly are members, through our parliamentary wing, has let out a number of reports of murder and brutalisation caused by the occupying Iraqi forces in Kuwait.
Mr Berry and some of his comrades in the Labor Left and the peace movement have said that Kuwait was a feudal monarchy; that it was a repressive country. Well, Mr Berry, I think Kuwait is back in about the twelfth century now; so you might be happy to know that. When it was a feudal monarchy, at least the people there were well fed and, as Mr Collaery said, could walk down the street without fear of harassment. Now, many have been executed, many have been brutalised, just like their Arab brothers in Iraq itself. If you asked the Kuwaitis what they would rather have - the regime they had before 2 August or what they have now - I know what they would pick: The one before 2 August. So I do not think that that is an argument to use in relation to this matter.
Mr Speaker, we on this side of the house certainly hope that this war comes to a speedy conclusion. I have pleasure in supporting this motion which supports the motion passed by our Federal Parliament. I was very pleased to see the statement made by the Prime Minister when he announced Australia's participation. I support the comments he made and those made by my own Federal leader, Dr Hewson, the Leader of the Opposition.
MRS GRASSBY (4.20): I rise to say that I do regard this motion as a cheap political trick. I do not think this house has anything to do with this. There is no such thing as an inevitable war. If war comes, it usually comes from a failure of human wisdom, and I think that is what has happened here. I support the statement that Mr Berry made on this matter. I think it is very sad to think that people have been dragged into a war and that millions of people will die. War is as much a punishment for the punisher as it is for the sufferer.
It is very sad to think that this motion has been brought before this house as a cheap political trick when thousands of people are going to die because of this war. I feel very sorry to see this happen, and I will vote against this motion for this reason. This motion has nothing to do with the war in Iraq; the fact is that it is just being used as a cheap political trick by the Government.
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