Page 47 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 12 February 1991
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I now wish to say what I have to support here. This dates from 1661 and is a declaration made to King Charles II. This is the fundamental statement of the Society of Friends. It is on the front door of our meeting house. It was read at our meeting last Sunday. It is what we stand for throughout the world. I quote:
We utterly deny all outward wars and strife and fightings with outward weapons, for any end or under any pretence whatsoever. And this is our testimony to the whole world. The spirit of Christ, by which we are guided, is not changeable, so as once to command us from a thing as evil and again to move unto it; and we do certainly know, and so testify to the world, that the spirit of Christ, which leads us into all Truth, will never move us to fight and war against any man with outward weapons, neither for the kingdom of Christ, nor for the kingdoms of this world.
So, friends present - certainly my colleagues on this side of the Assembly understand, and I am sure that those on the other side understand as well - you will appreciate why I cannot support this motion. What I propose to do now, at eleven minutes to five, is to go to the vigil which is being held at Ursula College.
MR WOOD (4.49): I regret that Mr Collaery entered this debate. It would have been better had he not done so. I believe that he cheapened this debate and indicated, sadly, what it is all about. He spoke little about the war, or any other war. He spoke nothing about peace. He spoke about the Labor Left, as he sees it. I do not think that he did justice to the serious debate that was held in the Federal Parliament and to the debate around Australia and elsewhere.
I want to say at the outset that I am totally opposed to Saddam and his regime. It is a reprehensible, dreadful, despicable regime, and its invasion of Kuwait was quite wrong. Let me make that quite clear. But I do not support the war. The rallying cry for this war, oft repeated, is, "Liberate Kuwait". I repeat, "Liberate Kuwait". I cannot march behind that banner. How can we liberate something which was not free? I will march for peace, not for war; and that is my view that I am happy to express.
I note that this motion refers to the "ongoing role" of the United Nations in promoting world peace. A major problem for me has been that it has not been an ongoing role. There are resolutions of the United Nations that have not been enforced. Take "ongoing role" out of the motion. It has been nothing more than an intermittent and highly selective role. That caused great difficulties for me as I came to my decisions about how I stood in relation to the war.
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