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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 1 Hansard (19 February) . . Page.. 231 ..

MS TUCKER (continuing):

Mr Speaker, this approach is included in what I have listed in my motion. It requires that there be a continuing program of rigorous weapons inspection in Iraq and then containment through a transition from originally short-term inspections to long-term onsite monitoring.

The debate concerning Iraq's possible weapons of mass destruction and their elimination cannot be simplified to inspections versus war. In the interest of global security the debate must change to how many inspectors and how they are supported. Monitors are required in Iraq to keep the world safe. Several UN Security Council resolutions have called for this robust monitoring. Let us enforce those resolutions.

It is also important to consider the value of the economic sanctions and lift them once that evaluation has been made because it is clear that economic sanctions have been an absolute failure in achieving the stated objectives. All they have achieved is causing the death and misery of hundreds and thousands of innocent people, especially children, in Iraq. Ironically, this measure has also had the effect of further entrenching the power of Saddam Hussein.

The third point I make is the need for the United States to sign on to the International Criminal Court and then pursue Saddam Hussein for crimes against humanity. Once again, how ironic it is that Blair, Howard and Bush and now waxing lyrical about the human rights abuses in Iraq and yet do not mention the International Criminal Court. Mr Downer, in a media release of December 1999 in which he announced that Australia would ratify the statute of the International Criminal Court that was adopted at the Rome Diplomatic Conference in 1998, said:

The establishment of an effective international criminal court is a prime foreign policy goal of this government.

He spoke of Australia as having taken a significant and influential role in the negotiations leading up to the adoption of the court's statute. However, Marc Grossman, US Under Secretary for Political Affairs, remarked to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies in Washington in 2002 that "The ICC asserts jurisdiction over citizens that have not ratified the treaty. This threatens US sovereignty."So much for the United States' promotion of justice and the rule of law; so much for Australia's promotion of the International Criminal Court.

Another area where there is a deafening silence from these three men is the question of the arms trade. When the first report from Blix was presented, the United States pulled out all stops to get first access to and shut down wide dissemination of the report; particularly evidence of US and European culpability in aiding the Iraqi weapons programs dating back to before the Gulf War but covering the period of Saddam Hussein's rise and his worst crimes. The report was, however, leaked to a Berlin daily with a list of US corporations that allegedly supplied Iraq with nuclear, chemical, biological and missile technology prior to 1991. The silence on the arms trade is morally reprehensible and must be challenged.

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