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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 1 Hansard (19 February) . . Page.. 246 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

It wasn't just the people that they killed and injured who were affected by that and whose country was destroyed. It was also the people who were sent over there by the government of the day who were affected by their involvement in the Vietnam War. We are still seeing the effects of that. If you think that I am going to sit quietly by and allow troops, men and women, to be committed to a destructive war and say nothing, you have another think coming.

An interesting thing has been the approach of the federal government. You have only to go back to the boat people saga and look at the fear campaign that has been run against everything that is not white Anglo-Saxon as we have been led up to this war. For example, we had the boat people issue when people from overseas were the subject of a racist attack. The next extension, of course, when it comes to the war-like nature of this government has been in relation to Howard's commitment to the attack on Iraq.

All we have as a result of all of this is a lousy little fridge sticker at home that tells us to watch out for terrorists. That has been the nature of this government all the time. It has never been about achieving peace. It has been about winning the political battle in Australia and winning the minds of the Australian people. It has never been about peace. Don't come in here, Mr Pratt, and say that you are the only one concerned about the Kurdish people or the Iraqis.

Mr Pratt: I didn't say that, Wayne.

MR BERRY: The way you spoke about it, it was as if you were the only one concerned about the Kurdish people and the Iraqi people. How do you think the slaughter of 20,000 Iraqis helped the cause of the people that you were looking after when you were there some years later? I can tell you that I do not think it helped them much at all. You would have to admit to that. It probably made it worse for them. In fact, I am almost certain that it made it worse for them. So do not lecture me about whether I am concerned about the Iraqi people.

Another thing that annoys me about the arguments that members opposite have put in this debate is that, all of a sudden, they do not want to talk about weapons of mass destruction because the inspectors are finding it pretty hard to find them. They are not finding too many of them. The inspectors have been in the place for ages and are not finding too many of them. There is no smoking gun, but we are supposed to believe all of this propaganda that is being put to us by the Americans. There is no smoking gun; so, all of a sudden, it is to the inhumane activities of Saddam Hussein that the debate is starting to shift, to try to convince people that we ought to just march in there and slaughter another 10,000 or 20,000 Iraqis.

Mr Pratt: Don't be dramatic.

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