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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2003 Week 1 Hansard (19 February) . . Page.. 257 ..

MRS CROSS (continuing):

I want to read something which my husband brought to my attention. I know many people in this country have terrible views on the military. That is shameful, given that those people go into a profession to protect this country. My heritage is Greek, and those people respect the military. When I grew up seeing how many Australians have a horrendous attitude against the military in this country, I became very protective and decided to learn more about it. I am sure Mr Pratt knows where I am coming from because he was in the military as well, as was my husband.

I refer to a recent article in The Australian of 21 January entitled "Despotism the Left's Too Blind to See."The subheading is, "Veteran Labor activist Jim Nolan calls on Simon Crean and the Left to stop ignoring Saddam Hussein's evil regime".

For those of us who think it's all left and then right, it is not. There are people in the Left who, I suppose, have been able to analyse this problem. Jim Nolan is an industrial relations barrister who has been a member of the Australian Labor Party since 1968. Mr Nolan writes:

Why won't Labor and the Australian Left call for the removal of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein on human rights grounds alone? After all, the party and its ideological soul mates in the community have had a proud and noble record in championing the democratic cause of the oppressed and condemning the evil ways of their aggressors.

From the West's intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo to rescue European Muslims from ethnic cleansing at the hands of the Stalinist fascists to the liberation of East Timor from the Indonesian military rulers, the Australian Left has supported the great humanitarian interventions in recent years. The lesson? That a blanket principle of non-intervention cannot rationally be sustained.

Yet the Left's opposition to regime change in Iraq stands in stark contrast to these principle campaigns. But turning a blind eye to the Iraqi tyrant will only lend aid and comfort to one of the most brutal and murderous regimes on earth. And opposing the Bush-Blair-Howard position of regime change in Iraq will only prolong the life of an ugly, brutal, fascist state.

Conventional wisdom among the Left holds that the international community should act in the face of widespread human rights abuses. An important task for the Left, the argument goes, is to take their own governments to task to require intervention in the name of democratic and human rights values. Campaigns against the racist regimes in South Africa and Zimbabwe and more recently, Cambodia, East Timor, Burma and Tibet bear this out.

Yet faced with a tyrannical and murderous regime in the Persian Gulf, many in Australian Labor are looking away. Former Foreign Affairs spokesman Laurie Brereton has forcefully stated that any intervention is none of Australia's concern.

Since when? The article continues:

And Simon Crean has echoed Brereton's call, telling The Australian Financial Review last week that he has all but ruled out support for a US-led attack on Iraq.

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