MARK LATHAM ON IRAQ

It began with a gentle email like this:

Dear Mark

Correct weight. If only I'd been there to second those eloquent comments about George Bush. Christ, next we might find you recommending a bit of Marxist analysis on the war, ie, an oil well dressed up a Christian virgin about to be set upon by some Arab. I'm so moved I'm almost prepared to say all is forgiven.

and ended with

Thanks Phil,

high praise coming from a political warrior like yourself. I'm more than happy to have a unity ticket with you on Bush/Iraq, plus a directly elected Australian President. I've even mellowed a tad on the purity of free trade, especially the proposed agreement with the USA.

Cheers, Latham.

Then when Mark wandered out to a Labor turn in Sunbury he had this to say:

With the rise of globalisation, our role has become more important.

Too much economic power is concentrated in the hands of big corporations.

In recent times, these companies have won many more rights, particularly the rights of free trade and investment. But in return, they have been reluctant to discharge their proper social responsibilities. The obscene level of executive bonuses in Australia is just one sign of corporate irresponsibility and greed.

Mark Latham

An edited version of Mark Latham's speech on George W Bush

MINISTERIAL STATEMENTS: Iraq

Mr LATHAM (Werriwa) (12.30 p.m.) -I am opposed to the government's strategy for war in Iraq because it is the wrong way of conducting the war against terror. I am opposed to the government's strategy because it repeats the worst mistakes of George Bush's foreign policy. I am opposed to the government's strategy because it comes from a Prime Minister who is too weak to say no to the Americans.

I believe that the war against terror should be conducted against terrorists, not the women and children of nation states. The best way of ensuring that weapons of mass destruction do not fall into the hands of terrorists is to rid the world of terrorists. This should have been America's strategy post September 11: to target, fight and eliminate the terrorists......................

Bush himself is the most incompetent and dangerous president in living memory. It is a bit rich for him to be preaching democratic values when he himself failed to win a democratic majority in the 2000 presidential election. His war with Iraq is more about revenging his father's mistakes, it is about the things that happened in Iraq and Kuwait in the early 1990s and it is about securing domestic political advantage.

........................................

It has been left to the elder statesmen of the Liberal Party-John Valder, Fred Chaney, Peter Baume, John Hewson and Malcolm Fraser-to articulate a true small-l liberal position. Mr Howard and his government are just yes-men to the United States. There they are, a conga line of suckholes on the conservative side of Australian politics. ........................................

I reject his blind rush to war with Iraq. And I trust in time-I dearly hope in time-that the Australian people themselves will reject this Prime Minister and his government.

MARK LATHAM