26 August 2013
The Hon. Kevin Rudd MP
c/- ALP National Secretariat
Unit 5, 9 Sydney Avenue
BARTON ACT 2600
Dear Mr Rudd
I refer to my letter of
13 August 2013 seeking, on behalf of the Campaign for an Iraq War
Inquiry, to ascertain the Australian Labor Party’s policy in the context of the
current Federal Election campaign on several matters which are of central
importance to our membership.
In that connection, I write to commend the comments
attributed to you in today’s edition of The
Age, connection with recent developments in Syria, to the effect that we
need to be mindful of wrong decisions made in the past in relation to Iraq,
leading to Australian and other governments went into armed conflict “based on …
something that was entirely incorrect”. Calling for a “calm and measured
response” to the allegations of a chemical attack in Syria, you (correctly in
our view) state that no one should rush to a conclusion that the regime in
Syria has used chemical weapons “until we have the definitive report from UN
weapons inspectors”.
The comments attributed to you as noted above lead us to conclude
that you would certainly be in agreement with at least part of our Campaign’s
agenda, so I write again to urge you to let our members and supporters, as well
as the general public, have your answers to the following questions as set out
in my letter of 13 August:
1. Do
you believe the Prime Minister should continue to have the authority to take
Australia to war on her/his own?
2.
Would you support a new bill requiring parliamentary debate and approval
before the Australian Defence Force is deployed in overseas combat operations?
3. Do you support taking ANZUS back to its
(a)
Original obligation of consultations (not automatic military action);
(b) Original
geography (the Pacific area); and
(c) Original
purpose (defence against an armed attack)?
4. Do you support Article 1 of the ANZUS Treaty
which obliges Australia "to refrain... from the
threat or use of force in any manner inconsistent with the purposes of the
United Nations"? Would you support legislation to require UN authorisation
for Australia to go to war other than in response to an armed attack?
5. The United States, the United Kingdom, the
Netherlands and Denmark have each initiated a public inquiry into their
involvement in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Do you support a review of the
process by which the Australian Government decided to join the invasion, in
order to determine whether the process was satisfactory?
6. Do you believe that Australia should defer
to the established international channels for WMD verification, monitoring and
compliance?
I realise that considered
answers to some of these questions might require more time for careful
reflection than would be available to you in the limited time remaining before
election day, but they are important questions and we would appreciate whatever
insights or in-principle guidance you might feel able to give us in order to
enable us to evaluate your policy thinking about these important matters ahead
of the election.
Yours sincerely,
Paul Barratt
President
The article in today's edition of The Age to which reference is made above may be found at
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