On 16 August 2012 an informal grouping of people describing
ourselves as the Iraq War Inquiry Group (IWIG) met in a Committee Room in
Parliament House to launch a document entitled Why Did We Go to War in Iraq: a call for an Australian inquiry.
Our host for the event was the Member for Fremantle, Ms
Melissa Parke MP (ALP), and the document was launched by former Prime Minister
the Rt Hon Malcolm Fraser AC CH.
Other members of the
panel at the launch were:
- Senator
Scott Ludlam (Greens, WA).
- Mr
Andrew Wilkie MP (Ind), the Member for Denison.
- GEN
(Retd.) Peter Gration AC OBE, former Chief of the Defence Force.
-
Mr Paul Barratt AO, former Secretary,
Department of Defence and former Deputy Secretary, Department of Foreign Affairs
and Trade.
- Dr Sue Wareham OAM, Vice-President,
Medical Association for Prevention of War (Australia).
- Professor
Ramesh Thakur, Director, Centre for Nuclear Nonproliferation &
Disarmament, ANU Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy.
- Dr
Alison Broinowski, former diplomat; Visiting Fellow, Department of Asian
Studies, ANU; Honorary Research Fellow, University of Wollongong.
- Adjunct
Professor Richard Broinowski, Media and Communications, University of
Sydney; former diplomat.
- Mr
Rod Barton former Director of Intelligence (Science and Technology),
Defence Intelligence Organisation; former UN Weapons Inspector in Iraq
Since the launch we have applied to become an incorporated association,
as a more effective vehicle for raising funds and conducting a campaign, and elected
a committee to lead and manage our affairs.
The objectives of our association are:
1 To campaign for an inquiry into the steps
which led to Australia participating in the invasion of Iraq, for the purposes
of identifying the lessons to be learned and of developing better procedures
for the future.
2 To promote public awareness of the procedures
required by current law for the deployment of the Australian Defence Force into
international armed conflicts, and of the risks involved in the current
arrangements.
3 To campaign for the involvement of the
Commonwealth Parliament in any future deployment of the Australian Defence
Force into international armed conflict.
There are many unanswered questions in relation to Australia’s
decision to go to war. They include:
- What was the Government’s decision-making
process and timing that led to our participation in the invasion?
- What were the objectives, and how was success
to be defined?
- How did the Government reconcile conflicting
intelligence assessments?
- How did the Government attempt to satisfy
itself of the legality of the invasion?
- Which of the many NGO predictions of
widespread and severe human suffering, including by children, did the
Government consider? If none, why?
- To what extent were the statements made to
the Parliament and the public consistent with all the available relevant
assessments.
To assist our supporters to find out more about the issues
involved in our deployment to Iraq, and the processes by which we decide to put
members of the Australian Defence Force in harm’s way, and to enable them to
keep track of and support our campaign, we have established a Facebook page at
www.facebook.com/IraqWarInquiryGroup
. Please visit the site and express your support for the campaign by clicking
on the Like button.
