Tony Zappia (Makin, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Manufacturing) Share this | Hansard source

Albert Einstein was once reported as having said, 'So long as there are men, there will be wars.' It is a very sad indictment of mankind that that is the case, and certainly history will show that it has been the case for as long as history records mankind's life on this planet. It seems that the passage of time, the experience of past wars and even the significant advances in civilisation make little difference to the aggression mankind inflicts upon itself. It also seems that the only lessons learned from war are how to do it better the next time around.

Throughout my own life I can barely recall a period when in some part of the world people were not being butchered, brutalised or persecuted. It is a human trait that I have difficulty understanding. Every day news services report of the people being horrifically killed, wounded, mutilated, raped, tortured, enslaved or abused in some way. For all those people, even greater numbers live in daily fear that they or their family members may face a similar fate.

These events are occurring away from Australian shores right now, with many Australians relatively oblivious to what is occurring and getting on with a peaceful life here in Australia, completely in contrast to the lives of those people caught up in the midst of conflict. Yet those people are in reality little different to each of us, with similar human emotions, feelings and aspirations to ours. So whilst I have been fortunate to have been raised in Australia, and I have never been personally caught up in a military conflict, it does not take too much imagination to understand how horrific it must be.

Today the conflicts we are seeing are not so much between countries but between warring factions clashing in internal power struggles. Whatever the cause, the loss of lives, the suffering and the misery being inflicted on the innocent lives cannot and should not be ignored by those who know what is happening and have the ability to intervene. The nature of the intervention, of course, needs to be proportionate to what is required. Nor should we blindly take political sides. Rather, we should do what is right.

It seems from reports we receive that the aggressors in Iraq and Syria show no mercy but are driven by blind, violent ideology masquerading as religion. As we debate this statement, there are people in Iraq and Syria pleading for help, as there were in Bosnia between 1992 and 1995, when about 100,000 of them were slaughtered whilst the world looked on.

When I attend the Bosnian commemorations of what happened in Srebrenica on 11 July 1995, the universal plea that I hear at each of those services is that such atrocities should never be allowed to be repeated. For Australia—and indeed any country with the ability to intervene—to stand by and watch the slaughter of others and do nothing would show that we place no more value on the lives of those being killed than do the perpetrators. My views are not driven by political ideology, political opportunity, political allegiance or hatred of any group, but by my deep concern for the lives of innocent, fearful and defenceless men, women and children who simply want to get on with their lives as we all do in Australia.

Of course, it will be said that Australia should have similarly intervened in many other similar conflicts. And perhaps Australia should have. I guess that historians will make that judgement, as we all can as well. But right now we are responding to what is happening in Iraq and Syria, as should all other nations that legitimately seek peace. For it will only be through universal condemnation of what is occurring that ISIS or similar organisations will ever be stopped. ISIS is not a democratically-elected body or an internal political force resisting its national government, but an international criminal organisation that is spreading its influence throughout the world.

Of course, the underlying question is, why is this occurring? What is ISIS's purpose and what is its ultimate objective? I do not believe that violence is the way to resolve differences, but there are lessons for all of us in what is happening in Iraq. We cannot ignore events of the past or of the present that have given rise to ISIS and driven their followers into their ideology. For if we do, it will be inevitable that, when this crisis has passed, a new crisis will emerge.

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