Joanna Tuffy (Labour)

Having listened to the speeches from the Government side today and yesterday, the Government position is full of contradictions. It is either moving towards an outright shift from our neutral position or it is full of confusion. For example, Senators Dooley and Morrissey said we should take a stand and support the US and the UK over Iraq, but what about supporting and upholding the UN? We are a member of the UN which comprises friends and colleagues. We should uphold UN policy. The UN is opposed to this unilateral act by the US and the UK and it wanted more time to be given to the inspectors. I accept there was a need for the ultimate threat of war to back up the inspections, but there should not have been a war while there was still time to achieve something through peaceful means, which was the position. The primacy of the UN is being eroded by the actions of the UK and the US and by the Government's stance in the last week. The Government has changed its position in that a few weeks ago it was upholding the primacy of the UN.