Shane Ross (Independent)

I do not know why we cannot try these people for war crimes. Perhaps the Leader can shed some light on this issue. They claim to be fighting a war, have indulged themselves in ethnic cleansing, are taking on the State and are taking the law into their hands to murder people at will. They also look for prisoner of war status and it seems there is a good case for referring such people to the same sort of justice applied to others.

I wholeheartedly agree with Senator Ryan's point. If people are given a fairly free, although not unchallenged, run to talk about their attempts at murdering people in the national media and others are interrupted and mocked for denouncing this sort of violence, our society has reached a stage of corruption of which we are not aware. There is a real danger that we are beginning to accept the ethos and language of violence. The IRA cleverly demonstrated this last night when it shocked us into realising that we are now beginning to accept the language of murder without batting an eyelid. This is a salutary lesson for all of us in this House, one about which we are united. There is a creeping language of murder and violence which is not acceptable. If Senator Ryan is to be challenged while others are not, we should look again not only at the behaviour of the media but of the national broadcasting station.