Senator WILLIAMS (New South Wales) (9:45 PM) —I rise to speak on the war in Afghanistan and to say that I support what the Australian soldiers are doing there. It would be lovely to live in a perfect world, a world where we do not have wars, where we do not have attacks on countries and where we do not have deaths or the destruction of families and all that goes with war. Unfortunately, we do not live in a perfect world.

Last night when I turned on the television, the movie Tora! Tora! Tora! was on. It is set during the Second World War and it is about the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. At the end of the movie, when the Japanese have had the huge success—if you could call it that—with their attack on Pearl Harbor, having caught the Americans unaware, asleep, a Japanese character says, ‘I think we have woken a sleeping giant’.

I know that many in Australia these days are critical of our American colleagues and friends. But we should look back at what America did during the Second World War; the Battle of the Coral Sea was the turning point of the Second World War. Make no mistake about it: without the Americans, we could well be under Japanese dictatorship today and perhaps not have a parliament like this. Australia was really under threat, the Japanese had progressed down to New Guinea, Port Moresby was in their sights and the magnificent battalion, the 49th battalion I think it was, went up there as a home guard. Many of the roughly 450 soldiers could not even load a rifle let alone actually shoot properly. They were just not trained. But the typical Australian courage was there—450 Australians fighting more than 4,000 Japanese week after week.

It was a terrible war with millions killed, as we all know. It was also a war in which we came very close to defeat at one stage. We saw the turnaround in 1944, luckily. We thought that perhaps that was the end of wars. But Australia went on to participate in Korea, Vietnam, East Timor—many conflicts. We supported the United States in those wars, and we know that as our big brother they would support us.

I hope that in the years to come Australia’s relationship with neighbours like Indonesia grows bigger and better, stronger and stronger. But I also know that, if that were not the case, with Australia having just 22 million people it would be very difficult if we did not have strong allies like the United States of America. I hope that our friendship continues to grow with our neighbours and that we can live in peace for hundreds of years to come.

When I watched Tora! Tora! Tora! last night, I was reminded of another attack on America, 9-11. And I thought of the thousands of people killed and the destruction of those families. Could you blame America for going after those who caused such destruction? Of course not. We are fortunate that the United States is a country that prides itself on democracy and freedom. They are not dictators; they are on our side when it comes to beliefs. They believe in what we believe in. They went out to rid the world of terrorism.

Senator WILLIAMS (New South Wales) (12:31 PM) —Australia has always contributed over the last 100 or so years to playing its role in achieving world peace. This war against terrorism is no different. Australia has a proud history when we look at the heroic efforts of Australian soldiers in the Boer War, in World War I at the Battle of Beersheba, in World War II with the Rats of Tobruk achieving world peace there and especially in New Guinea, in the Korean War, in the Vietnam War at the Battle of Long Tan where Australian soldiers excelled with courage, in East Timor where we brought stability and now in Iraq and Afghanistan.

As I said at the start of my speech last night, it would be good to live in a perfect world; however, we do not. We see what terrorists have done. Brad Ridley from Forbes, who was one of my customers, was unfortunately killed in the bombing in Bali. There was the devastation of the towers in New York on September 11. Surely we cannot just turn our backs on what these terrorists are doing. If we do, then their murderous and destructive ways will simply continue. That is why we have to be part of this allied contribution in Afghanistan to bring Afghanistan to a state where it can look after itself, govern itself and have a strong defence force and police force to enforce their own laws to look after their country.

It is very sad that already 21 Australian soldiers have been killed in Afghanistan. I have one ambition in my life, and that is never to stand at the gravesite of one of my children. Unfortunately, many parents of those 21 soldiers have had to do that. That is sad in itself. We are fully aware that, if you join the Defence Force—if you join the Army, the Navy or the Air Force—you are taking on a dangerous occupation. Unfortunately, we have now seen the loss of 21 soldiers in Afghanistan. If those soldiers could speak to us today I wonder if they would say, ‘Get out of Afghanistan; walk away,’ or would say: ‘We have a job to do here. We have to clean this mess up in an effort to rid the world of terrorism so future generations can, hopefully, live in long-lasting peace.’ To cut and run now would be a betrayal in my opinion.

Our soldiers and our allies deserve our total support. Afghanistan must be able to stand on its own two feet. It has been a haven for the training of terrorists. We know that that is where many learned their terrible trades, if you can call them that, and carry out their activities against innocent human beings. I know that our soldiers are amongst the best, if not the best, in the world. They deserve our total support. They have a job to do. It is expensive. Unfortunately, it has been going on for a long time and will probably continue to go on for several years yet. But to cut and run now, to leave Afghanistan, to walk away from our allies who stuck with us during the Second World War, especially the United States of America, would be to me a betrayal of what we believe in and a betrayal of our allies.

I keep going back to the point that I wish we lived in a perfect world. Hopefully, one day we will, but we are far from it at the moment. While we have innocent people being killed and blown up by terrorist activities then this is something that our nation and our allies should never turn their backs on. We believe in freedom, we believe in democracy and we believe in peace, but so often peace comes at a cost. That has been the case in the world wars, in Korea, in Vietnam and in the following wars, and this is no different. This is a war against terrorists. We must do our bit and fight the war so that eventually we can say that we have had the win, we have had the victory. We have seen success in Iraq. We now have to go the full distance and see the victory day in Afghanistan.

I am not going to speak for much longer, but I just say in summary that I support our efforts in Afghanistan. I support our efforts in search of world peace, to rid the world of terrorism, to do the right thing by so many Australians—more than 80 were killed in Bali alone from the terrible bombing there—to do our bit and to play our role so that future generations not only in Australia but around the world can, hopefully, live in a peaceful world. As I said, peace comes at a price. It is terrible we have to pay that price. But I do believe that we should throw our total support behind this effort. Hopefully, sooner rather than later, we will see the victory which is ultimately the goal.