Malcolm Turnbull says Bashar Assad ‘has to go’ after gas attack in Syria

MALCOLM Turnbull says he wants Bashar Assad removed as Syrian President as a consequence of his chemical weapons attack.

rime Minister Malcolm Turnbull speaks during a press conference after a visit to the Bomana War Cemetary near Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

VISITING Australia’s largest war ceremony as part of his first visit to Papua New Guinea as Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull declared President Bashar Assad of Syria has got to go if there is to be a political settlement of that country’s brutal civil war.

The PM spent the first morning of his overseas trip to PNG and India paying tribute to Australia’s war dead from the Kokoda campaign and reflecting on the responsibility of sending service men and women into battle to protect Australia’s freedom.

He later met with PNG Prime Minister Peter O’Neil to discuss the Manus Island refugee processing centre which is meant to close this October following a ruling from the country’s highest court.

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Malcolm Turnbull pays respect to fallen Australian soldiers as he visits the Bomana War Cemetary near Port Moresby.

Reflecting on the burden of office after visiting the Bumana War Cemetery after earlier flying by helicopter to the Isurava Memorial on the Kokoda Track, said there is “no greater responsibility for a Prime Minister or a government than when we send our young men and women into harm’s way.”

“We do so with the wisest leadership, the best provisions, the best capabilities so that they are going to be able to do their duty and fulfil their mission and return home to their families — that is the heaviest responsibility of my role as Prime Minister and every government from the beginning of our nation’s history.”

At Bomana War Cemetery 3351 Australian and Commonwealth servicemen and one woman lie buried.

An overview of the Bomana War Cemetary near Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea.

He was directed to several graves including that of Private Bruce Kingsbury who was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross after he charged alone at the Japanese firing a Bren gun at the Battle of Isurava on the Kokoda Track.

Mr Turnbull had earlier in the day visited the site of the battle.

“This morning at Isurava we stood on what was in 1942, the hinge of fate, Australia’s freedom depended on the courage and endurance, mateship and sacrifice of those few Australians and Papua New Guineans who stood together and held back the Japanese advance,” Mr Turnbull said.

He said that Bomana, which holds the largest number of Australian war dead of any cemetery in the world was “a solemn place – a momentous place – it is a place where we should that sacrifice and we should remember too that right now in 2017 the descendants of these men and woman are today defending Australia’s freedom around the world and especially in the Middle East.”

Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is greeted by Papua New Guinea's Foreign Minister Rimbink Pato (right) on arrival to PNG.

Using the phrase “hinge of fate” several times to describe the importance of the battle to the history of the region, the PM said of the servicemen buried in the cemetery “had their courage not been enough, had their mateship not been resolute enough, the Japanese would have taken Port Moresby and Australia would have been under the most direct and imminent threat… without their sacrifice we would not be the free nation we are today, nor would PNG be the free nation it is today.”

A day after the US attacked the Syrian government for the first time in response to its use of chemical weapons, Mr Turnbull said the crimes Mr Assad had committed against his own people “are so enormous and of course now so recent, it is difficult to see how a political solution can be crafted that has him with a continuing role.”

Pressed if that meant he thought Mr Assad “had to go” Mr Turnbull said “that is our assessment”.

The Prime Minister later met with Mr O’Neil to discuss, among other matters, the imminent closure of the Manus Island processing centre.

Afterwards Mr Turnbull praised Mr O’Neil’s government for its support for Australia’s policies.

“I want to thank you Prime Minister for your government’s continued co-operation in the vitally important fight against people smuggling and we will continue to work together to close the regional processing centre by the end of the year and I want to thank you for Papua New Guinea’s significant progress in resettling refugees from Manus.”

Originally published as Malcolm Turnbull says Bashar Assad ‘has to go’ after gas attack in Syria