UN comments leave the Greens, Left isolated on Iraq

THE UN’s call to back action in Iraq has put pressure on the Abbott government’s opponents to support a humanitarian mission there.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s call for governments to support “very decisive and determined actions” to prevent atrocities in Iraq has heaped further pressure on the Abbott government’s opponents, including the Greens, to back the multilateral humanitarian mission.

Liberal MP Andrew Nikolic, a former commander of Australian troops in southern Iraq, last night stressed that the UN chief’s intervention should entice critics to end their “attention-seeking and grandstanding” by insisting on a parliamentary debate to authorise military force.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop attacked Labor’s Left faction, accusing its members of “gritting their teeth” over the opposition’s support for the Coalition’s national security agenda, which includes military airlifts to Kurdish forces fighting the Islamic State jihadists.

Mr Ban, speaking yesterday in New Zealand, said the crisis in Iraq was “very worrisome and the activities by Islamic State are totally unacceptable”.

“The international community must ensure solidarity,” he said. “Not a single country or organisation can handle this international terrorism. This has global concerns so I appreciate some key countries who have been showing very decisive and determined actions. But all these ­actions should be supported by all the international community.

“Without addressing this issue through certain means, including some military and counterterrorist actions, we will just end up ­allowing these terrorist activities to continue.”

Greens deputy leader Adam Bandt, speaking before Mr Ban’s remarks, said: “The government still hasn’t made the case that military intervention in Iraq will make things better, will make things safer, or there’s a clear strategy.”

Mr Nikolic, now a federal Liberal MP, said: “This is a terrorist organisation that is looking to grow a fundamentalist terrorist home or state, and that is a threat we have never before faced, not in our lifetime. The consequence of doing nothing is to allow thousands of people to die, including children. (Tasmanian independent Andrew) Wilkie and the Greens engage in what I describe as attention-seeking and grandstanding behaviour. It is all about getting them in the news rather than anything else.”

Greens leader Christine Milne was unavailable to comment last night. Mr Wilkie, a former intelligence analyst who resigned over intelligence failures before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, has declined to support the government’s ­actions until “all of the hard evidence” is laid bare.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Tanya Plibersek said Mr Ban’s comments demonstrated the international community was united in opposing the Islamic State threat.

Ms Bishop, addressing the Coalition party room yesterday, said Labor was divided over its support for the government’s national security strategy. “The Labor Party have strapped themselves to us on national security but the Left is gritting their teeth,” she said.