MP slams Greens for attack on Molan

Labor MP Peter Khalil says he too was called a war criminal by the Greens.

Jim Molan smiles after being sworn in as a senator. Picture: AAP

Labor MP Peter Khalil has hit out at the Greens for attacking senator Jim Molan as a potential war criminal, claiming he too was the subject of a Greens doorknocking campaign that called him a war criminal during the 2016 federal election.

In a fiery speech to parliament, Mr Khalil accused the Greens of ignorance and attempting to mislead the public for the sake of a cheap political attack by calling Senator Molan a “coward” and suggesting he could have committed war crimes.

Mr Khalil said Senator Molan was at fault for sharing a video posted by a British far-right group Britain First, but reserved his ­angriest comments for the Greens, who he said had also used the war criminal slur to target him in the 2016 campaign in Wills. “I remember after the last election people saying to me that Greens doorknockers had told them that I was a war criminal for having served in Iraq. And I thought it was just what people were saying, and then I found out more information which led me to believe it was actually part of their doorknocking script,” he told The Australian. “And so when these sorts of accusations came up with Jim, the first thing I thought was ‘well, this sounds familiar’.’’

In parliament, Mr Khalil ­accused the Greens of impugning Senator Molan and thousands of Australian veterans who had served in Iraq and were still serving overseas. He also accused the party of ignorance and attempting to equate Australian soldiers with some of the Iraqi regime’s most brutal generals and dictators.

“The attacks on Senator Molan’s record as a soldier and the imputation that he committed war crimes by the member for Melbourne, Adam Bandt, and Senator (Richard) Di Natale were utterly disgraceful,” Mr Khalil said.

“Either these members of the Greens political party made these statements of moral outrage born of ignorance of Fallujah, or worse, they knew the facts yet still confected a moral outrage in order to launch a base political attack.

“Either way, the outcome is the same. They not only impugn the record of Senator Molan’s military service to this country, but equally deride the service of thousands of veterans and current serving men and women in the ADF. They also debase themselves in the process.”

Mr Khalil is regarded as an expert on Iraqi security affairs and served as director of national security policy for the Coalition Provisional Authority in Iraq in 2003.