Greens under fire over attack on Jim Molan during Army service

An attack by Richard Di Natale on Senator Jim Molan’s service record in Iraq condemned as ‘plumbing new depths’.

Richard Di Natale has come under fire over his targeting of new Senator Jim Molan. Picture: AAP

Malcolm Turnbull has given an impassioned defence of new NSW Liberal Senator Jim Molan amid Labor accusations he shared “bigoted and racist” material online and a push by the Greens for an inquiry into his role in the assault on Fallujah during the Iraq War.

Senator Molan, who was sworn into the upper house on Monday, served for a year as the chief of operations for the US-led coalition forces in Iraq from April 2004 with Mr Turnbull today defending him as a “great Australian soldier” who “stood up for freedom.”

Senator Molan came under attack by Labor and the Greens after it emerged he shared videos from far-Right group “Britain First” on his Facebook page in March 2017, with the videos being condemned as anti-Islamic and one being exposed as a fake.

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He defended himself earlier today, saying that anyone who called him racist because he shared the videos was “stark raving mad” and he only intended to expose what happened in societies where there was racial dislocation.

“I have worked effectively cross-culturally for years,” Senator Molan told ABC radio. “What I was trying to achieve was to say to people that the breakdown in society from violence and anti-social behaviour is something we should all be very aware of.”

“I have served and lived in countries where society is broken down, where violence is widespread and I was trying to achieve nothing more than that.”

Bill Shorten used question time to challenge Mr Turnbull about whether he would direct Senator Molan to take down the “racist and bigoted material” he had shared.

Mr Turnbull rejected the question and attacked the Opposition Leader for describing Senator Molan as a racist. “That is deplorable,” he said. “It is disgusting. Jim Molan is a great Australian soldier. We are lucky to have him in the Senate. He doesn’t have a racist bone in his body.”

“He has stood up for freedom (and) stood up against extremism.”

Liberal Senator Jim Molan today. Picture: AAP

Greens Leader Richard Di Natale went a step further in the upper-house, accusing Senator Molan of overseeing a “humanitarian catastrophe” nearly 15 years ago during the assault on Fallujah in 2004.

“At the time of the assault on Fallujah under the command of now-Senator Molan ... coalition forces used hunger and deprivation as a weapon of war against the civilian population,” Senator Di Natale said.

Senator Di Natale asked Defence Minister Marise Payne whether she was concerned the former major-general’s views influenced his approach to the military campaign in the Iraqi city of Fallujah 14 years ago.

“That reflection on the service of a senior Australian Army officer takes your lows to depths that I did not think you could plumb,” Senator Payne said in response.

Senator Di Natale later linked the “Britain First” videos shared by Senator Molan to question whether his personal views on Muslims had any bearing on the conduct of the assault on Fallujah, telling Sky News that it was a “brutal military campaign.”

“There is a question there than needs to be answered, and the only way we answer that is through an inquiry,” Senator Di Natale said. “It is a question that needs to be answered, and we answer that through an inquiry into the Iraq war – something we have campaigned on for very many years.”

“It is remarkable that a Senator of the Australian parliament and a former senior officer of the defence force ... would hold those views, would express those views and continue to defend those views.”