[Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2003, Book II)]
[October 23, 2003]
[Pages 1382-1386]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]



Remarks to the Australian Parliament in Canberra
October 23, 2003

    President Bush. Governor-General Michael Jeffery, Prime Minister John Howard, 
Speaker of the House, Leader of the 
Senate, Leader of the Opposition Simon 
Crean, distinguished Members of the House and 
the Senate, Premiers, members of the diplomatic corps, ladies and 
gentlemen: Laura and I are honored to be in the Commonwealth of 
Australia. I want to thank the Prime Minister for his invitation. I want 
to thank the Members and Senators for convening this session of the 
Parliament. I want to thank the people of Australia for a gracious 
welcome.
    Five months ago, your Prime Minister was a 
distinguished visitor of ours in Crawford, Texas, at our ranch. You 
might remember that I called him a ``man of steel.'' [Laughter] That's 
Texan for ``fair dinkum.'' [Laughter] Prime Minister John Howard is a 
leader of exceptional courage who exemplifies the finest qualities of 
one of the world's great democracies. I'm proud to call him friend.
    Americans know Australia as a land of independent and enterprising 
and good-hearted people. We see something familiar here, something we 
like. Australians are

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fair-minded and tolerant and easygoing. Yet in times of trouble and 
danger, Australians are the first to step forward, to accept the hard 
duties, and to fight bravely until the fighting is done.
    In a hundred years of experience, American soldiers have come to 
know the courage and good fellowship of the ``diggers'' at their side. 
We fought together in the Battle of Hamel, together in the Coral Sea, 
together in New Guinea, on the Korean Peninsula, in Vietnam. And in the 
war on terror, once again we're at each other's side.
    In this war, the Australia and American people have witnessed the 
methods of the enemy. We saw the scope of their hatred on September the 
11, 2001. We saw the depth of their cruelty on October the 12, 2002. We 
saw destruction and grief, and we saw our duty. As free nations in 
peril, we must fight this enemy with all our strength.
    No country can live peacefully in a world that the terrorists would 
make for us. And no people are immune from the sudden violence that can 
come to an office building or an airplane or a nightclub or a city bus. 
Your nation and mine have known the shock and felt the sorrow and laid 
the dead to rest. And we refuse to live our lives at the mercy of 
murderers.
    The nature of the terrorist threat defines the strategy we are using 
to fight it. These committed killers will not be stopped by 
negotiations. They will not respond to reason. The terrorists cannot be 
appeased. They must be found. They must be fought, and they must be 
defeated.
    The terrorists hide and strike within free societies, so we're 
draining their funds, disrupting their plans, finding their leaders. The 
skilled work of Thai and Indonesia and other authorities in capturing 
the terrorist 
Hambali--suspected of planning the murders in Bali and other attacks--
was a model of the determined campaign we are waging.
    The terrorists seek safe harbor to plot and to train, so we're 
holding the allies of terror to account. America, Australia, and other 
nations acted in Afghanistan to destroy the home base of Al Qaida and 
rid that country of a terror regime. And the Afghan people, especially 
Afghan women, do not miss the bullying and the beatings and the public 
executions at the hands of the Taliban.
    The terrorists hope to gain chemical, biological, or nuclear 
weapons, the means to match their hatred. So we're confronting outlaw 
regimes that aid terrorists, that pursue weapons of mass destruction, 
and that defy the demands of the world. America, Australia, and other 
nations acted in Iraq to remove a grave and gathering danger, instead of 
wishing and waiting while tragedy drew closer.
    Since the liberation of Iraq, we have discovered Saddam's 
clandestine network of biological laboratories, the design work on 
prohibited long-range missiles, his elaborate campaign to hide illegal 
weapons programs. Saddam Hussein spent years 
frustrating U.N. inspectors for a simple reason: because he was 
violating U.N. demands. And in the end, rather than surrender his 
programs and abandon his lies, he chose defiance and his own undoing.
    Who can possibly think that the world would be better off with 
Saddam Hussein still in power? Surely not the 
dissidents who would be in his prisons or end up in his mass graves. 
Surely not the men and women who would fill Saddam's torture chambers 
and rape rooms. Surely not the families of the victims he murdered with 
poison gas. Surely not anyone who cares about human rights and democracy 
and stability in the Middle East. Today, Saddam's regime is gone, and no 
one----

[At this point, there was a disturbance in the audience.]

    Speaker Andrew. Senator Brown, I warn you--
Senator Brown will excuse himself from the House. Senator Brown will 
excuse himself from the House. The Sergeant will remove Senator Brown 
from the House.

[[Page 1384]]

    The President.
    President Bush. Surely no one who cares about human rights and 
democracy and stability in the Middle East. Today, Saddam 
Hussein's regime is gone, and no one should 
mourn its passing.
    In the months leading up to our action in Iraq, Australia and 
America went to the United Nations. We are committed to multilateral 
institutions, because global threats require a global response. We're 
committed to collective security, and collective security requires more 
than solemn discussions and sternly worded pronouncements. It requires 
collective will. If the resolutions of the world are to be more than ink 
on paper, they must be enforced. If the institutions of the world are to 
be more than debating societies, they must eventually act. If the world 
promises serious consequences for the defiance of the lawless, then 
serious consequences must follow.
    Because we enforced Resolution 1441 and used force in Iraq as a last 
resort, there is one more free nation in the world, and all free nations 
are more secure.
    We accepted our obligations with open eyes, mindful of the 
sacrifices that had been made and those to come. The burdens fall most 
heavily on the men and women of our Armed Forces and their families. The 
world has seen the bravery and skill of the Australian military. Your 
Special Operations forces were among the first units on the ground in 
Iraq. And in Afghanistan, the first casualty among America's allies was 
Australian, Special Air Service Sergeant Andrew Russell. This afternoon, I will lay a wreath at the Australian 
War Memorial in memory of Sergeant Russell and the long line of 
Australians who have died in the service to this nation. And my Nation 
honors their service to the cause of freedom, to the cause we share.
    Members and Senators, with decisive victories behind us, we have 
decisive days ahead. We cannot let up on our offensive against terror, 
even a bit. And we must continue to build stability and peace in the 
Middle East and Asia as the alternatives to hatred and fear.
    We seek the rise of freedom and self-government in Afghanistan and 
in Iraq for the benefit of their people, as an example to their 
neighbors and for the security of the world. America and Australia are 
helping the people of both those nations to defend themselves, to build 
the institutions of law and democracy, and to establish the beginnings 
of free enterprise.
    These are difficult tasks in civil societies wrecked by years of 
tyranny. And it should surprise no one that the remnants and advocates 
of tyranny should fight liberty's advance. The advance of liberty will 
not be halted. The terrorists and the Taliban and Saddam holdouts are 
desperately trying to stop our progress. They will fail. The people of 
Afghanistan and Iraq measure progress every day. They are losing the 
habits of fear, and they are gaining the habits of freedom.
    Some are skeptical about the prospects for democracy in the Middle 
East and wonder if its culture can support free institutions. In fact, 
freedom has always had its skeptics. Some doubted that Japan and other 
Asian countries could ever adopt the ways of self-government. The same 
doubts have been heard at various times about Germans and Africans. At 
the time of the Magna Carta, the English were not considered the most 
promising recruits for democracy. [Laughter] And to be honest, 
sophisticated observers had serious reservations about the scruffy 
travelers who founded our two countries. [Laughter] Every milestone of 
liberty was considered impossible before it was achieved. In our time, 
we must decide our own belief: Either freedom is the privilege of an 
elite few, or it is the right and capacity of all humanity.
    By serving our ideals, we also serve our interests. If the Middle 
East remains a place of anger and hopelessness and incitement, this 
world will tend toward division and chaos and violence. Only the spread

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of freedom and hope in the Middle East in the long term will bring peace 
to that region and beyond. And the liberation of more than 50 million 
Iraqis and Afghans from tyranny is progress to be proud of.
    Our nations must also confront the immediate threat of 
proliferation. We cannot allow the growing ties of trade and the forces 
of globalization to be used for the secret transport of lethal 
materials. So our two countries are joining together in the 
Proliferation Security Initiative. We're preparing to search planes and 
ships and trains and trucks carrying suspect cargo to seize weapons or 
missile shipments that raise proliferation concerns. Last month, 
Australia hosted the first maritime interdiction exercise in the Coral 
Sea.
    Australia and the United States are also keeping pressure on Iran to 
conform to its letter and spirit of the nonproliferation obligations. 
We're working together to convince North Korea that the continued 
pursuit of nuclear weapons will bring only further isolation. The wrong 
weapons, the wrong technology in the wrong hands, has never been so 
great a danger, and we are meeting that danger together.
    Our nations have a special responsibility throughout the Pacific to 
help keep the peace, to ensure the free movement of people and capital 
and information, and advance the ideals of democracy and freedom. 
America will continue to maintain a forward presence in Asia, continue 
to work closely with Australia.
    Today, America and Australia are working with Japan and the 
Philippines, Thailand, Indonesia, and Singapore and other nations to 
expand trade and to fight terror, to keep the peace in the Taiwan 
Straits.
    Your country is hosting President Hu Jintao. 
Australia's agenda with China is the same as my country's. We're 
encouraged by China's cooperation in the war on terror. We're working 
with China to ensure the Korean Peninsula is free of nuclear weapons. We 
see a China that is stable and prosperous, a nation that respects the 
peace of its neighbors and works to secure the freedom of its own 
people.
    Security in the Asia-Pacific region will always depend on the 
willingness of nations to take responsibility for their neighborhood, as 
Australia is doing. Your service and your sacrifice helped to establish 
a new Government and a new nation in East Timor. And working with New 
Zealand and other Pacific Island states, you're helping the Solomon 
Islands reestablish order and build a just Government. By your 
principled actions, Australia is leading the way to peace in Southeast 
Asia. And America is grateful.
    Together----

[There was a disturbance in the audience.]

    President Bush. Together, my country, with Australia, is promoting 
greater economic opportunity. Our nations are now working to complete a 
U.S.-Australia Free Trade Agreement that will add momentum to the free 
trade throughout the Asian-Pacific region, while producing jobs in our 
own countries.

[There was a disturbance in the audience.]

    Speaker Andrew. Senator Nettle will resume 
her seat. Sergeant, remove Senator Nettle. Senator Nettle will resume 
her seat. The President has the call. Senator Nettle is warned. Sergeant 
will remove Senator Nettle.
    President Bush. I love free speech. [Laughter]
    Speaker Andrew. The President has the call.
    President Bush. The relationship between America and Australia is 
vibrant and vital. Together, we will meet the challenges and the perils 
of our own time. In the desperate hours of another time, when the 
Philippines were on the verge of falling and your country faced the 
prospect of invasion, General Douglas MacArthur addressed Members of the 
Australian Parliament. He spoke of a code that unites our two nations, 
the code of free people, which, he said,

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``embraces the things that are right and condemns the things that are 
wrong.''
    More then 60 years later, that code still guides us. We call evil by 
its name and stand for freedom that leads to peace. Our alliance is 
strong. We value, more than ever, the unbroken friendship between the 
Australian and the American peoples. My country is grateful to you and 
to all the Australian people for your clear vision and for your strength 
of heart. And I thank you for your hospitality. May God bless you all.

Note: The President spoke at 11:30 a.m. at the Australian Parliament 
House. In his remarks, he referred to Governor-General Michael Jeffery, 
Prime Minister John Howard, Speaker of the House of Representatives Neil 
Andrew, President of the Senate Paul Calvert, and Leader of the 
Opposition Simon Crean of Australia; Nurjaman Riduan Isamuddin (known as 
Hambali), Al Qaida's chief operational planner in Southeast Asia; former 
President Saddam Hussein of Iraq; and President Hu Jintao of China. 
Speaker Andrew referred to Senators Bob Brown and Kerry Nettle of 
Australia.