- Prime Minister John Howard was yesterday censured by
the Senate for misleading the public in his justification for sending Australia
to war with Iraq.
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- It was only the fourth time in more than three decades
a sitting prime minister has been censured and the second in Mr Howard's
seven-and-a-half years in office.
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- The motion attacked Mr Howard for failing to adequately
inform Australians that intelligence agency warnings about a war with Iraq
would increase the likelihood of a terrorist attack.
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- It also noted that no evidence had yet been produced
by Mr Howard to justify his claims that in March this year, Iraq possessed
stockpiles of completed biological chemical weapons that justified going
to war.
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- The Opposition, Greens and Australian Democrats voted
together to defeat the Government by 33 votes to 30.
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- Greens senator Bob Brown said Mr Howard was involved
in an unprecedented deceit of the nation and deserved censure.
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- He said Mr Howard had argued that Iraq's weapons of mass
destruction and support of international terrorism threatened Australia.
"It has become abundantly clear that the Prime Minister was not just
a bit wrong. He was totally wrong," he told parliament.
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- Defence Minister Robert Hill said the Australian and
other governments believed Saddam Hussein's weapons programs posed a very
real danger.
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- Opposition Senate leader John Faulkner said Mr Howard
had been loose with the truth on issues of national security.
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- Mr Howard was censured by the Senate in March 2002 over
his failure to stop Liberal Senator Bill Heffernan's attack on High Court
Justice Michael Kirby.
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- http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/10/08/1065292604414.html
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