Senator Trood said he agrees that the development of the White Paper should be comprehensive and responsible, and should not be rushed. However, he argued that the Government’s tardiness in delivering on its promise of the document points to a perverse set of policy priorities, particularly in light of the deliberate targeting of Australians in Jakarta last month, and this week’s arrests of terrorist suspects in Victoria.

 

“Since being elected, Mr. Rudd has been woeful at the task of setting realistic goals and right priorities. He has cast himself as a foreign affairs expert and yet has spent most of his time in office pursuing objectives of questionable importance – Australia as a ‘creative middle power’, a new Asia Pacific Community and a seat on the UN Security Council, to name but a few.”

 

Senator Trood pointed out that the Labor Government’s Defence White Paper devotes no more than half a page in a 139-page document to Islamist terrorism and fails to recognise it as a comprehensive threat.

 

“It is abundantly clear that terrorism continues to pose a clear and present danger to Australians at home and abroad. So it is difficult to understand the Government’s tardiness in delivering on the promise it made to develop a credible and effective strategy to deal with this colossal threat.

 

“If Mr. McClelland’s assurances that the White Paper will be available at the end of this year are to be believed, then this document will have taken 18 months to deliver.

 

“I sincerely hope that Mr. McClelland is being honest when he says that the Labor Government will be doing a thorough and methodical job. But we are yet to see any evidence of progress on the White Paper. In fact, I have it on good authority from a number of Government sources that the work on the document has barely begun.

 

“One should think that twelve months is a long time to get started, by anyone’s standards.”

 

Senator Trood added that he would like to see the Rudd Government apply the same kind of diligence it is purportedly devoting to the Counter-Terrorism White Paper to many of his other policies, including the highly contentious Carbon Emissions Reduction Scheme.