I reject completely Mr Beazley's claim in his speech to the New South Wales
ALP conference that I have been "fishing for a poll-driven formula"
on East Timor.
This is the biggest military operation in which Australia has been involved
for more than 30 years.
As Prime Minister I have an obligation to explain the Government's decision
to the Australian people, to keep them well-informed of what is occurring
and to answer their questions.
It is the right thing to do and I will go on doing it.
When Mr Beazley's mentor Bob Hawke committed Australian forces to participate
in the Gulf War - with the full support of the then Opposition - he rightly
went to great lengths to explain the decision to the Australian people.
Important though the Gulf commitment was, our involvement in East Timor
is on a much larger scale, it is closer to home and we are exercising the
leadership role. The obligation, therefore, to properly explain to the Australian
people the basis for our engagement is all the greater still.
Unlike my predecessor, as Prime Minister, I do not believe that foreign
policy should be handed down to the Australian people like a tablet from
the mountain.
Australians have a right to know what is being done in their name overseas,
and why it is being done.
Mr Beazley has made the equally absurd claim that I have not done enough
to encourage other countries to contribute to the multinational force. This
is totally disproved by the variety of contributions from many nations.
Apart from Australia, at least twelve other nations are either involved
or committed to contributing, including Britain, Korea, Canada, Malaysia,
New Zealand, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand.
I have been personally involved in discussions with the leaders of many
of these countries regarding the commitment of their forces.
The Leader of the Opposition has falsely claimed that I had represented
that Australia's involvement in East Timor was an exclusively Australian
exercise, for Australian purposes.
This also is disproved by the active steps to secure the involvement of
others, and my initial determination to ensure that there would be no involvement
by Australia without both the approval of the United Nations and the agreement
of the Indonesian Government.
I was encouraged to note that in his speech, Mr Beazley described the deployment
of Australian troops in East Timor as "a new expression of a self-confident
and independent Australia on the threshold of its second century - confident
to be involved in this mission as a proud member of the international community."
These are sentiments I totally share, but how they sit with his other criticisms
of the Government's conduct of foreign policy is something for Mr Beazley,
and not me, to explain.