Australian voters face stark choice on Iraq

Australian Prime Minister John Howard gave his last nationally televised campaign speech today as he bids for a fourth three-year term. He didn’t mention Iraq once.

But as soon as he stopped speaking, reporters started firing questions at him about a report by Charles Duelfer, the head of the US Iraq Survey Group, which said Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction program was made up of hopes and dreams by the time of the US-led invasion last year.

Howard, the 65-year-old leader of Australia’s conservative government, sent 2,000 troops to take part in the invasion – one of his most unpopular decisions in more than eight years as national leader.

“I stand by the decision we took in relation to Iraq,” Howard said after his speech in Canberra. “I have no regrets at all about the fact that Saddam Hussein is no longer leading Iraq.”

Of the three leaders who sent troops to invade Iraq, Howard is the first to seek re-election. He is followed by President George Bush next month and Tony Blair, almost certainly next year.

The opposition Labour Party objected to the war last year and has pledged to withdraw by Christmas the 900 troops still in and around Iraq if it wins power in Saturday’s election. Howard says the forces should stay as long as they are needed.

Labour’s firebrand 43-year-old leader Mark Latham said the report discredited Howard’s main reason for going to war – the threat of Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction.

“The news today confirms that Mr Howard had it wrong and a person of honesty and integrity would stand up today, take responsibility for it and say to the Australian people- ’I made a mistake,”’ Latham said.

The exchange was a rare foray into foreign policy in a campaign that has focused on domestic issues such as the economy, the ailing health system, education and the environment.

The election, for all 150 seats in federal parliament’s lower house and 40 of the 76 upper house Senate seats, promises to be extremely tight.

The government currently controls 83 seats and Labour 63. There are three independent lawmakers in the lower house and one from the Greens.

A poll this week showed Labour had lost a 52-48 lead recorded last week and now trailed the government 49.5 to 50.5.

In more than five weeks of campaigning, Howard and Latham, have promised billions of pounds in extra spending on things ranging from hospitals to old-growth forests, high schools to spy schools.

Howard, 65, is seeking a fourth term in office that would make him the country’s second longest serving prime minister. Latham would become Australia’s third youngest leader if his party wins.

The difference in the government and Labour’s stances on Iraq has led to comparisons with the Spanish election earlier this year that was marred by the deadly Madrid train bombings, which were seen as an attempt to influence voters in a race between the pro-US government and Socialists who had pledged to pull Spanish troops out of Iraq.

In the aftermath of the bombings, the Socialists won and immediately pulled out Spanish troops.

Australia’s election campaign also was interrupted by a terror blast – when suicide bombers attacked Canberra’s embassy in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta. Reinforced fences and gates and bombproof glass at the embassy helped prevent any Australia deaths, but nine Indonesians outside were killed.

National security has been a major campaign issue, with both sides pledging to outdo the other to combat the terrorist threat simmering underground in some of Australia’s Southeast Asian neighbours.

Howard this week said he would set up a school for spies to improve counterterrorism intelligence while Latham has said he will establish a US-style department of homeland security.

Latham has not always been a fan of Washington’s security policy. Before becoming Labour leader late last year, during the buildup to the Iraq war, he described President George Bush as “the most incompetent and dangerous president in living history.”

But most of the campaign has been fought around domestic issues such economic management, whose tax cuts will be better and which side can better fund education and the health system.

Howard and his senior ministers have attacked Latham for lacking experience and what they say is the previous Labour governments’ history of high interest rates- an issue central to millions of people paying off home loans.

Howard insists his fiscal conservatism is the reason Australia sailed through the Asian economic crisis largely unscathed and has recorded economic growth for every year he has been in office. Inflation and unemployment also are low.