Fed: Turnbull just a candidate, says Downer

AAP General News (Australia)
08-11-2004
Fed: Turnbull just a candidate, says Downer

CANBERRA, Aug 11 AAP - Foreign Minister Alexander Downer today said he was not concerned
about comments by Liberal candidate Malcolm Turnbull about the the Iraq war, because Mr
Turnbull was not a member of the government.

Mr Turnbull, who is running for the safe Liberal seat of Wentworth in Sydney, told
a public meeting this week that history may judge US President George W Bush's decision
to invade Iraq as an error.

Mr Turnbull later said his remarks at the meeting had been misquoted by Labor MP Tanya
Plibersek and he supported the government's decision to join the war.

Mr Downer today said he had not heard Mr Turnbull's comments, but said Mr Turnbull
was "just a candidate".

"The point is what the government's position is," he told reporters.

"He isn't a member of the government.

"Regardless of what anybody may or may not have said at a meeting in Bondi, the bottom
line is that what the government did was right.

"We were right to get rid of Saddam Hussein's vicious regime and we were right to support
our allies in doing so.

"And we have not a moment's regret about what as a government we have done, and that's
the principal issue."

AAP pj/sw/tma/jlw

KEYWORD: IRAQ TURNBULL DOWNER

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