QUESTIONS IN WRITING
Iraq
(Question No. 6090)
Question

Mr McClelland (Barton)  asked the Minister for Foreign Affairs, in writing, on 21 June 2007:

Has an international polling company undertaken research among Iraqi adults to determine their opinions regarding the following issues: (a) the single biggest problem facing Iraq as a whole; (b) how things are going in Iraq overall; (c) who currently controls things in Iraq; (d) support for the presence of coalition forces in Iraq; (e) whether their children will have a better life than themselves; (f) approval or disapproval of how Prime Minister Nori Al Maliki is doing his job; (g) whether Iraq is engaged in a civil war; (h) whether members of the National Assembly are willing, or unwilling, to make necessary compromises to bring peace and security to the country; (i) expectations as to how things will be for Iraq a year from now; (j) whether the security situation in Iraq will get better or worse in the immediate weeks following a withdrawal of multinational forces; (k) whether Iraq is generally heading in the right or wrong direction; and (l) whether the Iraqi Government should endorse a timetable for the withdrawal of the United States forces; if so what are the results of that research.

Answer

Mr Downer (MayoMinister for Foreign Affairs)—The answer to the honourable member’s question is as follows:

There are a large number of polls conducted that cover such topics and are publicly available.