When United States President George W. Bush visited Canberra on 23 October 2003, Nettle and Brown took their opposition to the war in Iraq to the point of interjecting during his address to a joint sitting of the two Houses of Parliament. They wore signs referring to David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib, two Australian citizens who were then being held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, following their apprehension by United States forces in either (this is disputed) Afghanistan or Pakistan. Both Habib and Hicks have since been released.