Another attempt by the Greens to change the undemocratic Prime Ministerial “captain’s call” powers to declare Australia is at war was foiled by the major parties on March 25.
New South Wales Greens Senator David Shoebridge put the Defence Amendment (Parliamentary Approval of Overseas Service) Bill, which requires both houses of parliament to vote before the Australian Defence Force can be sent to war. After just one hour, debate between the Greens and the war parties lapsed.
The bill was reintroduced to the Senate on March 11, after Labor announced it had sent a Royal Australian Air Force E-7A Wedgetail aircraft and medium-range air-to-air missiles to the United Arab Emirates. Defence minister Richard Marles said he is open to other requests, including extending the Wedgetail’s timetable.
The decision over whether to join a war is the PM’s and the executive alone; parliament does not have a say.
Shoebridge said the Defence Act 1903 has no transparent decision-making — no scrutiny or debate — in relation to troop deployment. “It is a decision for the Governor-General and, on one reading of it, it could be a decision by the defence minister themselves without even having to go to cabinet. That is a broken process.”
The bill sought to insert a new section 29A into the Defence Act which requires that the decision to deploy members of the Australian Defence Force beyond Australia’s territory be made by parliament as a whole. “That means a debate in both houses followed by a vote.”
He said it is likely that, in this case, the war parties would have voted to support the war, but “it would have required the Albanese Labor government to articulate what their war goals were, what they wanted to achieve from this war”.
Labor is also doing it best not to avoid using the word “war” to describe the bombings, killings and mass displacement of 3.2 million people in Iran and 1 million in Lebanon.
Andrew Bartlett, Australian for War Powers Reform president, said Australia needed to reform the “outdated and undemocratic process for deciding on war”.
He said Australia’s support for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan was “disastrous”, with millions killed and the Middle East “left in ruins”.
Barlett said all MPs and Senators should have a say before sending defence personnel overseas, adding that such decisions need “basic transparency and accountability”.
Reforming the war powers act is popular, with a nationwide Essential Research poll in 2023 finding 90% in favour.
Michaelia Cash, Liberal leader in the Senate, tried to argue that no party was “pro-war” but that “sometimes a nation must stand with its friends”.
“In the most dangerous strategic environment Australia has faced since the Second World War, the Australian Greens want to make it harder for the Australian government to act quickly, decisively and, most importantly, in concert with our allies,” Cash said.
She said the Greens bill is a “relic of a different era” and accused the Greens of endorsing the Iranian government having nuclear capability.
Greens leader Larissa Waters, in speaking for the bill, condemned the war parties for supporting the offensive on Iran, arguing it would “not bring safety to the Iranians fighting for liberation”. She said most people don’t agree with the Iran war and they don’t agree with genocide in Gaza.
“Australians don’t want war, but they weren’t asked. And, because they don’t get a say and neither does our parliament, we need the power to say no to war and to make sure that our government can’t join a war on the whim of a deeply unstable US president ever again without approval from this parliament.
“We need to detach ourselves from this volatile administration and have an independent foreign policy that puts Australia's best interests first instead of asking, ‘How high?’ when Donald Trump says, ‘Jump’.
Fatima Payman said the bill is “common sense” adding that it does not preclude “the reality that sometimes decisions need to be made quickly. There are clear emergency provisions.
“Within 24 hours, the decision and the reasons for it must be made public. Within two days, detailed information has to be provided to parliament. And, if parliament isn’t sitting, it has to be called back … it’s not unheard of, or controversial.”
France, Finland, Denmark, Germany and Spain require a parliamentary vote and parliamentary approval before their countries can go to war and before they can deploy troops overseas, Shoebridge said, adding it is hardly a “radical” reform.