Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

[by video link] My question is to the Prime Minister. The governments of Menzies, Holt, McEwen, Gorton and McMahon were responsible for the Vietnam disaster. John Howard took us to war in Iraq on a lie. The Howard, Rudd, Gillard, Abbott and Turnbull governments and your government own the Afghanistan tragedy. In other words, history shows decisions to go to war are not something any government nor PM can be trusted with. Yes, it is important they have authority to deploy the ADF in a crisis, but surely it should be parliament alone with authority to declare and continue war. So, Prime Minister, will you follow the lead of other democracies, reform war powers and ensure it's parliament calling the shots in future?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I, with respect, thank the member for his question. I know he's held this view for a long time and advocated it in this place, but the government believes in what is set out in the Australian Constitution, and that is that the power to make war, deploy troops and declare peace is part of the executive powers of the Commonwealth, an executive power as recognised in section 61 of the Constitution.

I believe that all those who have served—and I have no doubt the member would believe this also—in whatever conflict we've been engaged in have fallen in the name of Australia, in the name of freedom and in the name of our values, and have fallen seeking to pursue the national interests of Australia and to keep Australians safe. Whether that is in Afghanistan, Vietnam or the many other conflicts referred to by the member, all of their sacrifice has been great and has made Australia stronger. I'll ask the Minister for Defence to add to the answer.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. The only thing that I'd add to the Prime Minister's comments is, firstly, obviously, the government of the day takes the advice of the Chief of the Defence Force and all of those experts that form part of the National Security Committee, looking at our domestic and our international equities, and makes decisions based on the best advice.

I think the best message at the moment, frankly, if I can say with respect, for our troops to hear—the 39,000 that went to Afghanistan and those that have served in Iraq or in Middle Eastern campaigns in recent years—is that their country is incredibly proud of their service. I don't think those troops, their families or their loved ones want to hear political pointscoring at this point in time. They want to hear that this country has their back, and this government does. They want to hear that their service in our country's name is in our national interest, and it is.

We will continue to provide the resources to those troops, both those that are serving and those that have served, and we will make sure that we make the future investment decisions to give them the best capability to defend our nation. We live in an uncertain time and we do need to take tough decisions from time to time, to make sure that we protect and keep safe the Australian population. The Prime Minister and the members of the cabinet on the National Security Committee will always make those decisions based on those criteria—to keep our country safe and to make sure that we can protect and defend ourselves—as you would expect an elected government would do.

We are well and truly served and greatly honoured by the service of the men and women of the Australian Defence Force and our other security and national intelligence agencies. I am extremely proud of the work that we're doing in Afghanistan at the moment, in harm's way, and I wish godspeed to all of those there. I want them back home safely as soon as possible.