Independent Member for Clark, Andrew Wilkie, will today second Member for Melbourne Adam Bandt’s bill to ensure any decision to send Australian forces to war must be a decision of the Parliament.
“In Australia the Prime Minister alone can send the country to war, which is dangerous, unnecessary, outdated and out of step with the practice in many parliamentary democracies,” Mr Wilkie said.
“We have seen the gut-wrenching impact of that in the dreadful and ongoing consequences of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, that shocking and unnecessary intervention, almost exactly 18 years ago, decided upon by Prime Minister John Howard personally. It was a war based on a lie and it must never be repeated.
“The decision to deploy troops overseas is not one that should be taken lightly. It affects all of us, not just the Defence Force, and should be made by the Parliament and not just the Prime Minister and his mates.”