Bob Brown (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

That means that if the Prime Minister, in any manner of ways, were to be temporarily out of contact—he may be ill, on holidays or at the pictures—and an urgent situation were to arise, the Treasurer could take over the authority that this bill so wrongly gives to the Prime Minister, with the states excluded, to call out the troops. Ditto the Deputy Prime Minister—which would be the Leader of The Nationals under the current situation—and the Minister for Foreign Affairs. What we have here is a creeping authorisation of members of government, usurping the Constitution, to authorise the call-out of troops against Australian citizens. This is fundamentally dangerous legislation.

We cannot say, ‘Let’s look at this as this nation currently works.’ What we have to do is project a century ahead, look at the history of other countries and ask, ‘In circumstances in which we could find ourselves of an erosion of our democratic security and the cohesion of this nation, could not this legislation be interpreted in such a way that a future Treasurer or Prime Minister could call out the troops against the interests of the citizens of the country as a whole and with the state governments, who are constitutionally empowered to authorise such a call-out, put aside by this piece of legislation?’ The answer is, very worryingly—yes, that can happen. The amendment is not acceptable to the Greens.