Ian Campbell (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for the Environment and Heritage) Share this | Hansard source

I think two points need to be made quite clearly. Firstly, the rhetoric of Senator Brown, effectively advising people that the intent of this law is to have some sort of Dr Strangelove character unleashing the lethal force of the Australian defence forces against Australians, is certainly stretching things or at the very worst building a straw man. One of the features of the law is that one of the authorising ministers would have to be the Minister for Defence or the Attorney-General and at all times two ministers are required to authorise a call-out in the circumstances envisaged by this law. The circumstances envisaged by this law, based on all legal advice given to this government and previous governments, are that the use of the Australian defence forces in these circumstances is entirely constitutional. It does not usurp the Constitution, as Senator Brown claims.

A call-out would be done in the event that the civilian forces—these would generally be authorities of the state government such as the police force or some other force—had been overwhelmed and there was a need for a greater force to come in and assist. This is the design that is envisaged. It is something that national security requires, and this law as it stands and the amendments we seek to make today are to add clarity to that, not to usurp the Constitution. That is not what we seek to do. We are trying to make Australia a safer place and to do so in a way that would deal with a potentially extraordinary situation. We seek to ensure, to pick up Senator Brown’s, I think, fair point, that when we make laws in this place we do need to think 10, 20, 30 or 50 years down the track.

This law is being amended because it was put in place back in 2000, as I recall, and has been reviewed, quite properly, by eminent Australians with expertise in this area. These amendments before the chamber at the moment reflect that review. That is not to say that a future parliament could not review the operation of this act; I am sure it will. But we are putting in place what we think are sensible, sound accountability measures that ensure that one of the authorising ministers is the defence minister or the Attorney-General and that at all times two ministers are required. It is the government’s view, and I think we have the support of the opposition on this, that those ministers should, appropriately, be members of the National Security Committee of cabinet. The practical and sensible reason for that is that these are the ministers who are on a regular basis in touch with and briefed on security issues that affect the nation and the world and so have a context and a level of information built up, generally speaking, over a long period of time as would help and guide them in the decisions to utilise the powers within this law.

Question agreed to.