Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

Mr President, one, I will not have Senator Milne putting words into my mouth, and nothing in my answer said that we were clearly open to that proposition; two, the way that the Australian government has worked in relation to these matters since Federation is that these are matters for the executive and are the prerogative of the executive. In matters of conflict it would not necessarily be the smartest thing to have a fortnight or three weeks of debate, if you were to go down that track, in hypothetical circumstances, and tell the enemy: 'Guess what? We're going to have a discussion here as to whether we're going to put a tank here or an aeroplane there, and the Senate is going to amend how many trucks we're going to have.' I think we will leave that up to the military strategists and those that genuinely put their lives on the line for our safety, our peace and our security.