Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Without reflecting on the vote that has just occurred, I do want to respond to something that the Attorney-General said, and that is that he either misinterpreted or misrepresented Professor Saul's advice. Attorney, you noted the difference between legal treatment of organised armed groups and legal treatment of armies, but what you failed to do was mention that this can be justified because organised armed group members not involved in conflict could actually be civilians. For example, they might be forced into conflict. I just wanted to place that very clearly on the record so that it was a matter of public record in the context of this debate, and also to say how disappointed we are that a basic transparency measure has been rejected by the Senate.

All that our second reading amendment would have done was to call on the government, where ADF operations result in civilian causalities, to publish a regular report detailing certain specific matters associated with those casualties, including the number of civilian causalities. What is so extraordinary about publishing to the Australian people on a regular basis the number of civilian casualties that have been caused by Australian Defence Force?