Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Prime Minister, Senator Abetz. Has the Prime Minister taken legal advice as to whether or not Australia's participation in military action delivering weapons to Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq is legal under international law? If so, will the Prime Minister table that advice and tell us whether or not the action that Australia is now taking is legal?

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

There are illegalities occurring in Iraq and Syria as we speak—people being beheaded and the mass killing of hundreds of innocents and captured soldiers. It is brutality writ large, and what is the concern of the Australian Greens? Whether the delivery of humanitarian aid is within international law. I would have thought a question about what the international community can do to work together to stamp out this evil might have been more appropriate for the Leader of the Australian Greens to ask. I also indicate that in the operation that Australia is involved in we are joined by Canada, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and the United States. I simply ask fellow senators and anybody listening: who do you think are the ones on whom international law ought to apply—on Canada, Italy, France, the United Kingdom, the United States and Australia, or on ISIL, a force that is evil writ large? We as a government make no apology for joining with other freedom loving democracies to ensure that the Kurds and others who are facing what is on the verge of genocide, without putting it too strongly, quite frankly get the protection they deserving. That is what we are seeking to do in conjunction with a request from other governments but also with the support of the Iraqi government.

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I take it from the minister's answer that Australia does not care about whether military action we take is legal or not, and so I ask whether the Iraqi government has directly invited Australia to intervene militarily in northern Iraq. If so, when, who made the invitation and to whom was it made?

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

Just to remove any doubt whatsoever, I assure the honourable senator and the Australian people that everything that we as an Australian government are doing in this most hideous theatre on the world stage at the moment is clearly within the law.

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. I ask the minister again: has the Iraqi government directly invited Australia to intervene militarily in northern Iraq. If so, when, who made the invitation and to whom was it made? Otherwise, without a UN Security Council resolution, it is illegal.

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

This might be helpful for Senator Milne to get a headline, but with great respect she is wrong in relation to her assertion as to what international law may or may not require. One wonders whether the over one million displaced Iraqis were consulted in relation to the actions that have been taken against them. We, as a nation, are joining with other peace-loving democracies in an attempt to lessen the huge horrific burden, indeed extinction, that some of these people are facing. I would have thought, as a minimum, we might have got unanimity from this place, and if not unanimity at least silence and not what appears to be an unfortunate siding with the view that Australia should not be involved in this very important humanitarian exercise.