Sending troops into conflict must be a decision for Parliament, not the PM

It is clear the Prime Minister failed to convince the Australian people of the case for this war, despite a 12 month campaign - run largely on talkback and current affairs shows instead of in the Parliament - to convince the Australian people that this is a just war, a necessary war or a war that Australia should be involved in.

We must consider not just this conflict, but ask "where next?" The government's recently released Defence White paper update reflected the new reality; that this government is willing, even eager, to play a military combat role, that is politically outside of United Nations' multilateral efforts and geographically, far beyond our own Asia Pacific region where there are many significant security issues.

Inevitably this will be at some cost to our focus on our own region. The fact is our military and other security resources are limited and we have to make choices as to how and where they are deployed.

It took a long time before the Australian Government finally intervened in the humanitarian disaster of East Timor but it was astonishingly quick to decide it would assist in regime change in Iraq.

The Executive should not be able to involve Australian troops in an overseas conflict if they have not been able to successfully make their case at least to the Parliament. What the Democrats are seeking is for the Parliament, as the voice of the people, to have some control over the situation. This initiative, as it does in other countries, will lead to a more reasoned basis for sending defence force personnel overseas, and ensure it occurs only where it has majority support outside the Cabinet.

Certainly the Prime Minister did belatedly put the matter of war against Iraq before the Parliament but the Parliament did not have the power to stop it. The Democrats are asking the Parliament to give itself that power.

The provision for parliamentary approval of overseas service of troops applies in many other countries. There should be no doubt of the high human and economic costs of war. It is arguably the most serious decision that is made on behalf of a nation. That decision should be made only with the support of the Parliament community.