Greens bid to have Australian Government to seek approval from Parliament before sending troops to I

[Bradyns]

[QUOTE]Earlier today, a bid to force the Government to seek approval from Parliament before sending troops to Iraq failed, with Senator Johnston saying such a move would put lives at risk.

In the Senate this morning Greens leader Christine Milne formally moved to try to force a debate about "parliamentary approval for the deployment of Australian troops in Iraq".

"The Australian Parliament now needs to be consulted and approval needs to be sought from the representatives of the people before we put in harm's way our Australian armed service men and women," she said.

But the motion to suspend standing orders failed 44 votes to 13, with the 10 Greens senators supported by PUP's Jacqui Lambie, SA independent Nick Xenophon and the NSW Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm.

Senator Johnston argued that debating defence activities in Parliament could have deadly consequences.

"Were we to debate what operational activities the Australian Defence Force would undertake, [it] would be completely counterproductive to protecting those lives."

Labor's defence spokesman Stephen Conroy said he supported "structured" debates about military involvement, but accused the Greens of playing politics.

"The decision to commit troops is not a matter for the parliament, it's a matter for the executive government," Mr Abbott told Channel Seven.

Source:
[url]http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-01/debating-iraq-action-in-parliament-could-cost-lives-johnson/5709986[/url][/QUOTE]

The Executive can still make the decision to go to war without the consent of parliament.

This leaves me with a bad taste in my mouth.

[LoganIsAwesome]

I am kinda happy this didn't pass. I am all for bombing ISIS out and removing them from the earth. But I don't think Australians should risk their lives dealing with such scum. Arming Kurd fighters, while questionable, I believe is our best bet.

[Bradyns]

[QUOTE=LoganIsAwesome;45859407]I am kinda happy this didn't pass. I am all for bombing ISIS out and removing them from the earth. But I don't think Australians should risk their lives dealing with such scum. Arming Kurd fighters, while questionable, I believe is our best bet.[/QUOTE]

That wasn't what happened here..

Abbott wants to send troops, and that is all that is required before Australian troops are deployed.

Christine Milne wanted to change the above process, so that it was a parliamentary decision to send troops, not just an Executive decision - Milne's proposed change was what failed.

[Brandy92]

The biggest potential issue with giving parliament control over war declarations is that politicians will play games with the safety and security of innocent people.

On the other hand I don't particularly like the executive having exclusive control over this.

[smurfy]

It's surprising how few parliaments have strong war powers if you look into it. Most states you can think of give most or all war powers to the executive.

[fruxodaily]

i don't know where i sit with this

on one hand it's a good thing so parliament can't block action from being taken if someone was to happen

but on the other hand this gives the government a whole barrel load of control to do whatever they damn well want and they don't need to go through the legal barriers

however if they exceed their will they could face action from the Governor General who would liquidate parliament and call an election

[smurfy]

The US War Powers Resolution seems like the smartest way to do it where you need parliamentary approval within 60 days of taking action. It's consistently ignored though