Senate debated war powers reform law
2026-03-25
greens.org.au
The Senate today debated a bill that will require both houses of Parliament to vote before the Government can send Australians to wars overseas. 90% of Australians support this reform with most astounded that the Parliament does not already have this power.

The Albanese Labor Government and the Liberals oppose this reform. Both are committed to keeping the decision to send Australians to war as a secret decision made by a handful of cabinet members with no democratic oversight.

Currently, in Australia, the Prime Minister or Defence Minister can unilaterally take Australia to war with no parliamentary oversight before that decision is made. Polling has routinely shown an overwhelming majority of Australians want there to be parliamentary oversight prior to the deployment of troops.

War power reform bills have been proposed in various forms for over 20 years, but have been routinely rejected by the Liberal and Labor parties.

The Albanese Labor Government has sent 85 military personnel, including an RAAF E-7A Wedgetail aircraft and medium-range air-to-air missiles, to the UAE.

This decision was made in a closed room by a handful of Labor cabinet members, with zero parliamentary or public engagement or consent.

We now know that the information collected by the E-7A Wedgetail is being provided to the US as part of their warfighting in this disastrous war of choice on Iran.

Senator David Shoebridge, Greens spokesperson on Defence and Foreign Affairs, said: “The Albanese Labor Government has dragged Australia into another US forever war, and the public never got a say.

“Having Parliament vote before sending a country to war is common in democracies. That is the case in Germany, France, Finland, Denmark and Spain, to name a few. But the war parties here want to keep making that decision in a dark room that only they can enter.

“The majority of Australians do not support Trump and Netanyahu’s war on Iran or the Albanese Labor Government backing it in. This is why the war parties are so resistant to giving Australians a say on this latest disastrous war.

“We are living through the chaos of a war that was supported by a handful of powerful people without public consent. If we had this law in place, then the Government would have had to justify their position before committing troops and the public would have had a chance of stopping it.

“Right now we are seeing death and violence spreading across the Middle East, and Australians are feeling the economic impacts with cost-of-living increases and chaos.

“Australians should decide if we go to war, not Washington, not a handful of people in the war parties and not Donald Trump.

“We needed this law before Vietnam, before Afghanistan, before Iraq and we certainly need it now.”

It would be a good move considering Australia could be going to war against Canada and/or Denmark, as Trump mob tries to deflect from their many mistakes.

Time for Australia to be a real middle power and less of an America/Zionist puppet.

Voting for Greens is voting against American Wars. Voting Coalition and Labor is voting for Australians dying in illegal / dishonest wars.

Good point Lee.

If the Government was to decided which wars we are thrown into, then we should have a MMP model, so it reflects the population, rather our current model that advantages the old parties while not reflecting the population.

Ai_Took_Our_Jobs wrote on Mar 25^th, 2026 at 12:50pm:


Where does it say they only want to ban participation in American Wars?

You really are clueless.

Ai_Took_Our_Jobs wrote on Mar 25^th, 2026 at 12:30pm:


War against Canada won't happen. Canadian PM visited Canberra not too long ago, spoke about how Aus and Canada need to be closer, blah blah blah.

No idea what's going on with Denmark. I think Trump gave up on Greenland now?

lee wrote on Mar 25^th, 2026 at 5:41pm:



Labor and/or the Coalition are not going to send Australian Troops to fight Boko Haram in Nigeria, or insugents in Burma, South Sudan, Iraq, Bangladesh, DR Congo, Tanzania, Thailand , Uganda, Algeria, Angola Morocco, Ivory Coast, Cameroon, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad,  Benin, Rwanda, Tunisia, Togo etc etc etc.

Only illegal wars Amaricans and/or Zionists start.

Ai_Took_Our_Jobs wrote on Mar 25^th, 2026 at 8:07pm:


Well yes sadly and we shouldn't.
Governor Generals serve Great Britain.
Prime Ministers have been serving USA.
...though before Trump, growing resistance to America has developed because of its 'privatised' warmongering and corruption, etc.
But since Trump. The division in Australia has become more open and bias.
The NLP would support Trump, but with a conservative approach.
While the ALP is rejecting the Republicans/Trump with TDS more than anything and would support the Democrats whole heartedly if they wanted to start a war with China over Taiwan for another Vietnam/Korea failure.

I think if the Republicans had a Bush mark 3. The NLP would hesitate, because before Trump - even they marched to the Lefty beat of Media narrative.

But that's the challenge. As Percival Australia. Do you continue to follow your King Arthur Great Britain or turn to follow a doomed Lancelot USA who failed the Grail Quest because of a sexual issue?

Decisions decisions.

Jasin wrote on Mar 25^th, 2026 at 6:04pm:


It's a phase on the road to insurrection - first create social disturbance; then ardent activism within the legal framework; then progressively greater activism once the authorities have proven incapable of responding; progressing through increasing violence physicall and rhetorically; next lphase is assuming, rightly or wrongly, that the time is ripe for a 'popular revolution' - assuming that sufficient ardent activists are now onside with the 'revolution' - and so you move to greater militancy; the final solution is total military action.

That's not the complete picture - I'm a little out of the phase now - but that's the gist.

You see the same progression with our Musso clerics out West in El Cidney, progressively raising the stakes - and oddly with the total connivance of the 'status quo' with their ludicrous 'Islamophobia Report' style nonsense.  They've arrived at the stage where they flatly reject the imposition of the forces of law - the NSW Police - a declaration of complete independence  withon our own borders.  Next phase is absolute civil disobedience using the cover of the ghetto no-go zones and their ability to swim in a sea of fishes who will not dob them in.  Next will be more Bondis as their radical Islamists (spot the Islamist in that crowd) become more confident and, frankly, more deluded that their god is on their side and they cannot fail.

The clear lesson of the head-bowed constantly 'hero' sitting in Supermax after Bondi goes over their heads.... reality is sinking in for him that there is no glorious hero's life herafter in life without ... but inbred, brain-washed dimwits simply cannot see reality.... and not only do they live here with us - but they have a vote.