AWPR recently wrote a submission to the Joint Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Inquiry into the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for Australia’s foreign affairs, defence and trade.
The pandemic is having a profound effect on the balance of power throughout the world and AWPR has urged the inquiry to look closely at the executive power to deploy the Australian Defence Force into armed conflict without any reference to Parliament.
Five key points in relation to the Terms of Reference of this Inquiry:
- COVID-19 will have profound effects upon the balance of power and influence in the world, and in our region in particular.
- COVID-19 will intensify the move to more automated weapon systems, and more reliance on artificial intelligence.
- Any effective review of the Australian defence and strategic policy must be based on a sober and realistic appreciation of what we can expect from the lynchpin of Australian defence policy since the onset of the Cold War – the ANZUS Treaty.
- Leaving in the Executive power to deploy the Australian Defence Force into international armed conflict is not a safe and secure basis for Australian defence policy.
- Accordingly, the so-called ‘war powers’ should be relocated to the Federal Parliament, subject to adequate provision for the government of the day to take emergency action in response to direct threats to Australia.
Please view our full submission
(Image: M.Danish – Pexels)
Treated properly, Covid 19 will be gone as soon as herd immunity has been reached.
Isolating healthy people wont manage that … it will extend the life of the issue.
However, the “clever” people seem to have their way.
I would point out to you that we have an Australian DEFENCE Force. We do not have an attack, or an interfering, or a force that should be dragged into aggressive wars by other nations.
Unless our forces are engaged in DEFENCE, they have no business being outside our borders.
Unless and until a shot is fired against our sovereign nation, we are not at war, and we don’t need defending.
I do not support any use of our DEFENCE forces to support US wars of aggression against sovereign nations, and that includes Iran, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan and Yemen, and I believe if the truth was given to the Australian people, there would be a universal condemnation of the use of our DEFENCE forces in the Middle Eastern nations.
The same applies to the South China Sea. It is China’s doorstep, and they have every right to ensure it is secure, especially since the US has missiles located in South Korea, Japan and Taiwan, and thousands of troops in the area. Imagine if the same happened to us and an aggressive country had missiles in New Zealand!
It’s time we made a stand on war. We are either an independent sovereign nation, or we are a craven puppet.
Well said H Banks!