Australian military forces will have wider powers to conduct deadly strikes in their campaign against ISIS in the Middle East, with prime minister Malcolm Turnbull saying that in its security priorities the “first objective must be to expel Daesh from its occupied territories and destroy its pretensions of statehood”.
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He said the proposed law changes would allow the ADF to engage militants to “the maximum extent allowed by worldwide law” while soldiers would also be backed by “domestic laws” which would be brought into line in order to avoid confusion. “And with lethal force”.
Australian law now only allows the targeting of people who were playing an active role in hostilities, which Turnbull said was more restrictive than global law.
‘This legal risk posed a major challenge to the effectiveness of our operations.
Mr Turnbull said while under global law all members of a group like Islamic State can be targeted with lethal force, there was a legal argument Australian law was more restrictive.
“It doesn’t allow us to target those important supporting elements that are key to their fighting ability, (for example) their logistics and support organisations”.
“We must combat all of Daesh, including its financiers and propagandists”, Mr. Turnbull told lawmakers, using the government’s preferred term for Islamic State extremists.
Air Chief Marshal Binskin said defence personnel also feared they could be charged with a war crime under current laws.
“There are still people outside our country, and some within it, who hate the freedoms that we enjoy and would seek to threaten them and undermine them with violence”, said Turnbull.
Mr Turnbull said that since the Parliament last met on May 5 the world had witnessed “a seemingly constant barrage of terror attacks”, including Nice (84 killed, 201 injured); Orlando (49 killed); a Church in Normandy where a priest was slain by a teenager; and 47 killed at Ankara airport and 23 in Dhaka, with both attacks specifically aimed at foreigners.
“Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Bangladesh have suffered terrorist attacks over the past year”.
In the past year, 40 Islamist terrorist attacks against western targets resulted in over 700 deaths, many of which were inspired by IS.
“Both these issues have been a concern to me”.
Mr. Turnbull said Islamic State and the inspiration it provided for homegrown terrorism was the greatest strategic threat faced by Australia, which has begun a A$200 billion modernization of its military to counter a buildup of weapons in Asia and increasing territorial assertion by China.
He said Australia could not “close its eyes” to the rising threat posed by IS.
“Whether it is Nice, Orlando, Wurzburg, Istanbul, Jakarta or Sydney, Daesh is inspiring, encouraging and directing many more attacks now than when it was expanding its territory in Syria and Iraq”.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten indicated his party would support the proposed changes in the Parliament.
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“The loss of innocent lives to terrorism has become an all too familiar story on the evening news”, he said.
