David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

As situations now stand, it would be important for me to underline that since we observed the mass executions, the beheading of a person on the internet, the threat to behead a further US national journalist on the internet, the readiness level of the Australian Defence Force has come up. We also—as the good senator would know—have about 60 Australians fighting with this and other terrorist organisations, so there is a domestic component to our consideration as to how we go forward. The Australian Defence Force is ready. We have received no request or participated in formal planning with respect to military operations. Our focus has been the immediate preservation of life at Sinjar, where we first carried out our humanitarian drops—and I can tell you I was with the team that did that work last Friday. (Time expired)