Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

The government will be opposing this amendment. The bill as introduced would amend section 28 of the Defence Act to make a reserve call-out a notifiable instrument. This has substantially the same effect as the existing provision, which requires reserve call-outs to be published in the Gazette. This requires publication of the instrument on the federal register, and that is publicly available. We do not believe in any way that it is appropriate for reserve call-outs to be disallowable, noting the significant level of disruption that that would cause for the ADF's operation, its planning and, indeed, for ADF members who have been called out. There are numerous other mechanisms by which any decision of the government to call out the reserves can be scrutinised by the parliament, and scrutiny of the instrument itself is not necessary, noting that the instrument itself does not determine the law. So for these reasons the government will be opposing this amendment.