Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

This growing wave of dangerous and destabilising attacks from Iran puts civilian lives at risk, including Australian lives. In response to requests, Australia will deploy an E-7A Wedgetail to the Gulf, to help protect and defend Australians and other civilians, for an initial four weeks and provide advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles to the UAE. The E-7A Wedgetail can provide long-range reconnaissance capability to help secure air space, as it recently did as part of our assistance to Ukraine.

The Senate will also be aware that the government does not usually disclose specific information regarding Australian personnel on defence operations, for operational and security reasons. However, on 6 March the NSC met and the Prime Minister determined it was in the public interest to disclose that three Australian personnel were present on the US submarine off the coast of Sri Lanka on 5 March. We are clear today that Australia is not taking offensive action against Iran and we are not deploying Australian troops on the ground in Iran.