Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister Wong, was asked a very clear, very simple and very important question in question time today: 'Is Australia at war with Iran?' The fact that our Foreign minister, the Leader of the Government in the Senate, either could not or would not answer that question says everything about the way Labor is approaching the Australian people on this critical question of whether or not we are at war with Iran.

Spoiler alert—we are at war with Iran! There is no question under international law. It is indisputably the fact that we are at war with Iran. It's one of the most critical decisions a government can make, and yet this government won't be straight with the Senate and, more importantly, won't be straight with the Australian people about whether or not we are at war with Iran. This is not just about semantics. This is about the decision-making that commits our country to a war—who makes this decision, when it was made, how it was made and at whose request it was made. The simple fact is that it was far more likely to be a demand from the United States and Israel, led by the war criminals Trump and Netanyahu, than it was to be a request.

Let's be abundantly clear. Parliament should decide whether this country is at war with another country, not a government who cannot even come clean on whether they've made that decision and, worse, whether or not we are actually at war. I know we live in a post-truth world, but we saw a chilling example of that today from Minister Wong in question time.

Question agreed to.