Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie desires the Worldwide Legal Court docket to research the duty of senior Australian Defence Pressure officers for potential struggle crimes in Afghanistan.
Lambie, who served within the military for 11 years, unsuccessfully known as on Senate standing orders to be suspended to permit her to desk paperwork regarding the worldwide court docket referral, saying diggers had been “thrown below the bus” by prime brass in relation to Australian struggle crimes investigations.
Senator Jacqui Lambie speaks within the Senate on Tuesday. Credit score: Alex Ellinghausen
“Just like the Chief of the Defence Pressure and the highest brass, the federal government is little question hoping this may simply go away,” Lambie stated within the Senate simply after noon.
“They’re hoping that Australians will neglect when alleged struggle crimes in Afghanistan had been investigated. Our senior commanders received a free cross whereas their diggers had been thrown below the bus. Properly, we don’t neglect. I received’t neglect. Lest we neglect.
“There’s a tradition of canopy up on the highest ranges of the Australian Defence Pressure. It’s the final boys’ membership.”
Lambie stated she was performing on proof from a number of sources, together with witness testimony within the Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith’s failed defamation case towards a number of media shops – together with this masthead – that ADF management knew “this went manner past patrols”.
“The Worldwide Legal Court docket is a court docket of final resort. It isn’t a simple activity to get them to research … on this case, Australia has failed to research excessive command for his or her breach of responsibility,” Lambie stated.
Assistant Minister for Training and Regional Growth, Anthony Chisholm, stated the federal government understood the “ardour and significance that Senator Lambie locations on these issues, and we perceive that they’re necessary to her and many individuals throughout the nation.”
“We do, nevertheless, observe a standard protocol the place we get the prospect to peruse these paperwork earlier than we make the choice,” he stated.
