Australian Defence Force

The majority voted against a motion introduced by NSW Senator David Shoebridge (Greens), which means it failed.

Motion text

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) the decision by the Government on Tuesday, 10 March 2026, to deploy the Australian Defence Force (ADF) to the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in a military operation as a party to an armed conflict,

(ii) that the Memorandum on Government Conventions Relating to Overseas Armed Conflict Decision Making (the memorandum) requires the Government to take a number of actions within 30 days when deploying the ADF overseas, including that:

(A) the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Government in the Senate deliver a ministerial statement and provide an unclassified written statement to both houses of the Parliament outlining the objectives of the deployment in question, the orders made and its legal basis, and

(B) if Parliament is scheduled to sit within 30 days of the deployment, then the first appropriate day of the scheduled sitting period be set aside for the consideration of the ministerial statement and consideration of the statement have precedence over all other business until concluded, and

(iii) that the Government has not complied with the memorandum, despite the 30 days identified in the memorandum expiring on Thursday, 9 April 2026; and

(b) requires the Leader of the Government in the Senate to attend the Senate after question time on Wednesday, 13 May 2026, to table an unclassified written statement outlining the objectives of the deployment of the ADF to the UAE, a copy of the orders made and any advice received setting out its legal basis, and that:

(i) any senator may move to take note of the documents, and

(ii) any such motion may be debated and shall have precedence over all business until determined, and senators may speak to the motion for not more than 5 minutes each.