Criminal Code Amendment (War Crimes) Bill 2016

The majority voted against a motion to add certain words (see below) to the original motion to read the bill for a second time (which is parliamentary jargon for agreeing with the main idea of the bill).

This means that the majority of senators rejected this motion, which was introduced by Tasmanian Greens Senator Nick McKim.

Motion text

At the end of the motion, add:

", but the Senate notes, in the context of these proposed amendments, the Australian Defence Force's participation in military operations involving drones or autonomous weapons is currently surrounded in secrecy and calls on the Government, where these operations result in civilian casualties, to publish a monthly report detailing the date, location, target, number of civilian casualties and level of Australian assistance to these operations.".