Mission Creep …

More Australian troops will not solve the crisis in Iraq.

Western troops are not welcome in that country and indeed have been one of the reasons for the 12 years of war.

Any further foreign intervention on the ground should be by soldiers from Muslim countries.

But there is a question mark over the capacity of any foreign troops being able to successfully train the decrepit Iraqi army.

Years of trying to train Iraqi troops, at a cost of billions of dollars, have so far failed dismally and we should confront the likelihood that further training efforts will be no more than reinforcing defeat.

The dreadful situation in Iraq is a mess of our own making. Australia helped start this war 12 years ago, for entirely fraudulent reasons, and we are now all left to pay the price.

The West, including Australia, has also had a hand in destabilising Syria by our support for the Syrian rebels out of which Islamic State has emerged.

The reality is there is no easy or reliable way to remedy Iraq. About the only certainty is that some sort of stability will not emerge there until the country is allowed to find its natural political level.

• What Jacqui Lambie told the Senate …

Senator LAMBIE (Tasmania) (12:57): I rise to speak to the motion before the Senate regarding the deployment of the ADF personnel to overseas conflicts. While I support the Greens motion to have a debate about the current military deployment, I do not support the Greens’ proposal to change the way the decision-making process is made to send the troops overseas. All I propose to change is the decision makers, who have clearly made the wrong call in sending our troops back overseas again. Some people are having difficulty in grasping this following fact: despite all the terror attacks, despite the fact that our official terrorism alert is high, which means that an attack by an enemy is likely, we are at war.

Firstly, I would like at least the Liberal Party to be big enough to say it as it is: we are at war. Let us just say it. Let us be honest. It is a war that we did not want. It is a war that other people have declared on us because they do not like our freedom, our democracy and our way of life, and they do not like the fact that our women and gay people have the same rights as men. They do not like the fact that we do not worship and pray to the same god that they worship and pray to. Therefore, they want to kill and enslave us.

Secondly, for anybody that does not know, out of all the troops that we have—which is about enough full-time troops to half fill the MCG, and then we have reserves on top of that—if you take everything away, we have about 3,000 combat troops. Three thousand combat troops in the last 12 years have shared this war between them. Some of them have done six to 10 tours. That means they have already spent five or six years in the war zone.

Some of them we are sending back on anti-psychotic drugs.

We are not ready for this war because we stopped spending what we should have spent out of our GDP. That is what the problem is, and we just have not been restocking for years. This is caused by both major sides of politics. And now you are going to send these men and women back into the war zone. Not only that, you still have not returned the 1.5 per cent pay rise that you ripped out of them, that you stole from them. But you can stand in front of their faces and tell them they are going back to war. What sort of men does that make on your cabinet, let alone your PM?

But, for the worst of this, let’s go into Veterans’ Affairs. Let’s go into the theory of ‘don’t send them to war when you cannot look after them when they return’. Right now you people have put in place a system—

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT (Senator Williams): Senator Lambie, direct your comments through the chair, please. Continue on.

Senator LAMBIE: Acting Deputy President, the Liberal Party set up a system which is called ‘offsetting’. It is under three different acts, so now when these men return you are ripping them off. They are not getting paid out in full for their injuries and they are suffering. You know about this but you still refuse to fix it. You know this offsetting is an issue. Veterans’ Affairs is in chaos, but you are prepared to sit there and you are prepared to send these men back into war. Well, you know what? I suggest you go and clean up a little bit, because you are out of order. How easy it is for you people to sit over there and say: ‘Guess what, men? You’re going back into war.’

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Senator Lambie, please direct your comments through the chair.

Senator LAMBIE: Like I said, that is after you rip 1.5 per cent of their pay rise off them, off their families. How is their morale going? That is how you are going to send them back into war. You should be bloody proud of yourselves! As a matter of fact, you should be absolutely ashamed of yourselves. It is an absolute disgrace. Why don’t you start looking after them and leading by example?

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT (Senator Williams): The time for the debate has now expired. The question is the motion to suspend standing orders moved by Senator Milne be agreed to.
The Senate divided. [13:06]

(The Acting Deputy President—Senator Williams)

Ayes 12
Noes 40

• High crimes of freedom and sedition …

Mr President,

I move that the Senate take notice of the answer given by the Attorney General to a question without notice by myself in relation to Treason and Sedition Charges.

Mr President,

The Attorney General in answering my QWN today, regarding the laying of Treason or Sedition Charges against Australian Citizens who have clearly assisted or fought for Islamic State…

… shows that this Liberal / National Government has gone soft on Australian Citizens who chose to assist or fight for our enemy – an organization which calls itself – Islamic state or ISIS.

If the Liberal / National parties were Fair Dinkim about addressing the growing threat that Islamic Australian Citizens … who clearly are assisting the Islamic state organization …

… then the Attorney General and Australian law enforcement Agencies would have laid the serious charges of Sedition or Treason against any Australian Citizen… who assists (as the legislation reads )…

… “any means what ever .. … ( and I’ll repeat that ), “any means what ever … an organization that is engaged in armed hostilities against the Australian Defence Force.”

Mr President,

This government are quick to say to the Australian people that we need to introduce new laws which take away – and undermine basic civil rights to privacy … because we need to crack down on Australian Citizen who fight for or support the Islamic terrorists …. who want to kill us…

… but this government, by the Attorney General’s reply to my questions today has shown that they are:

1. too lazy and stupid or
2. Are trying to win political favor with the Australian Islamic community

… by not laying the high crime charges of Treason and Sedition against the hundreds – probably thousands of Islamic Australian Citizens who assist and / or … have fought for the butchers of Islamic state.

The law which served previous generations of Australians who fought killers who wanted to impose by force, a brutal dictator ship on our Nation are clear…

Division 80 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995, states that:

If any Australian engages in conduct that assists by any means whatever, with intent to assist:

. 
(i) another country; or
. (ii) an organisation; 
that is engaged in armed hostilities against the Australian Defence Force
They are guilty of Treason and / or Sedition – and should face 7 years to life in Jail.

The key question for Prime Minister Abbott and Attorney General Brandis must answer before any more new ant-terror laws pass this Senate which take away or undermine basic civil democratic rights – is this :

Why have you failed to use, tried and tested existing laws – which came into being to protect the majority of law abiding, proud Australians – from these exact circumstance stances ….

… which are co-ordinated attacks from a group of dirty, filthy Traitors?

(Words 473 – Time 3.6 mins)

Mr President,

The Islamic state supporter who carried out the Sydney siege and brutal killing – as well as being a criminal – was an Australian Citizen and clearly an Australian Traitor.

Man Monis actions were designed assist the organization Islamic State.

I’d like the people of Tasmania and Australia to consider this set of circumstances that could happen in the future:

What if a traitorous Australian Citizen like, Man Monis survived a siege after killing Australian citizens …

… Should that person face a maximum penalty of life in jail…

… or should an Australian Jury have the option of imposing the death sentence on a Killer, Traitor and Terrorist supporter?

While I normally oppose the death penalty, I say “Yes” to the death penalty for only those circumstances.

(607 words – 4.5min)

Mr President – in closing

As many will know – I’ve received a letter and photos from a writer who’s threatened to behead me if I don’t convert to Islam and support Sharia law.

It could be hoax. It could be for real. Either way, my message to Islamic state supporters in Australia is get stuffed – I won’t be intimidated.

And any body who supports and advocates for Sharia Law – the law of our enemy – should be put behind bars or deported.

• Jacqui Lambie: Questions without notice …

Senator LAMBIE (Tasmania) (14:39): Mr President, I refer the Attorney-General to the Commonwealth
Criminal Code Act 1995 which states that if any Australian engages in conduct that assists by any means
whatever, with intent to assist, another country or an organisation that is engaged in armed hostilities against the
Australian Defence Force, they are guilty of treason and should face life in jail. I also refer the Attorney-General
to the fact that his government acknowledges more than 120 Australian citizens are engaged in armed hostilities
against the Australian Defence Force and fighting for Islamic State. His government has identified hundreds of
Islamic Australian citizens living on home soil who have assisted Islamic State. Can the Attorney-General
explained why those citizens have not been charged with the high crime of treason or sedition?

Senator LAMBIE (Tasmania) (14:42): Mr President, I ask a supplementary question. I refer the Attorney-
General to the fact his government has sufficient evidence to take away the passports and prevent the travel of
hundreds of Australian citizens who have tried to assist the Islamic State enemy. If the Attorney-General has
enough evidence to take away the passports of Australian citizens who want to assist the Islamic State enemy, can
the Attorney-General detail why he has failed to use that evidence to lay charges of treason or sedition?

Senator LAMBIE (Tasmania) (14:43): Mr President, I ask a further supplementary question. I again refer the
Attorney-General to division 80 of the Commonwealth Criminal Code Act 1995, which states that if any
Australian engages in conduct that assists by any means whatever, with intent to assist, an organisation that is
engaged in armed hostilities against the Australian Defence Force, they are guilty of treason or sedition. Which
part of ‘conduct that assists by any means whatever’ does the Attorney-General not understand? It is time he
started cleaning up his own backyard first, before he sends troops overseas. (Time expired)