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Syrian action needs reconsideration, says war powers reform group

Update 11 September 2015: Senator Ludlam speaks

Greens Senator Scott Ludlam (WA) makes the case for Parliament having a role in decisions to go to war.

Update 6 September 2015: Alison Broinowski writes

Alison Broinowski, Honest History vice president and Australians for War Powers Reform committee member, looks at the prospects of bombing Syria turning out differently from invading Vietnam and Afghanistan. ‘Intelligent Australians need, at the least’, she says, ‘a debate and a vote in Parliament, as the British have, before we widen this war’. More from her on this subject.

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Australians for War Powers Reform has called upon the prime minister to reconsider plans for the RAAF to bomb Syria. AWPR called for a debate in Parliament to properly consider whether bombing is in the interests either of Australia or of the people of Syria.

Signatories of the letter included Paul Barratt, a former Secretary of the Department of Defence, Peter Gration, a former Chief of the Defence Force, Dr Margaret Beavis, President of the Medical Association for Prevention of War, and former Senator Jo Vallentine. General Gration was interviewed on The World Today, where he suggested bombing Syria was ‘strategically dumb’, increasing the risk of Australia’s involvement in a ground war and likely to increase the flow of refugees from Syria.

4 September 2015