BY NORM DIXON
The federal Labor "opposition" on September 7 voted with Coalition government senators to pass the Defence Legislation Amendment (Aid to Civilian Authorities) Bill. The law hands sweeping powers to the federal government to deploy troops to quell undefined "domestic violence".
The unseemly haste with which Labor passed the bill was due to the party's enthusiasm, shared with the federal government, to have the law is place before the September 11 start of the World Economic Forum meeting in Melbourne and the September 15 opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Sydney.
The legislation allows troops to be "called out" if a state government considers its police force unable to deal with an outbreak of "domestic violence". It also allows the federal government to deploy troops, after "consulting" the appropriate state government, if "commonwealth interests" are threatened such violence.
Labor joined hands with the Coalition to vote down Greens Senator Bob Brown's weak amendment that would have required a state government to agree to federal government deployment of the military to put down a protest or strike.
Labor also accepted a government amendment that would allow troops to be used against civilians when there was the possibility of "serious damage to property". Brown pointed out on September 5 that this has given "the government and military free reign to call out the troops because in almost every situation 'serious damage to property' could be envisaged.
"This is a backflip, upon sell-out, upon back-down. Labor has failed to defend a century of law and convention in Australia which has prevented the defence forces from being involved in armed conflict with civilians."
However, federal attorney-general Darryl Williams and Labor federal defence spokesperson Stephen Martin disputed this. "It doesn't expand the situation in which defence forces can be called out", said Williams. Martin went one step further to claim that the legislation "restricts the Commonwealth's powers and actions in this regard".
The defence forces were used as scabs against striking coalminers in 1949, the 1953 Bowen strike in Queensland, the 1981 airline dispute and the 1989 pilots' dispute. In 1989, federal Labor defence minister Kim Beazley authorised the use of troops against protesters at the Nurrungar military base.