Military call-out powers expanded : disturbing questions posed

After a perfunctory debate" lasting less than six hours in the Senate and House of Representatives" the Commonwealth Parliament passed the Defence (Aid to Civilian Authorities) Act 2006 (Cth) in February 2006, considerably enhancing the federal government's powers to call out troops domestically. The bipartisan passage of the legislation, substantially amending the military call-out powers first enacted in 2000, has amplified the concerns that this author raised in 2000¹, and again in 2005², about the possibility of the government using the armed forces against civilians on domestic soil.