Australian military forces will be able to target Islamic State logistics and support personnel as well as combat fighters under a change in the law aimed at protecting defence personnel from possible criminal prosecutions.
The change in legislation due soon will bring Australian law into line with international law, allaying fears that Australian Defence Force members could be prosecuted in Australian courts for military actions that are legal internationally, the Chief of the Defence Force, Mark Binskin, said Thursday.
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Targeting terror: laws strengthened
Changes to Australian law will allow more aggressive targeting of ISIL infrastructure in Iraq and Syria, with government and opposition support.
The change will mainly affect RAAF fighter pilots who are bombing the Islamic State, also known as Daesh.Â
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull said the current law was an anomaly that was out of step with international law and the laws followed by Australia's coalition partners in fighting the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.
"Under international law, all members of an organised armed group such as Daesh can be targeted with lethal force, subject, of course, to the ordinary rules of international humanitarian law," Mr Turnbull said in a speech to Parliament.
"This is a reasonable and conventional approach adopted by the armed forces of our key allies across the world."
But Australia's domestic law is more restrictive than international law, allowing only targeting of active IS fighters, and this posed a "major challenge" to the effectiveness of Australian Defence Force operations. Mr Turnbull said it meant Australian forces could not operate as freely as their coalition partners.
Under the change, the ADF "will be able to target Daesh at its core – joining with our coalition partners to target and kill a broader range of Daesh combatants – which is consistent with international law", Mr Turnbull said.
Mr Turnbull also issued a call for harmony, saying the danger of terrorism would be greater if Australians discriminated against Muslims.
"We cannot be effective if we are creating division, whether by fomenting distrust within the Muslim community or inciting fear of Muslims in broader society" he said. "Division begets division. It makes violence more likely, not less."
The legislation change is understood to mean for instance that Islamic State supporters working in a munitions depot or delivering supplies can be targeted.
Government sources said it did not affect the way Australia's so-called "rules of engagement" were structured to avoid civilian casualties. RAAF forces would still need to go through an "identification matrix" to ensure that targets were legitimate and the risk of harming civilians was minimised.
The ADF says it has not killed or harmed any civilians in the nearly two years it has been bombing IS.
It is understood that there have not been any legal threats against ADF personnel to date.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten told Parliament Labor supported the change in principle, though he added it would scrutinise the new legislation before committing to backing it.
Air Chief Marshal Binskin stressed that the ADF always targeted IS "in a discriminate and proportionate manner" and within international and domestic law.
Current Australian law only allowed targeting of personnel who were playing a "direct and active part in hostilities".
"It doesn't allow us to target those important supporting elements that are key to their fighting ability, eg their logistics and support organisations," Air Chief Marshal Binskin said.
"Therefore we have not been able to maximise the combat capability of our deployed forces."
He said the ambiguity in the difference between domestic and international law meant that "on operations now, we are asking people to make split second decisions in a very dynamic organisation".
"There is a condition that exists where a domestic court may take a narrower interpretation of Australia's obligations under international law and potentially prosecute an ADF member.
"Both these issues have been a concern to me."
Mr Turnbull said the "the tide has turned" against IS with the number of fighters believed to have been cut by about one third.
But he added: "We will be in the Middle East for a while yet."
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