Source : Perth Now news
One Nation leader Pauline Hanson must “explain to the Australian people why she wants to lower the standard of battlefield conduct for Australian soldiers”, Liberal frontbencher Andrew Hastie has said as their war of words escalates.
Senator Hanson this week called on Mr Hastie, a special forces veteran, to say if he backed “retrospectively changing criminal law to make prosecutions of veterans easier”.
It related to tweaks to war crimes laws in 2024 that passed on voices, meaning there was no written record of who did or did not oppose.
The changes brought battlefield conduct in line with international law and have been used to prosecute war crimes cases, including against Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith, who denies all allegations against him.
Mr Hastie noted on Sunday that the amendments also passed the Senate on a voice vote and that the same question could be asked of Senator Hanson.
“The general principle here is that Australian soldiers don’t execute prisoners,” Mr Hastie told News24.
“And as I understood, the amendment in 2024 was to bring our law in line with a tactical application of the Geneva Code, whereby if you have an enemy combatant who’s in your control, has surrendered, or is incapacitated or wounded, they’re out of the fight.”
He said the “real issue” was: “Where do we stand on (war) prisoners and how we treat them?”
“And so Pauline Hanson needs to explain to the Australian people why she wants to lower the standard of battlefield conduct for Australian soldiers,” Mr Hastie said.
More to come
