Australia will soon make a decision on a French request to send a frigate to the Gulf as part of the fight against Islamic State.
Australia’s defence minister, Marise Payne, said the government would discuss the request – which came before the attacks in Paris on Friday evening – upon Malcolm Turnbull’s return from overseas.
She also confirmed the government would delay the long-awaited defence white paper until early next year, a possibility that had been the topic of speculation since the arrival of the new prime minister and defence minister in September.
The key military strategy document was originally due for release this year, but Payne said the government was taking the time needed “to do that properly”.
Australia is participating in US-led airstrikes against Isis in Iraq and Syria, but is considering what further contribution it might make to the military effort after the terrorist group claimed responsibility for attacks on the French capital that left about 130 people dead.
The French president, François Hollande, used a speech to parliament on Monday to foreshadow a tripling of France’s strike capacity in the region with the departure of the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle for the eastern Mediterranean.
Payne said the government was yet to make a decision on the request to send an Australian frigate to join the French-led task force in the Gulf, a proposal that became public last month.
“This is a request that came some small time ago from the French ... not over the weekend ... which we have been considering in light of our current commitments in the Gulf,” she said at a submarine conference in Adelaide on Tuesday.
“The government is still considering that and I look forward to speaking about it further with the prime minister when he returns. He has obviously had a chance to meet with the foreign minister [Laurent] Fabius and to speak to President Hollande, so I’m sure we will consider those issues further.”
Payne said the Paris attacks “would be a factor in the discussions”. The chief of navy, Vice Admiral Tim Barrett, said defence was providing advice to the government “at the moment”.
“We already have a commitment to the Middle East,” Barrett said.
“We’re on our 60th rotation of frigates into the area at the moment. During the time that we have been up there we have on many occasions operated with allies and partners including the French in the past. We have had a request from the French to continue.”
Turnbull was due to have his first formal meeting with the US president, Barack Obama, on the sidelines of the Apec summit in the Philippines on Tuesday.
The former prime minister Tony Abbott called for Australia to consider “less restrictive targeting rules for airstrikes and the deployment of special forces on the ground in support of local forces”.
In a column for the Australian newspaper, Abbott wrote: “Preferably with Sunni states such as Turkey, Egypt and Jordan, as well as with the US, Britain and France, Australia should be prepared to contribute more to a military campaign to destroy this terrorist caliphate on the ground in Syria and Iraq.”
The foreign affairs minister, Julie Bishop, said any increased effort would need the consent of the Iraqi government. “Our former prime minister Tony Abbott appreciates that you can’t unilaterally go into Iraq in these circumstances,” she told the ABC.
Australia was already playing a significant role as the second largest military contributory to the US-led coalition efforts in Iraq, Bishop said. About 780 Australian defence personnel were in the Middle East.
The Labor leader, Bill Shorten, said he did not believe it was necessary to have Australian “boots on the ground” in Syria. “I think that ultimate peace and stability in that region has to be driven by the nations of that region,” he said.
“The whole history of this conflict shows that just sending in large groups of troops from the west doesn’t always end up achieving what you want and, in fact, can cause further problems down the track.”
The independent MP and former intelligence officer Andrew Wilkie said Turnbull should rule out sending any more defence force assets to the Middle East.
“The fact is Australia and Australians are only a terrorist target because of the decisions to go and join in the invasion of Iraq and to continue to fight in Iraq on and off since 2003 and, more recently, the decision to join in the civil war in Syria,” Wilkie said.
