Tony Abbott had no discussions with the armed forces or the Department of Defence about unilaterally sending troops into Iraq, the chief of the defence force and Department of Defence secretary say.
News Corp papers on Saturday reported that the prime minister contemplated sending 3,500 Australian combat troops to Iraq without the backing of key allies to fight Islamic State.
But Air Chief Marshal Mark Binskin and the defence department secretary, Dennis Richardson, said on Monday there had been no conversations, “formal or informal”, about such an idea.
“At no point has the prime minister raised that idea with the ADF and/or the Department of Defence, formally or informally, directly or indirectly,” Binskin and Richardson said in a written statement.
Abbott on Saturday labelled the report “fanciful”.
“I read an article in the paper this morning and I must say I thought it was absolutely fanciful and I rang the chief of the defence force to ask him about it and he’s as mystified by it as I am,” Abbott said.
“The idea there was a meeting in late November where I formally asked for advice and formally suggested that a large Australian force should go unilaterally to Iraq is wrong – just wrong.”
Senior ministers also rubbished the report.
“I was on the national security committee at the time. I can confirm what the prime minister said. It is fanciful,” the social services minister, Scott Morrison, told ABC TV on Sunday.
“These stories are getting ridiculous. What’s next? Will they suggest the prime minister had some plan to put a manned space mission to Mars or the moon? It is getting silly. The notion this was put about is complete nonsense,” he said.
“It never happened. So I’m flummoxed as to where this story emanated from,” the agriculture minister, Barnaby Joyce, said.
