ABSTRACT
Successive Australian governments have established, and then reinforced, a statutory code authorising the domestic deployment of the armed forces. ‘Domestic violence’ is an amorphous, anachronistic and seemingly incongruous term, which in contemporary parlance normally refers to violence in the home. Deployment of soldiers against demonstrators at a military intelligence base in central Australia in 1989 caused considerable controversy. It is incontrovertible that the legislation is not confined to dealing with terrorism. The Government also rejected calls made in Parliament and Committee Inquiry submissions to define ‘domestic violence’. The constitutional limit was further eviscerated by the 2018 amendments. A new definition of ‘declared infrastructure’ was inserted to replace the previous definition of ‘designated critical infrastructure’. The 2018 Bill has amplified many of the legal, constitutional and political issues posed by the 2000 and 2006 legislation. In addition, military personnel lacked legislative powers to carry out searches, seizures and arrests.
