CANBERRA (AP) – Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ordered an inquiry into why 20-year-old Cabinet documents relating to Australia joining the United States (US)-led Iraq invasion remain secret, saying yesterday that Australians have a right to know why their country went to war in 2003.
On Monday, the National Archives of Australia released 2003 Cabinet records in keeping with an annual January 1 practice following the expiration of a 20-year secrecy provision.
But 78 documents relating to the Iraq war were withheld because they were prepared for the National Security Committee, a subset of Cabinet ministers who make decisions relating to national security and foreign policy. Committing Australia to war was the committee’s decision.
Albanese blamed the former conservative government of prime minister Scott Morrison for failing to follow the usual practice of handing over all documents to the archive three years before their due release date.
Retired public servant Dennis Richardson had been appointed to investigate over two weeks whether the documents had been withheld as part of a political cover up, Albanese said.
A former conservative government’s decision to send Australian combat troops to back US and British forces in the Iraq invasion was opposed by Albanese’s centre-left Labor Party, then in opposition, and triggered Australia’s biggest street protests since the Vietnam War.
