By Brett Manning, Trustee of the New Aussie Constitution Trust

Any permanent military force is invariably a very powerful institution within the society that creates it. Your military forces exist to protect your society and its national interests.

So what does the current Australian Constitution say about our military. For one thing, ‘The command in chief of the naval and military forces of the Commonwealth is vested in the Governor-General as the Queen’s representative’ (Sect. 68). Elsewhere, it refers to the Australian military as ‘the Queen’s military’. Anyone who follows along with my videos and blogs about the proposed draft New Aussie Constitution will know that I have a very strong view that Australia’s military swearing allegiance to a foreign head of state is seriously inappropriate. Allegiance, especially when using the ‘force of arms’, should be to the Commonwealth of Australia or directly to the Australian citizens.

When I was drafting the proposed New Aussie Constitution I looked at the success or otherwise of other systems of government from around the world and there have certainly been incidents of military coups throughout history. Some have been outright power grabs and in other cases I’m sure the military thought it was doing the right thing by the country. In designing the Constitution, it was important to lower the chances of military force ever being at odds with the citizens and their democratically elected government that it exists to defend.

In the proposed draft New Aussie Constitution the Commander-In-Chief of the Australian military forces is the democratically elected Head of State, the Governor-General, but the role of Supreme Operational Commander rests with the Prime Minister as Head of Government.

Why not just make the Prime Minister Commander-In-Chief you ask? One of the responsibilities of the Governor-General under the New Aussie Constitution is protection of the Constitution. This means that the highest allegiance of the military must be ‘sheeted home’ to ensuring that the Constitution (which is the will of the people) is protected and free to operate as intended.

So why give the operational command to the Prime Minister? Under the proposed draft New Aussie Constitution, the Prime Minister is the Head of Government (the Executive Government). The Executive Government determines what Australia will do and it is therefore appropriate for it to direct the application of military force (or the continuation of ‘diplomacy by other means’ as it is sometimes called!) when it is required. In Australia, the military works for the people and the Executive Government is the people’s democratically elected representative.

The draft New Aussie Constitution makes it clear that the chain of command does not stop at the military Chief of Staff. All military personnel must follow the lawful orders of the officers appointed over them and that extends to their democratically elected leaders. Clearly the Chief of Staff has the military expertise to conduct military operations and should advise the Executive Government appropriately, but it is the latter that has the will of the people and the understanding of the broader diplomatic situation of the nation. The Executive Government needs to make the big calls.

For the same reasons, it is appropriate for the Executive Government to determine the size of its military forces, how they should be structured and what weapons they should employ. It has also been suggested that the military should independently determine who is promoted to the most senior positions in its ranks but again, I would contend that it is not for the military to determine its own direction. That is why the New Aussie Constitution has the Governor-General confirm the appointment of officers to flag rank positions based on the advice of the Executive Government. The military would still recommend who should be promoted to a particular position but government oversight ensures that the military does not get ‘out of step’ with the Government’s strategic plans or the beliefs and expectations of the Australian citizens.

The proposed draft New Aussie Constitution ensures that the allegiance of the Australian military forces is aligned to the protection of the Australian people and that command and control is more clearly defined than in the current Australian Constitution. It is yet another reason why Australia needs to replace its current Constitution.