Australia to probe why some Iraq invasion-related files remain secret

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has ordered an inquiry into why 20-year-old Cabinet documents relating to Australia joining the United States-led Iraq invasion remain secret, saying that Australians have a right to know why their country went to war in 2003.

Albanese blamed on Wednesday 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 opposition, and triggered Australia's biggest street protests since the Vietnam War.

Albanese said the National Archives of Australia [NAA] should release the documents once they have been examined for any national security issues that could exempt them from rules mandating they be made public after 20 years.

"Let me make it very clear of what my government's position is: Australians have a right to know the basis upon which Australia went to war in Iraq," Albanese told reporters.

"If this doesn't occur, we'll look at whether the government needs to take further action to ensure that there’s transparency here," Albanese added.

The government department responsible for passing the documents to the archive blamed "administrative oversights" likely caused by pandemic disruption for them not reaching the archive in 2020.

The department said in a statement the archive now had the documents and would consult with security agencies before deciding whether they could be released.

The archive said in a statement it would decide within 90 business days whether the documents would be made public.

The archive had received the documents on New Year's Eve and was giving priority to examining them, the statement said.

78 documents relating to Iraq war

On Monday, NAA 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.

According to NAA, most records are available for public access when they reach their open access period.

However, some records are withheld under section 33 of the Archives Act, and they are usually either personal information or information about the security of the Commonwealth and its residents.

Less than 2 percent of the records are partially released, and less than 0.25 percent are wholly withheld, according to NAA's website.

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Source: TRT