Failing The Civilian Response? Defence Amendment (Call Out of the ADF) Act 2018 (Cth)

The Act emerged as a consequence of the Review of Defence Support to National Counter Terrorism Arrangements announced in July 2017, reviewing, inter alia, the Part II A of the Defence Act 1903 (Cth) call out powers. The Review was initiated in response to the changing nature of overseas terrorist threat examples. It coincided with the conduct and reporting by the NSE Coroner inquiry into the tragic Lindt Cafe siege, which provided context to the Review. The Coronial report concluded that the call out preconditions under the existing legislation had not been met; acknowledged that the Commonwealth had commenced a review of ADF support to domestic counter-terrorism operations, providing an opportunity to review the call out threshold; and it was necessary to confer with state and territory governments about the call out criteria.