The Australian Defence Force and the Executive Power

Abstract

The Australian Defence Force has considerable power at its disposal. It is physically more powerful than any other organisation in Australia. This is hardly surprising when it has the task of defending the country, conducting warlike and peace building operations overseas, enforcing maritime legislation and providing a degree of internal security. Yet only a minor proportion of this activity is authorised by an Act of Parliament. To state the executive power as the legal basis for an ADF operation does little to explain the limits on that power, or even its character. It does not necessarily identify who may exercise the power, where an action is beyond power, whether such an action prevails over an Act of Parliament or whether the exercise of the power is reviewable by a court. Despite this, it is possible to identify some limits to the exercise of executive power by the ADF, although they cannot be precise limits because executive power is meant to deal with the unpredictable and the external.