Greens demand full release of government documents on ‘disastrous’ decision to join Iraq invasion

John Howard visits Baghdad in 2005. The prime minister committed Australia to join the US-led invasion of Iraq two years earlier based on intelligence that proved to be false. Photograph: The Sydney Morning Herald/Fairfax Media/Getty Images

The release of the 2003 cabinet papers “barely scratches the surface” of the Howard government’s “disastrous decision to go to war in Iraq” and reinforces the need for a parliamentary vote before committing Australia to future wars, Greens senator Nick McKim has said.

McKim has demanded the full release of all national security committee and cabinet documents related to the 2003 decision, which committed Australia to the US-led “coalition of the willing” to invade Iraq.