Mathias Cormann denies Tony Abbott suggested unilaterally sending ground troops to Iraq to fight Islamic State
Senior Cabinet Minister Mathias Cormann has issued an emphatic denial of a news report that Prime Minister Tony Abbott raised the prospect of unilaterally sending thousands of ground troops to Iraq.
The Australian newspaper is reporting that during a meeting on November 25 last year, Mr Abbott suggested sending 3,500 ground troops to confront the Islamic State terrorist group.
The report says Mr Abbott put the idea to leading military planners, who were "stunned" and advised him sending the soldiers without United States or NATO protection would be "disastrous".
Mr Cormann, the Finance Minister, was questioned about the report during a Sky News interview this morning.
"That story is wrong," he said.
"The Prime Minister never sought such advice."
The Australian does reference a statement from a spokesman for the Prime Minister, which says: "The Prime Minister has consistently said that the Australian Government will continue to talk to the government of Iraq and to our coalition partners about what Australia can usefully do to make the world a safer place and to make Australia a safer country."
But Senator Cormann said the paper only requested comment from the Government on a very general question about increasing Australia's military efforts in Iraq, and did not raise the details that have been published in the report.
"May I say my advice is the journalist who wrote that story actually never put that proposition to the Prime Minister's office when seeking comment," he said.
