Hi Chuck, I watched Parliament's QT today, listening to both Tony Abbott and Bill Shorten.
Abbott repeatedly stressed that the decisions being made are really those of US President Barrack Obama [ie. he did NOT say the USA, the US Government ...] and that Australia is merely obliging Obama's requests. He explained that at the moment Australia's involvement is limited to humanitarian support, including the delivery of weapons to anti-ISIL forces, asserting that the situation was totally different from that of a decade ago when Australia joined the Coalition of Willing and invaded Iraq.
Shorten said that on matters such as this that Labor is as one with the government.
Labor then combined with the government to refer all other further responses to another chamber - out of public sight; leaving The Greens and other cross-benchers chewing their tongues.
It is indeed a sad day for Australians when matters such as this are censored like that, with our pollies effectively telling us to just 'trust them' and without explaining why they deserve our trust after telling us they're doing what US President Obama tells them too ... seems Obama is now Australia's defacto President!
