The Red Lines Package Bill Would End Australian Complicity in Foreign Atrocities

The Red Lines Package of legislation was introduced into federal parliament by a crossbench coalition last week. It comprises of four separate draft bills combined into an omnibus piece of legislation that, if passed, would broadly ensure Australia stops funding, arming or investing in illegal settlements, war crimes or genocide, anywhere in the world, and regardless of any particular political interests.

Independent MP Dr Sophie Scamps introduced the Red Lines Package Omnibus Bill 2026 into the federal House of Representatives on 14 September 2026. It was cosponsored by Independent MP Andrew Wilkie. On the following day in the Senate, Independent Senator David Pocock and Greens Senator Dr Mehreen Faruqi introduced the similar Red Lines Package Omnibus Bill 2026 [No. 2].

Independent senators Lidia Thorpe and Fatima Payman cosponsored the Senate bill, and the pair championed the first Red Lines Package that was introduced in late 2024.

In her 14 September second reading speech, Scamps listed issues revealing complicity and concealment of Australian involvement in overseas atrocities, such as the denials of weapons to Israel during the Gaza genocide, defence trade with the United Arab Emirates despite its support of genocide in Sudan and Australian superfunds contributing to illegal occupation overseas.

Scamps further pointed out that whilst Australia criminalised genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in 2002, when it ratified the Rome Statute, there are currently no checks on whether exports are contributing to atrocities overseas. And this package was designed by legal experts and academics working across five areas to do just that.

Further, Scamps, a teal independent, outlined the purpose of the five schedules in the bill before both houses. The first requires the minister to set up a program to monitor defence exports. The second restricts future and super fund investment in foreign injustices, the third and fourth schedules involve establishing an Anti-Genocide Commissioner and the fifth creates import offences.

In a time of war and genocide

“I’m clear-eyed about the flaws in the international rules-based order and the criticism it faces for differential application and enforcement. Indeed, we’ve seen three years of genocide in Gaza, 12 years of illegal Russian aggression in Ukraine and six years of ruthless US exceptionalism under the Trump administration,” said Wilkie, the Independent MP for Clark.

“But those failures aren’t reason to abandon our support for international law,” the progressive independent asserted, “they’re reasons to demonstrate consistency and to work harder with other nations to strengthen its principles and application both at home and abroad. To that end, this bill addresses Australia’s trade and commerce associated with illegally occupied territories.”

The Red Lines Package has been developed via a collaboration involving legal and human rights experts, lawyers and academics. This includes UTS Associate Law Professor Sara Dehm, RMIT senior law lecturer Dr Sophie Rigney, Monash law lecturer Dr Elliot Dolan-Evans, solicitor Rita Jabri Markwell and corporate lawyer Jonathan Kelt.

In terms of organisations that contributed to the drafting of the bill, these included Liberty Victoria’s Rights Advocacy Project, Amnesty International, APAN (Australia Palestine Advocacy Network) and the Jewish Council of Australia.

“Taken together, these measures ensure Australia does not fund, arm or invest in conduct that violates the very principles of international law we have long championed,” Wilkie added. “In doing so, the red lines package gives practical effect to Australia’s commitment to accountability, human dignity and the rule of law.”

The guts of the bill

The first schedule of the Red Lines bill amends the Defence Trade Controls Act 2012 (Cth), so that it incorporates into federal law the Australian state’s obligations under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of Genocide and the 1998 Rome Statute, so that defence exports don’t occur when they might contribute to genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The second broad reform involves changes to the Future Fund Act 2006 (Cth), the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission Act 2012 (Cth) and the Superannuation Industry (Supervision) Act 1993 (Cth), so that funds captured by these laws divest from or not invest in companies that involve a real risk of investment being used in genocide or illegal settlements.

As for the third non-amending schedule, it establishes a series of laws to create a genocide reporting, prevention and restitution framework, as a standalone Act. These laws serve to ensure that no Australian investment contributes to genocide underway overseas. And the overseer of this initiative will be the yet-to-be established Office of the Australian Anti-Genocide Commissioner.

The fourth schedule makes some consequential amendments to the Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (Cth), in order to support the genocide reporting initiative of the previous schedule.

As for the final schedule, it “provides a regulatory framework to prohibit the importation of goods and services that facilitate, maintain, expand or legitimise the continued economic and physical existence of illegal settlements in occupied territories” and again, as it’s another non-amending schedule, this set of laws serves to create another standalone piece of legislation.

Prevention regardless of perpetrator and victim

Independent Senator David Pocock said in his second reading speech in the Senate that the laws making up the package “should be basic standards for a country like Australia that says it believes in international law, human rights and the rules-based international order”.

“Importantly, these laws are not about picking a side in one particular conflict,” he continued. “They are about establishing rules that apply consistently. Because international law means very little if we insist on its application when it suits us and look the other way when it does not. If we believe genocide is wrong, that must be true regardless of who is committing it.”

Schedule 5 further contains a series of new offences that would apply in terms of imports from illegal settlements. These would make it an offence to import or sell settlement goods, to acquire or to provide settlement services, as well as criminalising the extraction of resources from occupied territory.

In terms of these offences being tried on indictment, the penalties that would apply are up to 5 years imprisonment and/or a fine of $455,000, whilst when tried summarily, these crimes would carry maximum penalties of up to 12 months inside and/or a fine of $91,000.

Greens Senator Nick McKim moved a motion to see the legislation sent to the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee for inquiry. However, Labor and the Coalition rejected the proposal. So, the bills will undergo second reading debate, after parliament resumes on 12 October 2026.

On announcing the introduction of the Red Lines Package to the press last week, Senator Thorpe asked people to contemplate the 20,000 Palestinian babies that the Israeli state has brutally murdered in the Gaza Strip over recent years. 

“Over 20,000 innocent children,” underscored the Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung senator, “think about that for one moment in your privileged life. Think about your children. Think about the assault and the murder of your children.”

Image: Logo taken from the Red Line Package site