Julie Bishop says Australia is seeking legal advice on Syria strikes

According to Prime Minister Tony Abbott, Australia will take at least a couple of weeks to respond to the “serious request”.

Australia will not rush to decide if it should be involved in air strikes in Syria against Islamic State militants.

“THE results are in and they’re not pretty”, he told reporters in the West Australian electorate, flanked by the party’s candidate Matt Keogh and Perth MP Alannah MacTiernan.

Ms Bishop said the Abbott government was drafting its own legal advice but it appeared the US, Canada and Middle Eastern countries were satisfied the Syrian airstrikes were part of the “collective self defence of Iraq and the Iraqi people”.

“(ISIS) is a movement of nearly incalculable, unfathomable evil and it’s very important that Australia play its part in the campaign to disrupt, degrade and ultimately destroy this death cult”, he said.

Fellow opposition frontbencher Brendan O’Connor said Labor had sought to work with the government on national security at all times.

“The contribution of Australia (for air strikes in Syria) isn’t really a game changer one way or another”, Vice-Admiral Johnston said.

The foreign minister took aim at Labor’s deputy leader Tanya Plibersek on the issue, saying while the government had the full support of opposition leader Bill Shorten, his deputy always seemed to take another stance.

Past year Mr Abbott went to Arnhem Land and famously ran the Government from a tent.

He said Coalition partners were already operating in Syria and so Australia’s involvement would just be in addition to that.

“What Tanya Plibersek does is she says that she supports the Labor position, the coalition position, but then she always moves a little bit to the left and has a slap at Bill Shorten on the way through”.