Australia could be dragged into war by a single Donald Trump tweet, the Greens have warned as they push for parliament to have a say in whether troops are sent overseas.
Parliament is debating a private Greens bill on Thursday requiring parliamentary approval before members of the defence force are deployed for overseas service.
Senator Scott Ludlam said the decision to place Australian personnel in harm's way was not one that should be made behind closed doors, like the Howard government's decision to get involved in the Iraq War.
Mr Trump had not been president for a month and already had bullied Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, he told parliament.
"That's an individual who can't even stand up to the conservatives on his own backbench.
"That well-practised prime ministerial capitulation, if it's subject to 140 characters of presidential unhinging, we could be at war in some other part of the world, off the back of a tweet or a phone call."
The US president was an "extremely dangerous individual" to both the US and Australia, Senator Ludlam said.
Coalition backbencher Barry O'Sullivan ridiculed the proposal.
"This business that somehow the prime minister of the day rolls over in bed of a morning, 3am, checks his tweets, finds out somehow the leader of a foreign nation has tweeted something, so he picks the phone up to the head of defence and deploys all of our troops - what a complete nonsense," Mr O'Sullivan said.
