AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has ordered an inquiry into the suppression of documents on his country’s role in the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

Mr Albanese said today that Australians had a right to know why their country was involved in the illegal war, which was justified on the basis of US and British allegations that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. These claims have subsequently been debunked.

The National Archives of Australia released Cabinet records from 2003 on Monday, in line with its usual practice of publishing such documents after a 20-year secrecy provision expires, but 78 documents relating to the Iraq war were withheld. Mr Albanese said that the government of his predecessor Scott Morrison had not handed these over to the archives three years ahead of publication, as normally happens.