Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Wednesday launched an inquiry into missing documents relating to the former government’s decision to join the Iraq War.

Addressing his first press conference of 2024, the Prime Minister said that Australians have a right to know why the country joined the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003 and ordered an investigation into why some records relating to the decision were kept secret, reports Xinhua news agency.

Each year on January 1, the National Archives of Australia (NAA) unseals classified documents from the innermost sanctum of the government — the cabinet — from 20 years earlier.