LABOR and coalition Senators joined forces to vote 37-8 to defeat the motion in parliament on Tuesday.

The motion was proposed by Greens Senator Penny Wright in tandem with an International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

"Australian David Hicks experienced torture and cruel and degrading treatment during his detention in Guantanamo Bay," she told the chamber.

She called on the government to conduct an independent inquiry into the role of the former coalition government in Hicks' detention, treatment and unfair trial.

Hicks went to Afghanistan to fight with islamist forces and following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the US, he was captured by the pro-US Northern Alliance.

He subsequently spent five years in the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay and eventually pleaded guilty to providing material support for terrorism.

In April 2007, he returned to Australia to serve the remaining nine months of his sentence. He was released in late 2007 and has since married and lives in Sydney.

Senator Wright said it was unacceptable that Australians still did not know the nature of the then-government's involvement in the Hicks case.

"Ten years on, we still have no answers from the Australian Government on Mr Hicks' case, how this breach of trust occurred and why," she said in a statement.

Source: Herald Sun