Up to 300 additional Australian soldiers will help train Iraqi government forces fighting to take back parts of their country from Islamic State.
Prime Minister Tony Abbott confirmed the new deployment on Tuesday, saying the extra troops won't operate "outside the wire" of the Taji base in northern Iraq.
The new mission follows requests from the Iraqi and US governments.
Mr Abbott said the challenge was for Iraqi regular forces to regain and hold ground in their war-torn nation.
"We cannot do it for them, but we can assist them to do it themselves," he told parliament.
The joint mission with New Zealand will start in May and run for up to two years, with a review after a year.
Australia's 170-member special forces team, which was deployed last year to train Iraqi special forces, will be brought out in September.
Labor will provide bipartisan support for the mission, but with conditions: that Australian operations not extend beyond Iraq; no direct combat involvement and; the mission only continue until the Iraqi government takes responsibility on its own.
As well, Australia should withdraw its troops if the Iraqi government or its forces engaged in unacceptable conduct, Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said.
"Of course we cannot put our faith in draining the swamp of terrorism by military means alone," he said.
"We need and to support a social, political and economic solution."
Labor joined forces with the government to block a Senate debate on the deployment, initiated by Greens leader Christine Milne.
"Going to war is a captain's call and it is wrong," she told the parliament.
Independent MP Andrew Wilkie, a vocal critic of previous missions in Iraq, says Australia should be encouraging Muslim countries in the Middle East and Asia to deploy soldiers.
He also said Iraq needed to be able to find its natural political order.
"It will not find (it)... while a regime is propped up by western troops."
The government's announcement comes a week after NZ announced it would deploy a force of up to 143 to Iraq, of which 106 will operate with the Australian contingent at Taji, a sprawling logistics base 30 kilometres north of Baghdad.
This is where members of an Australian Army training team operated until withdrawing in 2008.
The latest training team will include its own security force which will greatly outnumber the trainers.
NZ Prime Minister John Key welcomed Australia's decision, saying Australian troops were their preferred partners.
It was important there was a "critical mass" to allow the joint force to do its job properly training Iraqi troops, he said.
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