Dispatch RAN ship to Red Sea

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham’s clear-eyed view of the Gaza war’s importance to Australia and other liberal democracies underlines the significance of the Albanese government’s pending decision on sending a Royal Australian Navy warship to the Red Sea. Australia appears unlikely to send a vessel, reportedly telling the Biden administration the navy’s priority focus is “our immediate region”. That is despite a growing number of attacks on ships that forced a US warship to shoot down 14 drones on Saturday. The Red Sea carries 10 per cent of world cargo.

Following his return from Israel, Senator Birmingham was unequivocal: “No nation could live with a neighbouring government that so explicitly sponsored the raping, maiming, murdering and kidnapping of innocent civilians, just as Hamas did on October 7.” Israel’s “defence of itself in the face of such evil is no less than Australians would expect of our own government if we found ourselves in such circumstances”. As a liberal democracy, Australia owed Israel “our unambiguous support in defence of the freedoms we all value. Hamas is a threat that Australia cannot live with”.

Senator Birmingham’s assessment of Australia’s national interest is a welcome contrast to the incoherence displayed by the Albanese government over last week’s UN General Assembly vote. Abandoning AUKUS allies the US and Britain, as the government did, to vote for a resolution that failed to mention Hamas was foolish. The Albanese government should not make the same mistake by rejecting the Biden administration’s request for a RAN warship to join an international force to deal with the threat posed by Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi terrorists, aligned with Hamas.

Australia was quick off the mark after 9/11 when we joined the US in its invasion of Afghanistan to destroy the global terrorist threat posed by al-Qa’ida. Neither did we dither over joining the international force to destroy Islamic State. We should not do so now. Incoherence such as that over the UN General Assembly vote feeds the sort of misguided thinking behind the demand by 700 Victorian teachers that education ministers condemn alleged “human rights abuses being carried out by Israel”.

Senator Birmingham’s articulation of the importance to Australia of Middle East events contrasts with the government’s failure to join other democracies in sending senior ministers to Israel after the October 7 massacre. Foreign Minister Penny Wong, at last, is expected to include Israel and “the occupied territories” in a visit next month.