Julian Leeser criticises Penny Wong for loss of ‘Western values’

Julian Leeser has accused Penny Wong of being openly hostile towards Israel, as former Labor minister Mike Kelly warns Australia is putting its trade interests at risk.

Liberal MP Julian Lesser, right, has slammed Foreign Minister Penny Wong.

Liberal MP Julian Leeser has ­accused Penny Wong of not believing in Western values and being openly hostile towards Israel, as former Labor minister Mike Kelly says Australia is putting its trade interests at risk by not backing the Jewish state.

Mr Leeser criticised the Foreign Minister for repeatedly calling for a “premature ceasefire” in Gaza, instructing her diplomats to vote for UN resolutions placing Australia at odds with the US and refusing to clarify whether Australia would enforce an ICC arrest warrant issued for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

As the Israel-Hamas war stokes division within the Labor Party, Mr Leeser said Senator Wong’s record on the Middle East had revealed her “blind spot” when it came to Israel that was “impeding our national interest”.

“This lack of faith in our shared Western values, has meant the Foreign Minister has been consistently and openly hostile to the only democracy in the Middle East,” Mr Leeser writes in The Australian.

Listing Senator Wong’s “missteps”, which he says have seen Australia’s foreign policy “lurch away from our allies and our longstanding values”, Mr Leeser pointed to her withdrawal of Australia’s recognition of Jerusalem as the capital, her decision to fund UNRWA and her calls on Israel to exercise restraint.

Mr Leeser, a Jewish MP, said Senator Wong had overseen a “fraying of this Australian consensus on many fronts” by shifting against its democratic allies, including Israel, and demonstrated her “quiet contempt” by refusing to visit massacre sites on her official trip to the country.

He also criticised her in­adequate support for Ukraine in its fight to repel Russian forces, including by ignoring the country’s request for Taipan helicopters and repeated requests for coal.

A spokeswoman for Senator Wong defended Labor’s position on the Middle East as being “consistent with key partners and the vast majority of the international community”, adding that the Albanese government wanted “this war to end, the hostages to be released, civilians to be protected and for aid to flow”.

“If Mr Dutton were serious about Australia’s foreign affairs, he wouldn’t have left the portfolio vacant for more than a month,” she said. “That’s why we’re seeing increasingly attention-seeking and reckless auditions like this effort from Mr Leeser.

“By contrast, the Albanese government has repaired relationships with the region that were trashed by Mr Dutton and the previous government.”

Following Senator Wong’s trip to Ukraine in December, where she announced $10m to support the country’s energy needs, the spokeswoman said the Foreign Minister had “strengthened Australia’s relationship with Ukraine”.

Anthony Albanese rejected Peter Dutton’s criticism that every incident of anti-Semitism since a protest erupted on the Sydney Opera House steps after October 7, 2023, could be traced back to him, describing the Opposition Leader as “plain nasty”.

The Prime Minister condemned anti-Semitic attacks across the country, and backed in state law enforcement agencies to track down the culprits.

“There is no place for anti-Semitism in Australia. It is abhorrent,” Mr Albanese said on Monday. “There’s no place for it anywhere and anti-Semitism and the acts that we saw with the swastikas … are shocking.

“That’s not what we’re about as a multicultural, tolerant nation that has respect for people of different faiths.

“It’s a crime and people responsible for that crime should face the full force of the law.”

Dr Kelly, a Labor Friends of Israel co-convener and a former Labor defence industry minister, said Israel was “fighting our ­battle” and “making sacrifices” to defend Australia’s international trade interests.

He said the Albanese government should be doing “everything we can to support” Israel. “There’s very straightforward clarity to this, from a military, strategic and moral point of view,” he said.

“That the government hasn’t recognised and responded appropriately to that clarity is deeply disappointing. Our national interests are engaged in the context of the threat to Red Sea maritime trade, and the threat that Iran always poses to international trade through the Strait of Hormuz, which would have a serious impact on the global economy that would wash over to Australia.”

Former Labor federal MP Michael Danby criticised the Albanese government for its “socialist left” policy of “interrogating” Israeli tourists before they were granted a visa, adding that Israeli appeared on the brink of a “difficult Gaza ceasefire”.

“If the Israelis had harked to Australia’s remonstrations, Jerusalem would not have defeated Hamas and been in a position to conclude the war ,” he said.

Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council executive director Colin Rubenstein said Australia had “all but deserted Israel in the UN”, while Senator Wong “constantly lectures and hectors Israel about its conduct of the war”.

“Julian Leeser’s comments on the way Senator Wong has treated Israel ring true, since we would have expected our Foreign Minister to have supported our fellow democracy at its time of greatest need,” he said.

Zionist Federation of Australia president Jeremy Leibler said he had become concerned about the government’s “shift in foreign policy approach towards Israel that is increasingly disconnected from reality on the ground, and distances itself from the US”.