The Albanese government has abandoned its support of Israel by changing Australia’s position to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, regardless of whether the terrorist group Hamas releases hostages, lays down its weapons or abandons plans to rule Gaza in the future.
The UN General Assembly resolution which the Albanese government supported does call for the release of all hostages, but it doesn’t mention Hamas by name and doesn’t require it to do anything at all.
The Albanese government’s position is incoherent.
In a joint statement with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the New Zealand leader, Christopher Luxon, Anthony Albanese demands, inter alia, that: “Hamas must release all hostages, stop using Palestinian civilians as human shields and lay down its arms. There is no role for Hamas in the future governance of Gaza.”
If Hamas complied with those demands Israel’s entire military action would halt straight away.
Nothing remotely like that appears in the UN resolution. The PMs’ statement contradicts the UN resolution. The Albanese government doesn’t even have the courage of its own lack of convictions. It’s speaking out of both sides of its mouth to say contradictory things in the hope that contradictory audiences can be simultaneously appeased.
Australia’s UN ambassador, James Larsen, in his speech on the vote, said Australia wished the resolution had condemned the October 7 Hamas atrocities. Foreign Minister Penny Wong made the same point in a press conference. If that’s really Australia’s position, Canberra should have voted against, or abstained from, the resolution.
Among 10 nations voting against the resolution were the US, Austria, the Czech Republic and Papua New Guinea. Among 23 nations abstaining were Britain, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Slovakia and Lithuania.
Does anyone believe that those nations are in favour of needless loss of life in Gaza? No. Instead they have the strength of character to stand against the automatic anti-Israel majority at the UN and refuse to support a manifestly bad resolution, a resolution our own government criticises even as it supports it.
Australia is in conflict on a fundamental matter with our two AUKUS allies.
Canberra is also not much interested in South Pacific opinion. Voting against the resolution were PNG, Nauru and Micronesia, while abstaining were Tonga, Pulau and Marshall Islands. Had we abstained, we would have been in solidarity not only with Israel, our AUKUS allies and the best Europeans, but with governments representing the majority of the populations of the South Pacific forum.
The Albanese government’s position reeks of tawdry electoral politics. Even the joint PMs’ position has contradictions. It says there must never be a blockade of Gaza. The consequence presumably is that Iran in future can just land weapons shipments for Hamas directly on the Gazan coast. No one should under estimate how badly the government has been knocked off course by the defeat of the voice referendum.
Everything now is reactive, low-grade electoral politics. From day one of this crisis the Albanese government has been ragged, without the moral clarity Joe Biden has brought to the issue.
It has struggled to maintain even basic cabinet solidarity. It’s also seen Biden’s support in the US challenged by the loss of Arab voters and Gen Z voters. As a result, Israel is indeed under immense pressure and will have to finish its operations soon. The Albanese government does not want the Islamic vote in southwest Sydney to desert it.
Perhaps even more important, it’s scared of attacks the Greens will make on the government in inner-city electorates. The Greens will label the Labor government militarist, in thrall to the Americans and too weak to stand against Israel in defiance of the Americans and Israel’s supporters in Australia. A strong government has to win those arguments on principle. A weak government shifts every which way there is and holds no clear position at all.
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The Albanese government provides no rationale or narrative for its disconnected actions. Everything is spin. We’ve seldom seen a government this poor in such critical fields at such a dangerous time.