Last warning for Australians to get out of Lebanon, says Penny Wong

The window is closing for Australians to get out of war-torn Lebanon, with the government calling an end to free evacuation flights amid falling demand.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The window is closing for Australians to get out of war-torn Lebanon, with the government calling an end to free evacuation flights amid falling demand.

Penny Wong said the last of the assisted flights would leave Beirut on Sunday, as the Coalition blasted the government’s decision not to charge those who took advantage of them.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Simon Birmingham said it wasn’t “fair or reasonable” to expect taxpayers to pay for the flights when an estimated 15,000 Australians living in Lebanon failed to heed months of travel advice urging them to get out.

“They had ignored the warnings up till then, and now they expect Australian government officials to put themselves in harm’s way to get them out, and other Australian taxpayers to subsidise them in getting out and being brought back to Australia,” Senator Birmingham said.

As of Friday, 2280 Australians citizens, permanent residents and their family members had made use of the assisted flights to flee the country.

“We have a flight scheduled for Sunday, that’s October 13, there are no further flights scheduled beyond that,” the Foreign Minister said, as Israeli strikes killed at least 22 people in Beirut and injured dozens more. “You should leave now if you wish to leave.”

The warning came as the opposition backed Labor elder Peter Beattie’s criticism of the Albanese government’s core Middle East policies.

The former Queensland premier said a two-state solution was a “daydream” unless Israel’s ­enemies accepted its right to exist, and that ceasefires would fail without the backing of the region and major powers.

Senator Birmingham said Mr Beattie’s position was in line with decades of bipartisan policy on Israel before it was “trashed” by the Albanese government.

He said a two-state solution needed to be negotiated, rather than imposed on Israel, to resolve a raft of difficult issues.

“Security guarantees to both parties, negotiations around agreed borders, rights of return for those who have claims in terms of citizenship or residency – these are big, significant issues, and if they are all just brushed aside … all you are doing is embedding … decades more conflict and division,” he said.

Senator Wong said the Coalition was “out of step” with the majority of the international community on Israel and the Middle East, attacking Peter Dutton’s refusal to agree to a bipartisan statement in parliament for the victims of October 7.

“He refused to support a ceasefire in Gaza. Can I remind everybody that a ceasefire in Gaza has been called for, led by the United States and backed in by every single member of the United Nations Security Council,” she said.