The NSW Labor conference has formally called on party leader and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to recognise Palestine as a sovereign and independent state “as a priority”.
Moved by Bankstown NSW MP and Emergency Services Minister Jihad Dib, from the party’s right, a motion that supported recognising Palestinian statehood received the backing from the left faction after negotiations overnight. Mr Dib was met by a standing ovation from delegates at Sydney Town Hall after a passionate four-minute speech on the motion, which called on the government to “recognise Palestine as a sovereign and independent state, and as a priority”. He said that the war must end and the recognition of Palestine aligned totally with Labor’s values of compassion, dignity and solidarity.
“This (the motion) is a sensible point,” Mr Dib said. “It goes further than we’ve ever been and brings everyone on the journey.”
Adopted as part of the branch’s "Australia and the World" report, the motion puts more internal pressure on the Prime Minister over his government’s statehood stance, no less because it is his “home” branch and was moved by the party’s right. Mr Dib said that “nothing justified the horrors of October 7 and nothing justified what’s happened since”, adding that new images from the war each day would be “seared” into memory.
“We can condemn anti-Semitism, but also the destruction being caused by the Netanyahu government,” he said. “Everyone is hurting, enough is enough… (a) homeland gives Palestinains the right of self-determination. We need two states living side by side.”
Mr Dib pointed to Labor ministers Jason Clare and Tony Burke as two who had always advocated for recognition of a Palestinian state, pertinent given that The Muslim Vote campaign has targeted the pair’s seats. The motion was brought to the right faction’s caucus on Friday night, with the party’s left agreeing to its wording and affirming they’d support it during Saturday’s lunch break.
Left faction sources said the term “priority” was an acceptable “watering down” of what had been sought, which had been a call for “immediate” recognition instead. The motion’s wording allows for a bit more wiggle room in the exact immediacy of its definition.
Concerns had been raised by the optics and consequences of a heated debate on the issue, forcing each major faction to come together on a wording and motion both could support. While the wording makes clear such recognition is as a priority, it doesn’t specify a timeframe of that priority.
