Austrade advice to close Middle East offices ignored

Australia’s trade agency advised the government to close offices in the Middle East.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s Middle East polic­y shift, where he pledged to open the new office and recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, was greeted with mixed reviews in Israel. Picture: Kym Smith

Australia’s trade agency advised the government to close offices in the Middle East and boost resources in Indonesia just weeks before Scott Morrison announced he would open another trade office in Jerusalem.

Mr Morrison’s Middle East polic­y shift, where he pledged to open the new office and recognise West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, was greeted with mixed reviews in Israel. Senior Israeli government minister and Netanyahu confid­ant Tzachi Hanegbi urged Aust­ralia to fix its “mistake”, saying the whole of Jerusalem was the ­nation’s “eternal capital”.

An internal Austrade document, circulated to staff on November 21, recommends review­ing resources in the region, and relocating one post from there to South Asia.

“In comparison with other region­s, the projected average growth and size of Australian prior­ity exports to the Middle East region is expected to slow over the next 10 years,” said the document, Optimising Austrade’s Inter­national Network. “This is also reflecte­d in the service-level activ­ity across a number of Middle East posts, which is lower in comparison to other Austrade regions.

“There are opportunities for Austrade to review its resource allocatio­n across the region, to optimise return on investment, while leveraging existing and future oppor­tunities across the region.”

The Indonesian government has delayed signing a new free-trade deal with Australia due to the Morrison government’s Middle East policy review. There is still no public date for the agreement to be signed, despite the Coalition decidin­g against immediately moving the Australian embassy to Jerusalem, a move which would have agitated Jakarta.

Australian trade officials said in the document that Indonesia was a “key” market for Australian export­ers, which “will only be furthe­r enhanced by the Indon­esia-Australia Comprehensive Econo­mic Partnership Agreement”. “Given the … significant opportunities and strong importance of Indonesia, show vision and leadership by appointing the genera­l manager ASEAN position in Jakarta,” the document states.

Trade Minister Simon Birming­ham said the office would have benefits for Australia’s defenc­e industry. “The Prime Minister has said this office will help Australia continu­e to build on our security and defence partnerships with Israe­l, including maximising oppor­tunities for Australian businesses to export their world-leadin­g defence technologies and services,” Senator Birmingham said.

While Indonesia’s response was relatively restrained, Malaysia and Palestinian authorities criticised the new policy. Israeli officials briefed local media they were disappointed Australia had not followed through with moving the embassy.

Coalition Senator James Patterson suggested that Israel should be satisfied as it was “progress”.

“Scott Morrison is the most pro-Israel Prime Minister Australia has ever had,” He said.

“Under his leadership there is barely a nation on the planet who can claim to have a policy more supportive of Israel. All those who care about our alliance should be delighted with the significant progress made this week.”

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong yesterday left open the possibility of closing the Morrison government’s proposed defence and trade office in Jerusalem, after confirming Labor would reverse the Coalition’s recognition of West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

However Senator Wong said she was a strong supporter of Israel and “always happy to meet with representatives of the Australian Jewish community” following a warning from the Zionist Federation of Australia, revealed in The Australian, that any reversal of the government’s policy “would be considered a hostile act”.

“Unlike the Prime Minister, Labor in government will consider expert advice from DFAT, PM&C and security agencies on where best to locate any defence and trade offices, noting that the IDF (Israel Defence Forces) is based in Tel Aviv,” Senator Wong told The Australian.

Labor is expected at its national conference this afternoon to debat­e whether it will move towards recognisi­ng a Palestinian state. Members of the Left and NSW Labor Right are pushing for a more binding position.

An Australian Jewish source questioned how Labor could look the community in the eye and say that unilateral recognition of Pales­tine was acceptable but recog­nition of West Jerusalem as the Israeli capital was not.