Australia is likely to formally recognise the state of Palestine if Anthony Albanese becomes prime minister, following a change to the ALP’s policy platform.
At Labor’s online national conference later this month, the final platform will be changed from the draft version released on Sunday to include a “statement in detail” that will call on “the next Labor government to recognise Palestine as a state”.
The policy platform will also be amended to call on the next Labor government to treat the issue of Palestine as an “important priority”, bringing it in line with Labor’s policies ahead of the 2019 federal election.
The statement has been endorsed by shadow cabinet and the ALP’s national executive.
Mr Albanese and opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Penny Wong were said to have been blindsided by its omission from the draft, sparking a complaint from Bob Carr, a pro-Palestine former foreign minister in the Gillard government.
The amendment was sent to ALP figures on the weekend as an “appendix” to the draft platform, with Left faction leaders sending an email to “comrades” saying the statement should be “considered as part of the draft”.
“National executive has endorsed a recommendation that a new statement-in-detail be put to the (online national conference) at the end of March,” a Labor spokeswoman said.
“The statement-in-detail reflects the wording of the resolution adopted unanimously by the 2018 national conference.”
The issue has sparked conspiracy theories within Labor, with senior party sources saying the pro-Palestine statements should have been in the original draft version but were removed in the “editing process”.
Read the article by Greg Brown in The Australian.