It looks like Labor lefties are getting uncharacteristically organised as they campaign for official recognition by Australia of Palestinian statehood. Things are happening in different places that look like no coincidence.
Labor’s Victorian conference, after a motion from the left-leaning Australian Services Union, called on the weekend for the Albanese government to immediately recognise Palestine as a state, foreshadowing a similar move at the upcoming national gathering.
Recognition has actually been part of Labor’s official policy platform for a couple of years, but governments can and do blithely ignore official platforms, especially when they’re politically tricky. And yet … an appearance by former Labor foreign minister and enthusiast for the cause Gareth Evans in parliament last week flew under the radar but could prove significant.
The Bearded One made a speech to the gathering of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine and caught up with one of his successors in the foreign affairs job, Penny Wong – the pair were spotted hugging – which made us wonder whether the hard word was being put on the government to get on and officially recognise Palestine.
Evans told us that Wong was “not opposed to implementing platform, just a question of timing”. Implementation would, of course, be quite big if it actually happened.
Read the article by Noel Towell and Kishor Napier-Raman in The Age.