Two of the bigger issues to be discussed at the Australian Labor Party’s upcoming national conference will be AUKUS (the security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States) and Australian recognition of Palestine. I wonder how our local ACT ALP delegates will vote. I hope in support of the first, and no (or at least, not yet) to the second.
One is of crucial importance to Australia: AUKUS. The Prime Minister has gained a lot of well-deserved kudos for supporting AUKUS to the hilt so far. It would be a great shame, not to mention be very damaging for Australia, to see him rolled by naïve, anti-Western, hard left ALP members on this issue.
Another, more emotional issue is the strong support many sections of the ALP are now giving to anything anti-Israel and their desire to have Australia recognise a Palestinian state.
I can remember in 1998 representing the ACT Government at an event at Parliament House celebrating 50 years of Israel’s independence. The then-Opposition leader, Jon Stanhope, also attended, and I recall clearly a long talk Jon and I had with his old boss, the best Labor PM we never had, Kim Beazley, a firm supporter of Israel and the Western alliance. The next day in the ACT Assembly, I made a speech supporting Israel’s right to exist within secure and internationally recognised boundaries. Jon graciously supported me in his speech following mine.
Read the article by Bill Stefaniak in The Canberra Weekly.