Anthony Albanese will recall well when another Labor prime minister was feeling the heat over Palestinian status.
Author
- Michelle Grattan
Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra
It was 2012 and then-Prime Minister Julia Gillard was forced into a corner over the stand Australia should take on a motion to give Palestine observer status at the United Nations.
Gillard and her foreign minister, Bob Carr, clashed over the matter. Gillard wanted to oppose the motion, siding with the United States and Israel. Carr and others pushed back hard, and eventually Australia abstained.
In his book, Diary of a Foreign Minister, Carr records that in the cabinet debate earlier, "Albanese gave a no-holds-barred robust presentation of the case for voting 'yes' or abstaining".
Now Albanese, in the wake of France having just declared it will recognise Palestine as a state, faces another, albeit different, iteration of the Palestinian status issue. The circumstances are much more direct and acute. On this occasion, he is arguing for time.
Carr is still out there advocating. But a more central voice is former minister Ed Husic (who was around in 2012, too, but still on the backbench). The Labor rank and file are strongly pro-Palestine. They are backed by the ALP platform, which calls for Palestine to be recognised as a state.
Even as a minister in the last parliamentary term, bound by cabinet solidarity, Husic pushed the boundaries when speaking out about the Middle East conflict. Having been dumped from the frontbench in factional manoeuvring after the election, he is free to say bluntly what he thinks. Now he is putting his shoulder to the wheel to advocate recognition.
In a Guardian article on Monday he reminded his Labor peers and betters "that our party has twice agreed at its highest decision-making forum - the National Conference of the Australian Labor party - to recognise the state of Palestine.
"The time to do so is absolutely right now."
Albanese is caught between his party and his caution.
It is a fair assumption the prime minister, with his long history of being pro-Palestinian, would like to follow the lead of French President Emmanuel Macron.
Equally, however, he would want Australia to move in concert with like-minded countries, including the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand. Australia has previously banded with these countries in joint statements about the Middle East conflict.
Albanese said at the weekend Australian recognition of a Palestinian state wasn't imminent - although last year Foreign Minister Penny Wong opened the way for possible recognition as part of a peace process (rather than only accorded at the end of it).
The prime minister put a context around recognition. "How do you exclude Hamas from any involvement there? How do you ensure that a Palestinian state operates in an appropriate way which does not threaten the existence of Israel? And so we don't do any decision as a gesture. We will do it as a way forward if the circumstances are met."
In caucus on Tuesday, Husic pressed his point, asking how long the preconditions for statehood could be expected to take. Albanese essentially went through what he'd said before.
Labor's Friends of Palestine group is pressing for sanctions, as well as recognition.
The group's spokesperson Peter Moss says: "Over the past 21 months, Labor members in branches and conferences have repeatedly urged the government to join 147 UN member states and now France in recognising Palestine.
"By making recognition contingent on a non-existent peace process, the government has effectively ruled out delivering on policy that has broad public support.
"We call on the Australian government to implement official platform policy and immediately and unconditionally recognise a Palestinian state on the pre-4 June 1967 borders."
In recent weeks more than 80 Labor branches and other party units have passed a strong motion calling for sanctions and an arms embargo on Israel.
In the last few days, the group wrote to Wong, seeking a meeting to discuss its calls for sanctions and for the Albanese government "to work with international partners to develop a practical plan for the establishment of a free and independent Palestinian State". No meeting has yet been arranged.
Michelle Grattan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
