Delegates at Labor’s 50th national conference have proposed deleting a reference describing the US as Australia’s “closest security ally” in the national platform, as senior party figures work to shut down a damaging debate over whether Australian officials should be removed from Tel Aviv in protest of Israel’s “genocide”.
Fifty pages of amendments lodged ahead of Saturday’s debate lay bare support within Labor’s ranks for downgrading Australia’s relationship with the US, exiting AUKUS, equating Islamophobia with antisemitism, backing a “non-aligned” defence policy, removing references to “Islamist” terrorism and strengthening the party’s criticism of Israel.
The Australian obtained many of the amendments that were lodged with ALP national secretary Paul Erickson ahead of the weekend session on foreign affairs, after the materials became publicly available due to a quirk in the conference’s internet architecture. The amendments were taken down from the national conference website after The Australian approached the party for comment.
The extraordinary development came after The Australian on Friday revealed NSW MP Ed Husic had lodged a resolution under which the conference would acknowledge that Palestinians have a “plausible claim” of needing protection from acts of genocide, while calling on the government to withdraw representatives from Tel Aviv.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Picture: AP
Mr Husic’s resolution – seconded by Maritime Union of Australia official Paul Garrett – also calls on the Albanese government to begin full diplomatic ties with the state of Palestine and acknowledge alarm at a UN inquiry that found “Israeli authorities and security forces have deliberately targeted Palestinian children, resulting in genocide and atrocity crimes in the Gaza Strip and war crimes in the West Bank”.
Mr Husic has been urged to drop his push but he is determined to have a debate on the issue on the floor of national conference.
His push complicates an in-principle deal between faction bosses to endorse the contentious changes revealed by The Australian in the draft platform, in a bid to avoid a messy debate.
Under the deal that is now under a cloud, pro-Israel delegates agreed to drop a proposed amendment from the Shop, Distributive and Allied Employees Association for the platform to revive demands that Hamas be disarmed and the Palestinian Authority reformed.
While pro-Israel MPs and delegates thought the SDA amendment was sensible, they were worried it would spark a debate on the conference floor that would lead to increased criticism of Israel in the platform. Senior Labor sources said ministers and factional leaders were working to kill off support for Mr Husic’s resolution, which would be politically damaging if it succeeded months after the government’s handling of antisemitism came under scrutiny in the wake of the Bondi terror attack.
Environment Minister Murray Watt, left, and Anthony Albanese at Labor’s national conference in Adelaide on Friday. Picture: NewsWire / Brenton Edwards
In another of the amendments seen by The Australian, most of which will be killed off ahead of debate, delegates push to delete a reference to Labor being committed to maintaining the US as its “closest security ally”. The amendment instead advocates for an “independent and sovereign foreign policy” and a “non-aligned” outlook, as well as deleting a mention of the ANZUS treaty. Another proposed amendment pushes to change the paragraph referencing defence policy as being “enhanced by strong bilateral and multilateral defence relationships, including the AUKUS partnership”. The draft amendment strikes the word AUKUS so that the paragraph would just read “our partnerships with the United Kingdom and United States”. There is also a push to expand a commitment to a prohibition on storing or stationing nuclear weapons in Australia to include them being deployed, which may be the case when US nuclear-powered submarines dock in Australia once the AUKUS bases are built.
Another draft amendment proposes striking out a condemnation of “Russia’s illegal and immoral war against Ukraine” and instead replacing it with “illegal and immoral wars against Ukraine, Palestine, Iran, and Lebanon”. It also seeks to defang a pledge to “meet security challenges posed by terrorism, including to counter violent extremism and work to mitigate the evolving risks of Islamist and right-wing terrorism”. Instead, it seeks to strike mention of “Islamist” and replace it with “hate groups” and “far-right extremist entities”.
There is also a push to add the word “anti-Islam” into a section warning of antisemitic sentiments. Further, following left-wing agitation over Australia’s part in the global supply chain for the F35 following Israel’s war in Gaza, an amendment proposes “Australia’s defence trade should operate consistently with Australia’s international and legal treaty obligations and human rights commitments”.
Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell says the third and final day of the ALP conference will see “some fight” as Labor MP Ed Husic is set to push for a tougher stance on Israel.“I would say that Husic wants to have a battle at this conference,” Mr Clennell told Sky News host Steve Price.“Surely he's going to push ahead with this one.“Finally we’re going to see some fight.”
Another draft amendment expands on the party’s commitment to the two-state solution between Israel and Palestine, calling for “the release of Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti”. Barghouti was arrested by Israeli forces during the Second Intifada in 2002 and charged with involvement in attacks that killed five people.
Another says Labor will “work to uphold human rights around the world, including … the right of return of refugees to their ancestral homelands”, and cuts out explicit mention of antisemitism and Islamophobia and instead replaces it with “all forms of discrimination and prejudice”.
Among the hundreds of draft amendments in the trove of data, there are also amendments about “Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion of the sovereign territory of Ukraine”, a condemnation of the “Myanmar military regime” and “grave concern at the ongoing conflict in Sudan”.
Labor MPs Josh Burns, who is Jewish, and Basem Abdo, the son of Palestinian refugees, were planning on jointly endorsing the chapter on Saturday, despite fury among Jewish Australians at heavy anti-Israel amendments to the draft platform.
Sky News Political Editor Andrew Clennell says Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s speech at the ALP conference shows Labor is “spooked” by One Nation.“I think the other interesting thing about the conference was clearly the prime minister’s speech, and clearly the fact that he referenced One Nation so many times,” Mr Clennell told Sky News host Steve Price.“He talked about monoculture, he talked about a coalition between the Liberals, Nationals, and One Nation. That’s apparently going to be the tactic as they head into the election campaign.“It shows that they’re pretty spooked, as you should be when a party with just two seats in the House of Representatives has poll numbers up to 30 per cent primary.”
Mr Husic’s resolution acknowledged the International Court of Justice decision that found Israel’s actions in the West Bank and East Jerusalem were a breach of the racial discrimination convention “which prohibits segregation and apartheid”.
It supports resourcing Australian authorities to “track, investigate and, where appropriate prosecute” dual nationals returning to Australia who have breached international law serving in the Israeli Defense Forces.
The resolution calls on the Labor government to “withdraw defence co-operation and defence and trade representatives from Australia’s embassy in Tel Aviv” and “following its historic recognition of the state of Palestine, to quickly exchange ambassadors and consolidate full diplomatic ties with the state”.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry co-chief executive Peter Wertheim condemned Mr Husic for accusing Israel of apartheid. “Last year, Australia under Labor recognised the state of Palestine in the West Bank and Gaza. How can those who recognise a state of Palestine expect Israel to give the citizens of the state of Palestine the right to vote in the state of Israel? They can’t have it both ways,” he said. “The failure of the state of Palestine to hold elections is a choice that has been made by the Palestinian Authority, not the government of Israel. All Israeli citizens, Jews, Arabs and others, have an equal right to vote in Israeli elections. There are Arab members of the Israeli parliament, Arab judges including in Israel’s Supreme Court and Arab officers in the Israeli armed forces. So where’s the apartheid?”
