Australian recognition of Palestinian state has been decades in the making
Minutes after media had been summoned for a 1pm press conference, the nation's most senior public servant, Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Steven Kennedy, peered out a ground floor window, looking across at two empty podia displaying the Australian coat of arms.
Across the courtyard, cabinet minister Anne Aly smiled as she looked out her first floor ministerial window.
The staff in windows only grew when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong took their places. They snapped photos as Albanese and Wong made a declaration that's been decades in the making.
"A two-state solution is humanity's best hope to break the cycle of violence in the Middle East and to bring an end to the conflict, suffering and starvation in Gaza," Albanese said as he confirmed Australia would recognise a Palestinian state at a United Nations meeting next month.
In making the pledge, it brings Australia into alignment with the United Kingdom, Canada and France, allies who have all pledged recognition as the world seeks a circuit breaker for the death and disaster in Gaza.
"The situation in Gaza has gone beyond the world's worst fears," Albanese said.
"Far too many innocent lives have been lost."
In recent weeks, Albanese has discussed recognition with leaders of the UK, France, New Zealand and Japan. He spoke with the head of the Palastinian Authority last week and confirmed today he spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last Thursday.
Recognition won't come without strings but few view this as an egg that can be unscrambled. At least for Labor.
Albanese said the Palestinian Authority had agreed to Australia's conditions of recognition, which include Palestine recognising Israel's right to exist, that it will demilitarise, that elections are held and Hamas have no role in a future government.
"I understand that on this issue, history casts a long shadow," Albanese said.
"Every generation has known failures and false dawns. Yet, the story of this struggle is also one of opportunities not taken."
The Israel-Gaza conflict has contorted Australia's political class in the almost two years since Hamas launched its deadly terror attacks.
Public sentiment too has changed as the war has dragged on.
"Australians, people around the world, have been haunted by the images," Wong said.
"We have always said that Palestinian civilians cannot be made to pay the price of defeating Hamas. But a whole population has been shattered."
The opposition supports a two-state solution but argues now is not the time to recognise Palestine.
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, a former leader of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine group, was once a fierce supporter of statehood but argues the "hideous events of October 7" have changed her thinking.
Ley insists she remains a friend of Palestinian people but recognition can not occur until Hamas surrenders.
Writing with Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Michaelia Cash, they said while Australians want the war to end, Australia's decision would do little to achieve that.
"Recognising a Palestinian state prior to a return of the hostages and defeat of Hamas, as the government has today, risks delivering Hamas one of its strategic objectives of the horrific terrorism of October 7," they said.
Wong noted its been more than seven decades since the world pledged a Palestinian state.
It's also been seven years since she started shaping Labor's policies, inching her party towards today's declaration.
In late 2018, Wong landed a cross-factional agreement that saw Right faction heavyweight Tony Burke second her push at a Labor conference to call on the next Labor government to recognise Palestine as a matter of priority.
That policy was etched into the national platform in 2021 and reaffirmed in 2023.
In government though, Wong and Albanese have been far more cautious than some of their colleagues might have liked, seeking to ensure every step forward was done on solid ground.
To their critics, they've been too slow.
But Wong and Albanese have been acutely aware that this moment would be so much bigger than internal party politics.
They've sought to take the non-political public with them on this journey, telegraphing well in advance where the train was headed. Their pace has hastened in recent weeks as allies moved and Wong's fears grew that there could soon be no Palestine left to recognise.
It was a year after Labor's 2022 election win before the foreign minister started making her first moves.
Addressing Labor's party room in the August before Hamas launched its terror attacks, Wong said the government wanted to strengthen its objection to settlements in the West Bank "by affirming that they are illegal under international law and a significant obstacle to peace".
The government re-adopted the term Occupied Palestinian Territories, which Wong argued was consistent with other countries and the United Nations.
Wong took her biggest steps towards support for Palestinian statehood when she announced Australia would be willing to recognise Palestine as a way to deliver peace in the Middle East.
It marked the biggest shift in bi-partisanship in pursuit of a two-state solution. Both parties still support the outcome, but differ on how to deliver it.
Labor argues recognition can lead to peace, while the Coalition maintains recognition can only come after peace is achieved.
Wong and Albanese have been at pains to insist Australia isn't a big player in the Middle East.
They have wanted to lower the temperature of the debate, to work with allies and speak with one voice when the moment came for Australia to recognise a state of Palestine.
In the end, that call came about in the most quintessential Australian way possible.
With Albanese and Wong speaking, their words were often drowned out by the sounds of a Parliament House lawnmower.
Those at the press conference leaned in, eager to hear the words the softly spoken Wong was offering.
Being heard over a lawnmower is one thing. Being heard around the world is another.
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