‘Moral momentum': Ed Husic says Australia should immediately join UK in preparing to recognise Palestinian state
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will hold more talks with his UK counterpart, Keir Starmer, in coming days, but has stopped short of matching Starmer's promise to recognise the state of Palestine in September unless Israel abides by a ceasefire and commits to a two-state solution.
Husic, an increasingly outspoken member of the Labor caucus, said recognising statehood would deprive terror group Hamas of its power over Gaza and ultimately speed up the peace process and the flow of urgently needed humanitarian aid.
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'Hamas is built largely on grievance,' Husic said in the hours after Starmer's announcement on Wednesday.
'That grievance gets removed with the establishment of a state of Palestine, nurtured with the cooperation and support of the international community, progressed through the development of democratic institutions.'
The former minister has previously called for Australia to immediately follow the French president, Emmanuel Macron, in recognising statehood. He said colleagues on Labor's backbench should speak up in favour of such a move.
'There is a deep feeling within the caucus, about how right it is to recognise Palestine, and I would much rather that colleagues speak for themselves.'
Australia has joined 14 other countries to describe the recognition of Palestine as 'an essential step towards the two-state solution', linking progress on statehood to the upcoming United Nations general assembly meeting in September.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong joined an international statement calling for a ceasefire in the conflict, while reiterating an 'unwavering commitment to the vision of the two-state solution where two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace within secure and recognised borders'.
Canada, France, New Zealand, Norway and Spain were among a large group of signatories.
It came as the death toll from Israeli attacks in the war passed 60,000 people, according to Gaza health ministry figures, almost half of them women and children.
Albanese said he spoke with Starmer overnight and the pair would speak again in coming days. The government had previously signalled it would move in concert with close international partners.
'What I've said is that it's not the timeline, that's not what we're looking at. What we're looking at is the circumstances where recognition will advance the objective of the creation of two states,' Albanese said at Parliament House.
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'I've said for a long time, my entire political life, I've said I support two states … that's my objective. Not making a statement, not giving a political point, but achieving peace.'
Albanese this week accused Israel of a breach of international law in blocking aid into Gaza, saying 'you can't hold innocent people responsible' for the actions of Hamas, and warning that Benjamin Netanyahu's government is 'losing support' internationally.
Opposition frontbencher James Paterson stopped short of blaming Israel for starvation of the population in Gaza, saying only it was very clear 'real suffering' was taking place.
'I'm not in a position to independently assess the evidence that's coming out of Gaza,' he told ABC radio on Wednesday.
'I'm not there on the ground, and I haven't got the advice to independently assess it, and so I'm being cautious about this – because Hamas is a terrorist organisation who initiated this conflict on 7 October, who still hold 50 Israelis as hostages, and have consistently shown no regard for the lives of the Palestinian people, let alone the Israeli people.'
On Tuesday, opposition leader Sussan Ley avoided criticising Israel. Asked directly if people in Gaza are facing starvation, Ley repeatedly said only that it was a 'complex situation'.
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