Opposition Leader Sussan Ley says the government’s recognition of a Palestinian state will not support peace in the region, after she wrote to Republican lawmakers in the United States to assure them a future Coalition government would reverse the decision.
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“The prime minister has got this all wrong. I mean, he’s talking big, delivering nothing and letting Australians down. He promised a security deal with Vanuatu. He failed. He promised to defence treaty with PNG, he failed. And now he’s claiming that unilateral recognition of Palestine will somehow help the hostages be released or deliver peace to that troubled region. We all want the war to end, but recognition has to come at the end of a peace process,” Ley told Nine’s Today this morning.
Ley wrote a letter to a number of high-profile Republicans, including former presidential hopeful Ted Cruz, senators Rick Scott and Tom Cotton, and Elise Stefanik, Trump’s original choice to serve as US ambassador to the UN.
In her letter Ley said the majority of Australians did not support recognition, citing a poll by Resolve Political Monitor. However, other polls not cited by Ley, conducted by pollsters Essential and DemosAU with differently worded questions, have recently found higher support for recognition.
“We will always stand up, we should always stand up for Australia’s national interest. And that aligns us with our major ally, the US. Now, when you have terrorists cheering on your foreign policy, which is what Hamas is doing in response to Anthony Albanese’s actions at the UN, and you have your major ally, the US, condemning that action, you must know you’ve got it wrong,” Ley said.
Ley went on to criticise Albanese for not having secured a face-to-face meeting with US President Donald Trump, saying “the relationship is drifting”. The two leaders have spoken four times over the phone, but have not met in person.
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