Dutton pledges UNRWA cut, Israel relations reset
Dutton called the Labor government's approach to Israel 'one of the Albanese Government's most egregious foreign policy failures'
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has vowed to cut funding to the UN Palestinian refugee agency UNRWA and repair Australia’s relationship with Israel if the Coalition wins the upcoming federal election in May.
In a strongly-worded speech to the Lowy Institute on Thursday outlining his foreign policy vision, Dutton criticised the Albanese government’s approach to Israel, describing it as “one of the Albanese Government’s most egregious foreign policy failures”.
“Given UNRWA has employed terrorists from Hamas who participated in the 7 October attacks, the organisation will no longer receive aid funding from a government I lead,” Dutton declared.
The Opposition Leader promised that if elected Prime Minister, “one of my first orders of business will be to call [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu – to build on the one-on-one meeting I had with him during my recent visit – and to help rebuild the relationship Labor has trashed.”
Dutton met Netanyahu while in Israel mid-last year, on a trip facilitated by the Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council (AIJAC).
Dutton accused the Albanese government of treating Israel “like an adversary” rather than an ally, claiming Labor had “adopted adversarial positions towards Israel to shore-up Labor votes in certain seats where there are, undeniably, anti-Israel and antisemitic views.”
The Liberal leader pointed to several policy shifts under Labor, including the decision to reverse recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and referring to the West Bank and Gaza as “occupied territories”.
He also criticised the government’s response to Hamas’s October 7 attack on Israel as “supine”.
“Following Hamas’s barbaric attack on Israel, the government should have sent a strong and clear message that it stood with our ally,” Dutton said. “Instead, we began to hear unreasonable calls for immediate restraint.”
Dutton also condemned the government’s calls for the Palestinian Authority to be given full UN membership and “unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state, ahead of final status resolution on borders – while Hamas continues to hold hostages and Israel remains under attack.”
He said these positions effectively endorsed “Hamas’s use of terrorism to achieve political ends.”
The Opposition Leader positioned his foreign policy approach as one based on “moral clarity” and emphasised the importance of standing with allies. He claimed Israel had “shared critical intelligence with Australia that has helped thwart terrorist attacks against ADF personnel in the Middle East and save Australian lives at home.”
“A Coalition Government will always stand with our friends and allies in their darkest hours when they face tyranny and terrorism,” Dutton said, promising that under his leadership, “Israel will be able to count on our support again in the United Nations.”
Responding to the speech, Zionist Federation of Australia CEO Alon Cassuto said, “We welcome the recognition of the importance of a strong and enduring relationship with Israel, a long-time friend of our nation and the only democracy in the Middle East.
“UNWRA’s culture is corrupt and has been proven to be supportive of terrorism, and we have been calling for a pause of their funding since it became clear some of their employees were directly involved in the atrocities of October 7.”
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