Mazal tov Albo
The Coalition have been swept aside in stunning fashion in an election that will likely leave them in opposition for several terms and prompt a lot of soul-searching among those members who managed to hold their seats.
The AJN congratulates Anthony Albanese and Labor and wishes them well in governing Australia. We have no doubt that for the domestic interests of our community – including security, antisemitism and religious freedoms – they are a safe pair of hands.
On matters regarding Israel, we take the new Prime Minister on his word that Labor’s pledge not to undermine a two-state solution means the government will not prematurely recognise a state of Palestine. We also hope that Australia’s recognition of west Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and our principled voting patters at the UN will remain unchanged.
With Labor committed to climate action, we urge it to work with Israel – a world leader in conservation and environmental technologies – towards this goal.
We welcome the many new parliamentarians who will represent members of our community, including Allegra Spender in Wentworth, Michelle Ananda-Rajah in Higgins, Monique Ryan in Kooyong and Zoe Daniel in Goldstein.
Now that Daniel will officially represent a large number of our community, we once again urge her to remove her name from the one-sided “Do Better on Palestine” open letter she signed last year, that does nothing to advance the cause of peace that she has said she supports.
We also congratulate those Jewish members of parliament who have been re-elected – Josh Burns, Mark Dreyfus, Julian Leeser and Mike Freelander.
The AJN thanks Scott Morrison and the Coalition for its staunch friendship of our community and Israel. We are sure the former prime minister will remain a close ally, in Parliament or elsewhere.
Finally, we thank and pay tribute to the many friends in Parliament that we have lost – among them Tim Wilson in Goldstein, former Australian ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma in Wentworth and of course, treasurer Josh Frydenberg in Kooyong.
Josh’s achievements have been a source of pride for our community and we have no doubt he will still contribute much to public life in the future.
A future we look forward to with cautious optimism, both as Jews and as Australians.
comments