“It ought to by no means have stopped, and it wasn’t Australia that stopped it,” he mentioned. “It was China who stopped it as a result of they didn’t like the truth that we stood as much as them.”
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Morrison was talking on the sidelines of the Alliance for Accountable Citizenship, a brand new centre-right convention in London drawing collectively conservative figures from internationally.
He’s attending alongside former Liberal prime ministers Tony Abbott and John Howard.
Morrison mentioned he had mentioned the letter he had signed alongside 5 different former prime ministers, together with Labor’s Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd, with Abbott and Howard on the convention, saying: “I feel it’s nice to provide that sense of confidence and help to the Jewish neighborhood.”
Paul Keating was the one dwelling Australian prime minister to not signal the doc, however Morrison mentioned he was not dissatisfied.
“Paul has each proper to precise his view as he desires to,” he mentioned. “This wasn’t a caucus; it was an invite to be concerned, and he didn’t want to try this for his causes. I respect that.”
Morrison beforehand advised this masthead that his authorities – which had controversially recognised West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital – had strongly supported the State of Israel, in addition to a two-state answer, “and I used to be more than happy to hitch with others to restate this place, which is often held by every of us”.
The letter from the six former prime ministers mentioned they “stood in solidarity with Jewish Australians at the moment”, condemned the Hamas atrocities within the assault of October 7 and warned that the Israel-Hamas battle was “being utilized by some to unfold historic hatreds which have inflicted a lot struggling on the Jewish folks for 1000’s of years”.
Keating mentioned in a press release he had been contacted by Mark Leibler – former president of the Zionist Federation – however declined to be concerned.
“I advised Leibler in a written message that I might not be agreeing to hitch different former prime ministers in authorising the assertion. That is still my place,” he mentioned.
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Requested about Keating’s stance on Tuesday, Albanese mentioned it was “a query for Paul Keating, I might have thought”.
“I help the positions that I’ve taken, and the place within the parliament final Monday was carried out with overwhelming help,” he mentioned.
“It is crucial that we recognise that the assaults from Hamas on Israel are worthy of absolute condemnation in an unequivocal approach.
“It’s additionally necessary to recognise that Israel has a proper to defend itself, however the way it does that issues. And we want to verify, as nicely, that each civilian life is valued, whether or not or not it’s Israeli or Palestinian. Each harmless lack of life is a tragedy.”
Reduce by means of the noise of federal politics with information, views and skilled evaluation from Jacqueline Maley. Subscribers can signal as much as our weekly Inside Politics publication right here.