July 25, 2024
CHRIS O'KEEFE: Now, I was saying on Monday that the Labor federal government well, it was only a matter of time until they significantly hardened their language towards Israel, in coming months. And they're doing this as we get closer to the election. Excuse me. Now I'll be proven right. And it's only been proven right after a few days. So Foreign Minister Penny Wong has decided to slap seven Israeli individuals and one entity, a youth group called Hilltop Youth, with Magnitsky style financial sanctions. Now, these sanctions allow the Australian government to revoke visas, banned travel and seize property for individuals who might try to hide assets in Australia. Now, Penny Wong said the individuals had been involved in violent attacks on Palestinians, they are all Israelis, including beatings, sexual assault and torture, which resulted in serious injury and in some cases, death.
Now this begs two questions in my mind, right? So the first one is, will these really make any difference to achieving peace in the Middle East? Surely not. Clearly. The financial sanctions against Russia haven't helped an iota. The second question is they've imposed these kinds of sanctions on Hamas terrorists, the leader of Hezbollah, the worst of the worst. So does Penny Wong think these Israelis are as bad as those well known terrorists? Fair question, especially when you consider the government has never sanctioned anybody from China involved in the human rights abuses in Xinjiang, Tibet or Hong Kong. It just goes to my mind that this is nothing but public relations for the Albanese government to try to win back some votes from people who are upset with their dealings with the Israeli government. Now, Senator James Paterson, he's the Shadow Minister for Home Affairs. He's on the line. Senator, thanks for your time.
JAMES PATERSON: Good to be with you.
O'KEEFE: These are pretty sort of thin, these sanctions, aren't they?
PATERSON: Oh, I think your editorial was spot on. This is about domestic politics, and it's about internal Labor politics. The reason why the Labor Party is doing this is that they're worried about seats in western Sydney, and they're worried about appeasing the left of their party, who are increasingly, vehemently anti-Israel. We saw that with Fatima Payman, but she's not alone in her views. There are others in the Labor caucus who share it, and I think our foreign policy priorities are being driven by base domestic politics.
O'KEEFE: That's exactly what's happening, isn't it? That's all it is, they are just worried about what Watson, they're worried about Tony Burke's seat, the worry about Jason Clare's seats. And that's the sum total of it.
PATERSON: It's very hard to say any other plausible explanation, particularly when one of the arguments that government is citing in favour of doing this is that we are doing so in concert and we're following our like minded partners, countries like the United States and the United Kingdom and Canada and the European Union. The problem with that, as you pointed out, is all of those likeminded partners have also used Magnitsky style sanctions to sanction Chinese government officials for their involvement in human rights abuses in Xinjiang or Tibet or Hong Kong, and we haven't done so. And it's even worse than that. Penny Wong, when she was in opposition, called on the then Morrison government to sanction Chinese government officials for what they have done in Xinjiang. And yet two years into government, we're not following our allies, and we're not following Penny Wong's advice from opposition, and they have to explain why that's the case.
O'KEEFE: Hizb ut-Tahrir, that's an Islamic group the UK has sanctioned and listed as a terrorist organisation. Our Home Affairs Minister, Clare O'Neil, said no, no, we are not doing that. Why?
PATERSON: I'm very disappointed and concerned by that. I think the government needs to look again at this case and seek further advice about whether or not they meet the threshold in Australia, because I think there's a face value case that they have met threshold. Included in the criteria for listing a terrorist organisation in Australia is fostering, encouraging and inciting people to engage in terrorism. And Hizb ut-Tahrir has done that, I mean, they put out a media release in Arabic immediately after the 7th of October where they congratulated the attacks by Hamas on Israel, and they encouraged the armies of the Muslim world to follow through and back up Hamas by attacking Israel. Now, if that's not incitement to terrorism, I don't know what is.
O'KEEFE: Senator, I appreciate your time as always.
PATERSON: Thanks, Chris.
ENDS
