Tina Faulk, The Spectator, 31 January 2024
In the past, Foreign Minister Penny Wong did not hesitate to commit considerable funds to UNRWA, the UN relief agency for Gaza.
She also chose not to attend the kibbutz site of terrorist atrocities when she visited Israel.
Now it appears likely that Australians, through their taxes and Wong’s altruism, have inadvertently funded (via UNRWA) terrorist actions including murder, rape, torture, and abduction. Those are the accusations being once again levelled at UNRWA employees.
Wong and Albanese are increasingly walking on thinning electoral ice.
The goodwill first generated with Labor’s federal win is fast evaporating, driven by a series of missteps that most memorably include the failed Voice to Parliament referendum and Wong’s belated assurances that the funding given to UNRWA would be scrutinised. Even at the time that promise sounded like a hollow, almost worthless, assurance made in haste to paper over public anger.
Ms Wong, better than good in North Asian strategy, dropped the ball with a resounding clang in regard to Gaza. Most likely, she left the running to the predominantly, from my experience at least, pro-Gaza, anti-Israel DFAT officers, blindly accepting their assessment on where funds should be delivered.
When a fairly major conference was being planned that would require Asian and Middle East diplomats to be invited, this writer recalled an admittedly junior DFAT officer commenting, with astonishing faux-naivete or alarming ignorance, ‘Well, Israel isn’t really a part of the Middle East, is it?’
It remains my belief that their intention was to omit an invitation to Israel, with debate focused on the difficulty of seating Iraqi delegates next to Israelis without provoking a possible walkout by one or several Arabs representatives. This is ancient history now, but it suggests to me that Labor Ministers may trust too freely or place too much credence on advice from department officers.
Since the US, UK, and several other donating countries have now suspended funding to UNRWA until credible explanations are received on this latest report, Australia could hardly continue funding for Gaza through the UN.
Australians are becoming increasingly uneasy with a government that lacks transparency in what it does with foreign aid money. Spending Penny and DFAT should take note.
