Australia’s shift on Israel: Too little, too late?

The genocide in Gaza must end. Australia has a moral responsibility to speak up, to act, and to lead where it can. The time for silence is over.

Image source: Stringer. Credit: via Reuters.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has finally found the courage to speak out against Israel’s relentless campaign of violence and destruction in Gaza, condemning its restrictions on humanitarian aid as “completely unacceptable and an outrage”. For a government that has for 19 months maintained a position of cautious neutrality – and, to be honest, one that often sounded like tacit support for Israel’s actions – this marks the strongest public rebuke of Israel’s actions from the Prime Minister since this genocide began in October 2023. And while these words are always to be welcomed, they have arrived far too late, and come in the context of political calculations that were made to downplay the issue in the lead up to the 2025 federal election.

Albanese’s comments, made after the election, reflect the reality of Australian politics: the issue of Palestine will never be treated as a matter of urgency or international justice, but as a political inconvenience to be carefully managed out of sight. Before the election, the government’s unwavering support for Israel – expressed through votes at the United Nations, public statements that were always downplayed, and a refusal to call out even the most egregious of war crimes – was a politically cautious strategy: immoral, absolutely, but politically correct. It was about managing perceived risks: the fear of backlash from pro-Israel lobby groups, the influence of media outlets that routinely suppress or distort coverage of Palestine, and the anxiety over alienating sections of the electorate, especially within Sydney and Melbourne’s Jewish communities. That doesn’t make it acceptable, but it can be seen why the government would follow this political course.

Yet, the election result has revealed the moral bankruptcy of these assumptions. Labor’s resounding victory demonstrated that the issue of Palestine, while morally significant, did not materially affect the outcome of the campaign. The fear that Palestine would be a political liability – one way or another – was, in the end, not supported by the facts. The Israel lobby – a loose coalition of pro-Israel advocacy groups, think tanks, media gatekeepers, and well-connected individuals who have long sought to intimidate politicians, censor public debate, and block pro-Palestinian voices in the arts, academia, and public life – has been exposed as a paper tiger. It’s a noisy, aggressive minority that has successfully cowed successive governments into silence, but doesn’t reflect the views or priorities of the broader Australian public.

The Prime Minister’s comments are now a big test: will the government begin to act in line with international law, human rights principles, and the overwhelming evidence of Israel’s war crimes? Or will this be yet another brief moment of posturing, quickly retracted under pressure from the usual lobby groups? The Israel lobby has a bank of people who spend their time monitoring the media and will interfere wherever possible – the phone calls will come, as they always do – pressure will be applied, threats will be made, warnings whispered into the ears of ministers and advisers. There will be the accusations of antisemitism, of the bias that no-one else seems to be able to find, and the talk of undermining Australia’s ‘strategic alliances’ – all the familiar tactics designed to maintain the culture of fear and self-censorship that has long manipulated Australia’s foreign policy on Palestine.

But this election result has cleared the decks. The Labor government won 94 seats and that’s 94 reasons for why it now needs to take stronger action – Labor governs with a clear mandate, and Albanese has an opportunity – if he has the courage to take it – to break from the past, to dismantle the false consensus that has protected Israel from accountability, and to stand on the side of justice.

It’s not enough for the Prime Minister to condemn Israel’s actions in a single speech and then go and retreat under pressure. The moral obligation for Australia is very clear: for 19 months, the government has chosen complicity – by omission, by silence, by deferring to US foreign policy, and by shielding Israel from meaningful criticism. Every day of inaction has been a day in which Australia contributes to the machinery of genocide – by failing to speak out, by failing to act, and by failing to represent the values of justice and equality that it claims to uphold on the international stage.

The path is clear for the political will to follow

This belated condemnation of Israel’s actions comes at a time when other Western democracies are beginning to take stronger stands. The United Kingdom, France, and Canada – none of which are known for their radical stances on Middle East issues, especially the UK – have issued strong criticisms of Israel’s conduct in Gaza. Some of these countries are even discussing the possibility of sanctions, a move long considered politically impossible. Australia won’t be a leader on this issue – by choice – like it was during the moves to end apartheid in South Africa, that should be obvious by now, but the path has been cleared. There is now a precedent provided by others, the election is over, and there is a politically safe process for Australia to follow.

If the government had been waiting for cover, for reassurance that taking a stronger stance against Israel would not isolate it from its allies, then that excuse is now over. The international mood has shifted, which tends to happen when an ally behaves so horribly and consistently. The world is no longer willing to accept Israel’s impunity in the face of overwhelming evidence of war crimes, including the mass killing of civilians, the deliberate starvation of populations in battery-chicken pens, and the destruction of Gaza’s critical infrastructure.

Within the Labor Party, the growing discomfort is becoming more public. Ed Husic, recently dumped from Cabinet as part of factional realignments, has publicly suggested that his position on Gaza played a role in his demotion. However, now that he’s free from the constraints of collective Cabinet responsibility, Husic has become more outspoken – calling for serious action, including the recall of Australia’s ambassador to Israel and the imposition of sanctions on those responsible for the atrocities in Gaza. Husic’s position is a sign of what’s possible if more MPs break rank from the rigid, pro-Israel orthodoxy that has dominated Australian foreign policy for decades. It also shows that even within Labor’s ranks, there is a growing recognition that Australia cannot continue to ignore the reality of what is happening in Palestine.

Predictably, the pro-Israel lobby has responded with the usual fury. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry attacked Husic’s remarks, accusing him of ignoring Hamas’s role in the conflict and painting his call for accountability as biased and unfair. And of course they would, this is their playbook: every criticism of Israel, no matter how mild or how factually grounded, is met with immediate condemnation. The lobby works to distort the narrative, to present events through a rigid ideological lens that doesn’t allow for any dissent at all. It seeks to dominate the conversation, presenting its own version of reality as the only acceptable one, while smearing critics as dangerous, antisemitic, or misinformed.

This climate of fear and censorship from these lobby groups has poisoned public discourse in Australia for years. It discourages and shuts down open debate about Palestine, silences Palestinian voices, and suppresses cultural and artistic expression that dares to challenge Israel’s actions. The lobby’s influence is not just political – it extends into the media, into the arts, into the very language we are allowed to use when discussing Israel and Palestine. It is an extreme form of ‘cancel culture’ control that thrives on intimidation and distortion, shutting down any conversation that does not conform to its rigid, pro-Israel orthodoxy.

But despite this, the cracks in the façade are getting bigger and Husic’s commentary shows that the wall of silence is no longer unbreakable. The international climate has changed. The old myths about the political risks of standing up to the Israel lobby have been exposed by the re-election of the Labor government. The Prime Minister’s recent condemnation of Israel’s actions, however cautious and belated, is part of this shift. But it needs to go much further.

The government needs to recall the ambassador from Tel Aviv, as a clear signal that Australia will not tolerate genocide. It needs to join the calls for sanctions on Israeli officials responsible for war crimes. It needs to restore funding to UNRWA, support the International Criminal Court’s investigations, and stand with other countries calling for an immediate ceasefire. And it means resisting the relentless pressure of the lobby groups that will inevitably try to shut down this debate before it gains momentum.

Breaking the silence

The pressure to conform to a pro-Israel narrative in Australia isn’t just limited to the political class – it extends into the mainstream media and cultural institutions. The experience of Nasser Mashni, the President of the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network, is a reminder of how dissenting voices are silenced on this issue. In a rare moment of balance, the ABC aired an interview with Mashni, in which he echoed the Prime Minister’s condemnation of Israel’s actions – but went much further, calling out the genocide for what it is. Yet the interview was later removed from ABC’s platforms, following pressure from Zionist groups. This is how the lobby operates: by suppressing views it deems unacceptable, by working behind the scenes to control what the public is allowed to hear, and by ensuring that Palestinian perspectives remain marginalised and erased from mainstream discourse. But it also brings on the Streisand effect, where by seeking to remove an issue from public debate, only highlights the issue even further.

Here’s the interview with Mashni that the ABC decided to remove:

In another example of Australia’s own version of McCarthyism, the Indigenous author Karen Wyld had her $15,000 writing fellowship from the State Library of Queensland cancelled after intervention by the Queensland Arts Minister, John-Paul Langbroek, a decision which followed pressure from Zionist groups opposed to Wyld’s support for Palestine. And there’s just no transparency – no reasons given, no information about who complained, no due process, no appeal. It was the politics of the blacklist, an authoritarian exercise of power in a supposedly democratic country. Yet, it was another stain on Australia’s cultural and intellectual life that needs to be addressed if the country is to have an honest conversation about Israel, Palestine, and the ongoing genocide in Gaza.

There is also hope in new voices emerging within Australia’s political landscape. For the first time, a Palestinian–Australian, Basem Abdo, has won a federal Parliament for Labor, in the Melbourne seat of Calwell. He’s not the first MP though – Joe Hockey was the first Palestinian–Australian to sit in the Parliament in 1996 – but this offers the opportunity for a more balanced and representative debate in Australian politics.

There is a history of bipartisan support for Palestinian rights in Australia, though that has been conveniently forgotten in recent years. Albanese himself was once a member of the Parliamentary Friends of Palestine, as was Hockey. The current Liberal leader, Sussan Ley, and even the conservative MP, Ross Cameron, were also members.

But this is the time to break the silence and start remembering Palestine. Australia needs to reject the culture of censorship and intimidation that has distorted public debate for too long, and needs to ensure that all perspectives – including those of Palestinians – are heard.

This isn’t just about Palestine – it’s about the health of Australian democracy: a free society does not silence dissent. It does not blacklist artists. It does not erase inconvenient voices from the airwaves. And it does not allow a minority lobby to dictate national policy in defiance of justice and international law. The genocide in Gaza must end. Australia has a moral responsibility to speak up, to act, and to lead where it can. The time for silence is over. The time for action is now.