Labor MPs were privately alarmed about the Albanese government’s immediate response to the US and Israel’s bombing of Iran, including a statement that offered unreserved support for the legally questionable attack that sparked the war.
Guardian Australia can reveal the concerns were aired during a meeting of Labor’s left faction after the first strikes on Iran in February, which triggered the conflict that has since spread across the region.
Details of the meeting have been unreported until now after the Labor caucus quickly fell into line behind the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, the foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, and the defence minister, Richard Marles.
Ten days into the war, the federal government on Tuesday announced it would send a specialist surveillance aircraft and stocks of air-to-air missiles to help defend the United Arab Emirates from Iran’s retaliatory attacks.
Albanese said Australia would not be part of an offensive action against Iran and would not deploy troops to the Middle East, as the Greens voiced fears that Australia could be “fully dragged into another US forever war”.
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Australia was among the first countries to publicly endorse the US and Israel’s strikes via a statement from Albanese, Wong and Marles on the evening of Saturday, 28 February – a matter of hours after the attack.
“We support the United States acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent Iran continuing to threaten international peace and security,” the statement read.
Guardian Australia has confirmed the statement caused angst among several Labor MPs, who privately questioned why the government was rushing to endorse strikes that were likely in breach of international law.
The omission of any reference to international law, the rules-based order or explicit acknowledgment that Iran was being bombed confounded some MPs, who raised concerns with senior ministers including Wong.
The government’s decision to immediately endorse the attacks was in contrast with its response to the US’s bombing of three Iranian nuclear sites in June last year, when it waited almost 24 hours before publicly backing it.
About 48 hours after last month’s strikes started, members of Labor’s left faction had what sources described as a “robust” debate about the government’s position at their regular sitting week meeting.
Wong was not present at the 2 March meeting but sources confirmed that the defence industry minister, Pat Conroy, answered questions on her behalf.
Guardian Australia confirmed details of the meeting with six Labor sources, all of whom requested anonymity to discuss confidential internal discussions.
As the conflict unfolded last week, Albanese, Wong and Marles continued to endorse the strikes while maintaining it was up to the US and Israel to explain whether the attacks were consistent with international law.
A raft of international law experts, including the United Nations special rapporteur Ben Saul, have argued the attacks were a breach of the UN charter.
Unease about the government’s willingness to publicly support Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s strikes on Iran is not confined to Labor’s left faction.
Members of Labor’s right faction, who will not speak on the record for fear of being seen as troublemakers, say they are concerned about how quickly Labor signed up to support the US administration’s decision.
Revelations of the angst among MPs comes as the party’s grassroots anti-war group, Labor Against War, plans to circulate a motion to branches in NSW and Victoria, condemning US and Israel’s war on Iran as an “illegal act of aggression against a sovereign nation”.
The group, which vocally opposes Aukus and has proposed sanctions against Israel, told supporters in a newsletter on Tuesday the war was “concrete evidence that Aukus locks Australia into support for US military adventurism”.
“It is the view of this branch that the decision by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese to support the war is a grave mistake that breaches the fundamental principles and policies of the Australian Labor Party as stated in the ALP Constitution and National Platform,” the motion reads.
“This decision stands in contrast to the principled position taken by the Australian Labor Party to oppose the illegal war on Iraq in 2003, which was also based on false claims about weapons of mass destruction.”
Labor Against War’s organisers hope the motion will gain traction in the coming weeks and months ahead of Labor’s national conference in Adelaide in July.
While not binding on state or federal Labor MPs, local branch motions represent one of the most effective ways for rank-and-file members and unions to influence party policy.
Labor Friends of Palestine has previously drafted motions urging Labor’s stronger support for Gaza following Israel’s attack on the strip post-7 October.
At the party’s Victorian state conference last year, members voted to immediately recognise Palestine less than 10 days before the federal government officially adopted the position.
Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: theguardian.com
