Natasha Stott Despoja (SA, Australian Democrats) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to make a brief statement as to why the Australian Democrats voted that way.

Leave granted.

The Democrats did not support the motion because the wording of United Nations Security Council resolution 242 is deliberately vague on what constitutes compliance by Israel—the drafters admit as much—and it is therefore hard to determine the extent to which Israel is actually in breach of that resolution. This makes it difficult to see a strong rationale on which to claim that Australia’s defence exports to Israel, which I acknowledge are already relatively small, should be ceased altogether. We believe part (iii) of the motion would have benefited from more specificity in relation to arms and military exports. Nevertheless, the Australian Democrats remain committed to campaigning for an end to the violence in the Middle East and believe that all parties in the conflict need to do more to bring about a lasting peace.