How many people watching Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s rare address to the nation on April 1 were hoping for big petrol tax cuts or cost-of-living adjustments? Some criticism of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu’s illegal attacks on Iran and Lebanon would not have gone astray.
Instead the one solid promise from a simpering PM was to halve fuel excise by 26 cents a litre. At that point, working people were trying to make ends meet while petrol and diesel prices rose by 10 cents per litre a day.
The US bombed a girl’s school in Iran, killing 168, and these are just a fraction of the nearly 2000 innocent Iranian civilians it has massacred. More than 1 million people have been told to evacuate south Lebanon by Israel, which has bombed it killing hundreds and injuring thousands.
The PM has still said nothing about these war crimes, while the Foreign Minister Penny Wong is blaming Iran — even after Trump’s iniquitous blast on April 7 saying that “a whole civilisation will die tonight” terrifying many into believing we were on the brink of world war three, or perhaps a nuclear attack.
Legal experts say this threat could constitute a war crime.
The Labor Party leadership has said nothing about Trump’s threats, while new National Party leader Matt Canavan, a supporter of Israel’s Gaza war, described them as being “beyond the realms of acceptability”.
Yet across Europe, polls show a rising negative view towards the US. While Britain has allowed the US to use its air bases, Spain has condemned the US- Israeli actions as illegal and banned the US from using its air bases and air space for strikes. It also withdrew its ambassador to Israel soon after the war started in early March.
Even the right-wing Georgia Meloni government in Italy has condemned the US-Israeli strikes on Iran and has blocked US bombers from using Sicilian airbases.
Meanwhile, Albanese, Wong and Defence Minister Richard Marles have confirmed that the Wedgetail surveillance aircraft and the Special Air Service personnel will stay in the United Arab Emirates, helping the US and Israel.
But they are also, hypocritically, calling for a ceasefire and return to negotiations, demanding Iran open the Hormuz Strait. They have not ruled out sending a war ship to assist the US there. They have called on Hezbollah to stop bombing Israel and Israel to stop bombing Lebanon.
But, in general, Labor has spent more energy on its $20 million ad campaign to try to get us to use less fuel than they have on trying to stop these wars.
We are not being served by the Labor government’s support for these illegal wars.
If Albanese was serious about a ceasefire and longer-term peace in the Middle East, he would do the following:
1. Pressure the US to stop bombing Iran by denying its use of Pine Gap surveillance. Withdraw Australian personnel on secondment, or training, with the US military including those with the E-7A Wedgetail and the 85 Australian Defence Force personnel and the missiles sent to the United Arab Emrites.
2. Break the $368 billion AUKUS war alliance deal and redirect the money to deliver serious assistance to those struggling to make ends meet with rising fuel and inflation as a result of these illegal wars. The billions should be redirected to those needing welfare, health services, housing and public transport.
3. Break all ties with Israel’s killing machine, cancel the more than $1 billion in Israeli arms contracts and suspend other trade agreements.
4. Kick out the Israeli ambassador and withdraw the Australian ambassador from Israel.
5. Send material and financial aid to Gaza and Lebanon, as war reparations (and significantly more than the trifling $5 million Wong promised Lebanon on March 21).
6. Accept refugees fleeing their war-ravaged homes in Palestine, Lebanon and Iran and offer them permanent protection, visas and citizenship rights, while also removing barriers for other refugees already in Australia.
7. Speed up the transition to end Australia’s fossil fuel dependence. Tax the mining industry and invest in renewables, while addressing the climate change emergency.
8. Extend and legislate free public transport — which some states have opted for temporarily — and make it mandatory for all states and territories as part of the energy transition.
9. End the military alliance with the US and create a peaceful and just foreign policy which would include helping our Asia-Pacific neighbours deal with the climate emergency they did not create.
10. Support the International Criminal Court’s pursuit of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for crimes against humanity in Gaza.
[Sue Bolton is a member of the Socialist Alliance National Executive. She is a long-term councillor at Merri-Bek City Council and is running for Socialist Alliance in the seat of Broadmeadows in the Victorian election.]