Topics: Labor’s UNRWA decision risky and reckless;
04:20PM AEDT
15 March 2024
Ali Moore: The Australian government has announced it’s going to resume funding for the United Nations aid agency for Palestinians, UNRWA. Australia joined a number of Western nations in freezing funds. You might remember this back in January, after Israeli intelligence suggested that around a dozen of UNRWA’s workers had been linked to the October 7th terror attack by Hamas. Now, the foreign minister says the government is finalising an updated agreement and will resume its funding. The foreign minister was not available this afternoon, but Senator Simon Birmingham is the Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs. Senator Birmingham, welcome to the program.
Simon Birmingham: Hello, Ali. It’s good to be with you.
Ali Moore: You don’t support this decision.
Simon Birmingham: We don’t. We have grave concerns about the decision the government’s taken. The funding for UNRWA was suspended because the employees identified had been stood down after suggestions, they had been involved in supporting the October 7th terrorist attacks undertaken by Hamas, attacks that saw the largest number of Jewish people killed on a single day since the Holocaust. And of course, Hamas continues to hold people hostage from those October 7th attacks, whilst tragically using Palestinian people’s living in Gaza as human shields and exposing them to immense suffering and danger because of the continued holding of those hostages and refusal to surrender their terrorist operatives and their infrastructure. Now, UNRWA has faced concerns over a long period of time, but they certainly took on a new level of gravity with the standing down of staff because of the suggestion of involvement in the terrorist attacks. Our view very clearly is that Australia shouldn’t be reinstating funding to an organisation, nobody wants to see any Australian taxpayer dollars going to support anywhere where there could be terrorist sympathisers, supporters, inciters of extremism or hatred. What we want to see is Australian dollars used to assist people in need and facing dire circumstances, which we certainly acknowledge those in Gaza are, and it should be going to organisations who can be trusted to do that.
Ali Moore: Well, I’ll ask you in a tick about what they might be, but just in terms of what Penny Wong says, she does say the best available current advice from Australian government lawyers and from agencies is that UNRWA is not a terrorist organisation. Existing additional safeguards sufficiently protect Australian taxpayer funding. Have you been briefed on those safeguards? Do you have any understanding of also the other point that she made that Israel has provided some information and she’s been advised based on that information, that funding could be resumed.
Simon Birmingham: We have not been briefed, and nor is there an adequate level of transparency from what the government has released publicly. It is clear nobody has suggested that UNRWA itself is a terrorist organisation, but Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It is listed as one here in Australia. And of course, it undertook the most heinous and grievous of terrorist acts on October 7th. And the allegations are that UNRWA staff were involved in those attacks and that in other ways, at times they have incited hatred, antisemitism and the things that do inspire these types of attacks. Now, ultimately, Australia may say we have got additional conditions, but again, the government hasn’t been transparent about what those conditions are, nor around what the verification processes will be for those conditions. And our view is it would have been far preferable to await the conclusion of the independent review that the UN has instigated, like the United States is doing. And then to act in concert with the United States, whose leverage in these matters is far greater than Australia’s. And with that leverage can come the capacity for meaningful conditions and proper verification of those conditions.
Ali Moore: Senator Birmingham, I mean, I do note that Canada and the EU have also resumed funding, but you do recognise that there is a humanitarian crisis, crisis in Gaza. People are starving today. You know, if it’s a matter of weeks or months before that review, even more people will starve. What do you see as the alternative? Bearing in mind that UNRWA has some 30,000 people working for it, how could any other organisation match it for the sort of assistance it can provide in Gaza?
Simon Birmingham: So, the EU has only partially restored funding and continues to put a pause on some pending the UN investigation and other steps. And that shows that they, alongside the US and others, are taking a cautious approach. But we absolutely recognise it, the dire, dire need and circumstances-
Ali Moore: So how would you help?
Simon Birmingham: -innocent loss of life is serious. We welcome the other aspects of the government’s announcement today, which is funding to UNICEF, which is working in concert with other countries to help ensure humanitarian assistance.
Ali Moore: But UNICEF doesn’t have anywhere near the personnel on the ground that UNRWA has.
Simon Birmingham: Well, let’s also appreciate that what UNRWA might ordinarily deliver under its mandate in terms of education services, hospital services or the like is not, of course, the need we’re addressing at present, which is the urgent need for food, for medicines, for shelters, for the type of humanitarian assistance that UN agencies step in and help to provide in a range of different ways in response to all manner of natural disasters and crises, alongside a range of non-government organisations who step in and provide that type of support as well. In terms of Australia’s assistance, we can absolutely be doing more, as was demonstrated in the second part of the announcement today to support other agencies and countries in the region to get help in to those Palestinians in Gaza who need it.
Ali Moore: It’s a question of scale, though, isn’t it, Senator Birmingham, and I guess time as well. The government has put an additional 4 million to UNICEF. But do you believe that that UNICEF could pick up where UNWRA will leave off, particularly if UNWRA collapses, which they are warning that they are in peril of doing?
Simon Birmingham: Well, I’m not citing UNICEF as the sole source-
Ali Moore: So, who else could step in?
Simon Birmingham: But I note the government has given extra funding there. As we have as a nation, given extra support to the International Committee for the Red Cross along the way, as indeed we are working with other countries in the region to get more aid and assistance in, and the opportunity is there for us to do more, for example, with the United States, not just in terms of the types of conditions that could be imposed and verified on UNRWA down the track, but also to stand up the alternative pathways that President Biden has spoken of in terms of support coming through a new temporary port in Cyprus to get more assistance directly into Gaza and directly into the hands of those who need those foods and medicines.
Ali Moore: So, Senator Birmingham, if the US decided to start funding again, would you agree to the decision or would you support the decision the Australian governments already made?
Simon Birmingham: The US has said plainly they are awaiting the UN independent investigation. That is what we think Australia should do as well. As I have also said, I think we should be using the leverage that would come with partnering with the United States so that the conditions we impose and the expectations of verification that should go, that those conditions are being met, can actually be achieved. And it will be best achieved if there is coordinated action by different countries, and particularly using the leverage of those donors of scale, such as the United States, who can clearly undertake far more fulsome verification and expect much more of UNRWA and their partners in how they undertake that verification.
Ali Moore: Just a final question. How long do you expect that process to take?
Simon Birmingham: We don’t know how long that will take. And that is why alternatives like President Biden’s plan to get additional assistance in, as well as the other alternatives that the Australian government announced today, are all welcome ones. That is that is where extra support into those pathways is a critical thing, to make sure that Australian dollars are providing humanitarian aid and assistance to people in Gaza, but not risking them going into operations that are completely counterproductive by supporting anything that promotes terrorism, promotes hatred, and ultimately has led to the type of appalling situation that Hamas created through their actions on October 7th.
Ali Moore: Senator Simon Birmingham, thanks for your time.
Simon Birmingham: Thanks for the opportunity.