Independent MP Allegra Spender has called for world leaders to focus on long-term peace and hopes for the establishment of a Palestinian state in the years to come, amid an opposition vow to reverse Australia’s imminent recognition of Palestine.
Spender said there was momentum in her Sydney electorate of Wentworth, home to a large Jewish community, for long-lasting peace in the Middle East because progress to end the conflict has been insufficient, but she called for a “way forward together”.
Independent MP Allegra Spender.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
“We do want to see a long-term solution to this, to this crisis, because we have made really no progress in this crisis for, for so long,” Spender told Nine’s Today earlier this morning. “I think we need to work on the long-term peace and security in region.”
Spender hoped that Palestine would be free of Hamas and holding democratic elections by the time the next Australian poll is held in 2028, which she said would help Palestinians and Israelis rebuild “side by side to a safe future”.
“In three years’ time, I hope that we are a long way to the establishment of a Palestinian state with its government, with democratic elections, with the removal of Hamas as a terrorist force,” she said.
“It’s my hope that we will be at that stage where that is a future we should all be looking forward to. And that’s what has to be really the focus at the moment.”
Opposition Leader Sussan Ley said she would reverse Anthony Albanese’s decision to recognise Palestine if the Coalition won government.