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Australian party proposes punishing NZers for Israel vote

Author
Ophelia Buckleton, NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Wed, 4 Jan 2017, 8:28PM
Pauline Hanson's One Nation want tighter immigration controls for Kiwis, after New Zealand co-sponsored a United Nations resolution condemning Israel's continued settlements (Getty Images)
Pauline Hanson's One Nation want tighter immigration controls for Kiwis, after New Zealand co-sponsored a United Nations resolution condemning Israel's continued settlements (Getty Images)

Australian party proposes punishing NZers for Israel vote

Author
Ophelia Buckleton, NZ Herald,
Publish Date
Wed, 4 Jan 2017, 8:28PM

Pauline Hanson's One Nation want tighter immigration controls for Kiwis, after New Zealand co-sponsored a United Nations resolution condemning Israel's continued settlements.

Queensland senator Malcolm Roberts has today called on the Australian government to back Israel and take serious steps to stop the "world-wide targeting of the Jewish state".

Roberts said he was "appalled" over New Zealand co-sponsoring a resolution in the UN Security Council criticising Israeli settlements as violating international law and undermining a two-state solution with Palestine.

"If Australia had applied pressure to New Zealand in a serious manner, the new English government would have thought twice before stabbing our ally in the front," said Roberts.

The resolution was passed 14-0 at the last council meeting of 2016, and New Zealand's last meeting in its two-year term as an elected member of the Security Council.

Roberts said immigration controls for New Zealanders travelling to Australia should be reviewed.

"At the very least we should look at further cutting benefits for New Zealanders living in Australia.

"Perhaps a tougher immigration policy aimed towards New Zealand would stop Kiwis from establishing settlements in Australia."

One Nation has said Australia should never again support New Zealand gaining a position in the UN such as a security council seat, adding; "This is why New Zealanders can't have nice things".

"2017 marks the centenary of the ANZAC's brave actions to free the Palestinian territory (now Israel) from Ottoman oppression of Christians, Jews and other groups," Roberts said.

"It would never have been possible for those brave ANZACs, charging as part of the Light Horse Brigade, to have ever thought that events 100 years later would go full circle and future generations would betray the very people they were about to liberate.

"Israel is the Jewish state, and it's the only Middle Eastern democracy where Christians, Muslims, atheists and Jews can all be elected to the same parliament. Israel is Jewish and democratic, unlike most Islamic countries," he said.

NZ Herald

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