Wentworth candidates address the Jewish community
Over 250 people packed NCJW Council House in Woollahra last night for the Wentworth by-election candidate’s forum co-hosted by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies and the Executive Council of Australian Jewry.
Tim Murray, Peter Wertheim, Kerryn Phelps, Dave Sharma and Licia Heath Photo: Wendy Bookatz
Independents Dr Kerryn Phelps and Licia Heath put their views forward alongside Labor candidate Tim Murray and the Liberal’s Dave Sharma.
Each candidate spoke warmly about the Jewish community and indicated a sincere understanding of security needs and antisemitism.
Refugee policy, private vs public education funding and climate change where some of the key issues raised by audience members. But the hot-button topic of the night was PM Scott Morrison’s announcement on Tuesday that the government would consider moving the Australian Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
Dr Phelps, who expressed concern about the timing of the announcement said, if elected, she would “ask for a detailed, high-level briefing to form a policy on whether and in what context such a move would occur” and what the trade and security implications would be for Australia.
Reiterating his support for Australia recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, Mr Sharma said he believed “every country has the right to name its own capital, regardless of this discussion about the embassy”.
Kerryn Phelps response to the moving of the Australian embassy issue is certainly carefully phrased – she’s a politician already. What the trade and security implications would be for Australia? Surely Australia needs to make a principled stand on foreign policy issues, without being dictated to by Muslim countries and their supporters by threats of disbanding trade. And what does she mean by security implications, I wonder?
The embassy will not be moved and that proposal did not get traction with Wentworth voters either as the Liberal candidate did very poorly. It was just an election stunt by the PM, nothing more.
The subject of refugees and their kids being stuck at Nauru was also a major topic on the night. Unfortunately Dave Sharma did not give any positive information about moving them to a safer location. At least Kerryn Phelps offered a positive solution to save these kids.