Wong’s FURY: Foreign Minister ERUPTS at ‘Rogue’ Sussan Ley After Leaked Notes Reveal Opposition Leader’s Secret Phone Calls with Israel and US Republicans to Sabotage Albo’s Palestine Deal
- Foreign Minister Penny Wong has launched an extraordinary attack on Sussan Ley, accusing her of running a ‘rogue foreign policy’.
- The furious slapdown comes after it was revealed Ms Ley held a secret phone call with Israel’s Foreign Minister and wrote to US Republicans to undermine the government.
- Leaked notes show Ms Ley assured Trump allies that Labor’s decision to recognise a Palestinian state ‘did not reflect the views of most Australians’.
- The diplomatic fallout comes as Anthony Albanese is SNUBBED by President Trump at the United Nations, with one Liberal Senator claiming Australia is being treated ‘like a piece of dirt’.
Foreign Minister Penny Wong has unleashed a furious tirade against Opposition Leader Sussan Ley, accusing her of running a ‘rogue foreign policy’ and shamelessly undermining Australia’s national interest after leaked notes revealed she secretly engaged with Israel and US Republicans to sabotage the government’s controversial recognition of a Palestinian state.
The stunning diplomatic row exploded after it was revealed Israel’s government arranged a phone call between Ms Ley and their Foreign Minister, Gideon Sa’ar, just hours after Australia’s contentious vote at the United Nations.
In a move that has sent shockwaves through Canberra, it also emerged that Ms Ley wrote directly to 25 influential US Republicans, including close allies of Donald Trump, assuring them that the Albanese government’s decision ‘did not reflect the views of most Australians.’
The American officials had slammed the move as a ‘reckless policy that undermines prospects for peace’ and a baffling decision to ‘reward Hamas with statehood’.
In an incendiary interview with ABC Radio, an incensed Senator Wong hit back hard. ‘It is possible to back Australia and still be an effective opposition. And really, it’s time that Ms Ley and the Liberals understood that,’ she fumed. ‘We know we’re strongest when we speak with one voice… [her intervention] is not in the nation’s interests.’
But the Coalition has refused to back down, with Ms Ley vowing that a future government under her leadership would immediately reverse the decision. Shadow Foreign Affairs Minister Michaelia Cash piled on, savaging Mr Albanese for making an ‘offensive’ and ‘historically inaccurate’ comparison between the Palestinian cause and the Jewish historical struggle in his UN address.
‘Rewarding terrorists while hostages remain in captivity sends the wrong signal, that violence and kidnapping are pathways to international recognition,’ Ms Cash said in a blistering statement.
The bitter domestic feud comes as Prime Minister Albanese suffered his own humiliating diplomatic blow in New York, where it was confirmed he will once again be snubbed by President Trump during the United Nations General Assembly.
The situation was branded ‘a disaster’ by Liberal Senator Andrew Bragg. ‘We’re being punished, frankly, and it’s now very embarrassing,’ he claimed, saying Australia was being treated ‘like a piece of dirt’ by the United States under Labor.