Australia is campaigning for a seat on the UN Security Council for 2029–30. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese says membership would give the country greater influence over conflict, peacekeeping and the international rules that shape an increasingly unstable world. The question for Australia is: what it would do with that influence?
The Albanese government says Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are illegal under international law and has sanctioned people and entities linked to settler violence, yet it has declined to join other countries pursuing restrictions on goods produced in those settlements. If Australia recognises the problem but stops short of measures directed at the settlement economy, what weight should other countries give its promises to defend international law?
The killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom in Gaza brings that question closer to home. Australia has called for accountability after the Israeli strike on the World Central Kitchen convoy but for Frankcom’s family, and for anyone listening to the government’s pledges to protect humanitarian workers, the measure of diplomacy is what those demands achieve and, so far, they haven’t achieved anything.
Australia’s previous term shows that a temporary Security Council seat can matter. After Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 was shot down in 2014, Australia helped secure a UN resolution demanding a full, independent investigation. That was diplomacy put to a clear purpose.
A seat at the UN would give Australia a platform. Its choices before the 2028 vote will tell the world what it intends to say with it.
