The Australian Government strongly opposes the Boycott Divestments and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.

This position has been placed on the public record on several occasions.

The Government does not support boycott movements that seek to ban exchanges with Israel, or policies that impede legitimate trade between states and unfairly target lawful Australian businesses.

Indeed, the Australian Labor Party fought a campaign in the state division of Marrickville on this very principle and won against the Greens party.

Such boycotts against Israel, in addition to harming Palestinian people economically, are unhelpful to the Middle East peace process.

A motion on BDS was moved in the Senate yesterday.

The Government supported the central tenet of this motion – that is, opposition to the BDS campaign.

However we were unable to support the text of the motion for two reasons.

First, the Government has a long established practice of not attempting to navigate complex foreign policy matters through Senate motions.

Second, the motion politicises this important issue through its criticism of individuals.

These matters do not in any way detract from our overall position – that we fiercely, unequivocally, strongly oppose BDS.

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