QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE

Senator WONG (South Australia—Minister for Foreign Affairs and Leader of the Government in the Senate) (15:09): We maintain diplomatic relations with countries not as an endorsement of others. In a fair-minded assessment of what has happened over these last years, you would see that we have very different views to the government of Prime Minister Netanyahu, and Prime Minister Netanyahu has made that clear.

We maintain diplomatic relations to advance Australia's interests and to be able to put our view directly to other countries, as I did today with the ambassador when he was called in.