Tony Burke asked to commit to revoking the Australia/Israel coproduction treaty after election

Thank you to more than 1000 of you who have signed this petition to date, demanding that the Minister for the Arts revoke the Australia/Israel coproduction treaty and convey our concerns about the treatment of filmmakers, artists and media workers to the Israeli Ambassador to Australia.

Since I posted the petition, a federal election has been called, meaning that the government is in caretaker mode and unlikely to take any action prior to the election.

However, it may be useful to press the case for revocation of the Treaty whilst the Minister (Tony Burke) is campaigning for re-election as the Member for Watson.  I have forwarded the petition to him with a request that he commit to revoking the Treaty as a matter of urgency should he be re-elected and reappointed Minister for the Arts.  

I will update you again about Tony Burke’s response to the petition prior to the election on May 3.

In the event that he is not re-elected or is not reappointed as Minister for the Arts, I will send the petition as soon as possible to any new Minister.

In the meantime, I urge you to encourage friends, family members and colleagues to add their names, so that by the time a new Government is formed we have as many people as possible calling for it to revoke the Treaty and express to Israel our concerns about its terrorising of filmmakers, artists and media workers in the Occupied Territories.

Sharon Connolly