Revoke the Australia/Israel Coproduction Treaty

 Disappointingly, if predictably, the only response to this petition, forwarded to Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, on April 10, was a letter from an Acting Assistant Secretary of the Screen and Arts Workforce Development Branch of the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.  

The writer of that letter appears not to have understood my request that in view of caretaker conventions Tony Burke commit to revoking the Australia/Israel Coproduction Treaty should he be re-elected and reappointed Minister for the Arts. Instead, he claimed that “...it is not appropriate to comment on the policy issue you have raised as it may pre-empt the position of an incoming Government.”

This is an unsurprisingly obstructive reaction to our petition and request for a commitment from Burke. According to the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network (APAN), Tony Burke also failed to respond to its survey of candidates’ views for its Vote with Palestine initiative.

Should you need further information about how to vote to help end Israel’s genocide, apartheid and illegal occupation in Palestine, I recommend the Vote with Palestine website which can be found here: https://apan.org.au/vote/

The website has scorecards for each candidate in every federal electorate, and for each major party.

And please continue to encourage others to sign this petition which will be forwarded to whoever becomes Minister for the Arts in Australia’s new government. 

Many thanks for your support and contributions.