Questioned the safeguards around preventing Australian aid funds being diverted to Hamas by multilateral partners who recognise them as the government of Gaza.
You said there that multilateral partners and others that we engage with have strict requirements around fraud, corruption and counterterror requirements. Does the UN recognise Hamas as a listed terrorist organisation or do they recognise Hamas as the government of the Gaza Strip? In that context, how do they treat their payments and interactions with Hamas?
Whole interaction with Mr Benjamin Hayes (Acting First Assistant Secretary, Middle East and Africa Division, DFAT) Senator Marise Payne (Minister for Foreign Affairs) during Senate Estimates (Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee, Foreign Affairs and Trade Portfolio).
Senator FAWCETT: Senator Abetz, can I ask one supplementary questions of Mr Hayes?
CHAIR: Of course.
Senator FAWCETT: You said there that multilateral partners and others that we engage with have strict requirements around fraud, corruption and counterterror requirements. Does the UN recognise Hamas as a listed terrorist organisation or do they recognise Hamas as the government of the Gaza Strip? In that context, how do they treat their payments and interactions with Hamas?
Mr Hayes : In terms of the United Nations characterisation of Hamas, I want to check that and come back to you. I can to talk you about how Australia characterises Hamas, and that is that we list Hamas in its entirety under our financial sanctions regime, and that is linked, of course, to the Charter of the United Nations Act.
Senator FAWCETT: The point of the question, I guess, is that, if the agreement we have with multilaterals goes to issues like terror, but they don’t recognise Hamas as a terrorist organisation and prefer instead to recognise them as the government of Gaza, then they may well feel free to actually spend money in ways that we would deem inappropriate and not in line with the taxpayers’ expectations here.
Senator Payne: We would not support that and we would not engage with that. Can I also be very clear that I will be asking Ambassador Fifield to raise, through the UN system, the issues that we’ve been talking about today, because I think it is important for UN ops to focus on those issues.
Senator FAWCETT: Thanks, Minister.