Unfortunately Australia has won its campaign for a temporary seat on the UN Security Council with 140 votes out of 193 cast (2/3 majority being 129).
Luxembourg got 128 votes and Finland 108. In the run off, Luxembourg defeated Finland.
This victory for Australia must be Tony Abbott’s fault!
One option the Coalition could consider – ask Kevin Rudd if he would like to be considered for appointment as Australian Ambassador to the United Nations under a Coalition Government. Since the temporary position commences on 1 January 2013, Mr Rudd would want to be in a position to take up such an appointment prior to that day. As the Constitution makes it illegal for a MP to accept a Commonwealth salary, he would need to resign from Parliament.
I told you this would happen. This was always about an embattled Leftist government being bailed out by third world dictators. Luxembourg is already reliable so they went for a strategic victory in flipping Australia into their column.
Fisky
19 Oct 12 at 2:45 am
Yay!
(sorry)
Abu Chowdah
19 Oct 12 at 3:01 am
How much did this ego trip cost us?
They’d better do something useful with it.
Jarrah
19 Oct 12 at 4:14 am
Congratulations… KEVIN RUDD!
Muahahahahahhahaaaaaa!
Abu Chowdah
19 Oct 12 at 5:09 am
Krudd will DEMAND to be appointed.
Mike of Marion
19 Oct 12 at 5:13 am
Shuddup, youz guys. This is a huge deal. They didn’t tell you Australia is one of five pretigious new Security Council members eventually elected today, including Rwanda and Luxembourg (in the runoff poll). Who did we have to bribe like the soccer world cup? Could be the most expensive head job in the history of fellatio, ey, Bob?
Tom
19 Oct 12 at 5:19 am
How much did it cost us, all up? What are we going to get out of it? And who decided that Australian citizens even wanted a temporary seat on the UN Security Council anyway?
sdog
19 Oct 12 at 5:21 am
Vanity, all is vanity. Apart from involving us in the inevitable payoffs, this will enable more self-congratulatory “getting it done” speeches, all sound and fury, signifying nothing, by our poorly franchised posturing pollies.
The UN should be reduced to a social services “milkman and doctor to the poor” role, and keep the hell out of important international matters. Even then, they are known as the cows that drink their own milk. Any supreme body that allows a veto to China and Russia is stuffed anyway.
The General Assembly is a waste of resources and has too many seat fillers who have no franchise from their people and who seem to have nothing better to do than to pass motions against Israel.
Blogstrop
19 Oct 12 at 5:30 am
“Top 10 U.N. Slogans”
(by @imao)
sdog
19 Oct 12 at 5:40 am
So Rudd would have to resign from Parliament if he was to take up this position.
What chance would the Labor Party have of retaining his seat in a by-election?
Would the Liar want to go the polls this year so Rudd could take up this postion before January 2013?
Would the Liar’s Party take back Krudd as their Leader?
What purpose in life does he now have?
The Liar can’t afford to offer him his UN position and the only thing he is achieving by staying in the Parliament is to keep the Liar in her position as PM.
Imagine how he is feeling. Imagine the hissy fit he is chucking on hearing this news.
Makes every dollar spent on this futile exercise worth it.
johno
19 Oct 12 at 6:00 am
The Liar can’t. Abbott can.
Driftforge
19 Oct 12 at 6:04 am
Rudd for the UN.
It makes sense. Furthermore, it would be a popular decision among the public.
dd
19 Oct 12 at 6:08 am
We’re on the Security Council? Like wow, man…..did we become a nuclear superpower overnight? No? Then who gives a flying woodchuck ?
The Old and Unimproved Dave
19 Oct 12 at 6:16 am
Glorious!
Let’s look at ALL the 5 new non permanent members of the UN Security Council:
Australia, Argentina, Luxembourg, South Korea and RWANDA!
How much would it cost Rwanda to buy a seat at the Security Council?
maman
19 Oct 12 at 6:24 am
……. and finally I would like to thank the Member for Dobell. This would not have been possible without Craig Thomson and his gold Amex tirelessly organising free roots all round for UN delegates.
Thanks Craig!!!
Leigh Lowe
19 Oct 12 at 6:27 am
A good Newspoll and Julia might call an election!
John Comnenus
19 Oct 12 at 6:35 am
What is the traditional way of celebrating this?
Everyone on the street shooting their AK47′s in the air?
Token
19 Oct 12 at 6:50 am
Are you responsible for this Eurovision Song Contest win in any way Abu?
Token
19 Oct 12 at 6:52 am
Carr says its a sign that everyone loves us, and thinks Australia’s a bonzer country. Let’s have a look at the other members and see who else everyone loves!Hmmm … Pakistan?
blogstrop
19 Oct 12 at 7:29 am
Almost a $billion
Absolutely nothing
kevni ruff
Rabz
19 Oct 12 at 7:35 am
Geez u guys have become a den of right wing bile in the last few years.
Is Jason Soon still involved? He used to be fairly level headed.
ben heslop
19 Oct 12 at 7:41 am
A neat summary on twitter.
Token
19 Oct 12 at 7:42 am
Well whores will have their trinkets.
Andreas
19 Oct 12 at 7:53 am
Try over 3 billion.
3 fucking billion. A fitting epitaph for this vile gillard led government.
cohenite
19 Oct 12 at 8:04 am
She hates Rudd. She’ll appoint someone else and hope to take the Government full term.
But wait, he hates her… Could he, would he cause a by-election? A gamble and mud in his eye if the new ALP candidate wins.
Such a quandary. Delicious!
Anne
19 Oct 12 at 8:06 am
Abbott isn’t PM. Not his call.
An appointment needs to be made before Jan 2013.
Rudd will have to decide whether he wants Abbott to be PM very soon, on the chance that Abbott would appoint him, rather see the Liar remain in his job.
If he can cause an election to be held before the end of the year and the Liar is deposed, every dollar spent on the bid would have been worth it.
johno
19 Oct 12 at 8:07 am
I wonder if Rawanda had to spend one billion to get elected.
Gutho
19 Oct 12 at 8:15 am
WTF?
I was trying not flick da switch to hyperbowl!
Rabz
19 Oct 12 at 8:17 am
They’re already drafting a letter of condemnation to Israel. Tomorrow Mugabe will get a street parade through Sydney.
Infidel Tiger
19 Oct 12 at 8:29 am
Load up the Leopards, lads, we’re invading Poland!
m0nty
19 Oct 12 at 8:32 am
This will receive media attention while they
perfect the wording of the next ‘cowards castle’
rant against Tony. Most likely something like Rapist or even Pedophilia! Someone should run over their gutless mongrel adviser to do his family a favour!
maurie
19 Oct 12 at 8:36 am
What a disgraceful line this is. We should be extraordinarily proud that Australia has been accepted this way, despite our gross imperfections (our treatment of aborigines and refugees for example). We didn’t really deserve it of course but I think they’ve voted this way in the hope we’ll improve our efforts in these regards.
Gareth Hamilton
19 Oct 12 at 8:37 am
Just goes to show gillard et al are excellent at giving away our money by the bucketload to “win” a temporary seat. So they’re good at bribing people, so what? It’s the UN for heaven’s sake. All that money for a temporary seat that has no power, no veto. Madness.
Gab
19 Oct 12 at 8:43 am
Hey, Marko! Over here! The Hamster reckons we need more UN sitdown money so we can treat the blackfellas better.
Tom
19 Oct 12 at 8:44 am
Good point. We didn’t win the seat, we are just renting it for a bit.
Dangph
19 Oct 12 at 8:48 am
Pathetic.
Gab
19 Oct 12 at 8:56 am
Bolt says it well:
Gab
19 Oct 12 at 8:58 am
No, just have a racially motivated civil war. Scores highly in victim poker. Now the UN virtually runs the place, so it’s like the UN itself now has a seat at the table.
And funny indeed how Rudd started to raise his media profile again this week. Foreknowledge of the result, a phone call from Spanky, or just coincidence ?
Keith
19 Oct 12 at 8:58 am
Oh Hammy, it’s always “appalling” or “disgraceful” with you, isn’t it? Some sentiment exists which opposes the little bubble you live in, and you can’t bear to even live with the knowledge that someone else thinks that way.
Nobody cares if it is only that you are “appalled”, Hammy. Get over yourself. Call back if people are being raped like UN troops do to Africans that they are supposed to protect.
2dogs
19 Oct 12 at 8:59 am
“little relevance to their lives” ? Is Bolt serious ?
$ 3 billion misdirected tax dollars would pay for a whole lot of relevance in Western Sydney for example.
Keith
19 Oct 12 at 9:01 am
My life has been devoted to being accepted by the fucking UN. I’m so happy now; I look forward to having my “gross imperfections” downgraded to ‘slight personality defects’.
cohenite
19 Oct 12 at 9:02 am
guess it means we must treat our asylum seekers and Aborigines better as we are an example to the world now.
candy
19 Oct 12 at 9:15 am
I’m not actually surprised that the UN and the ALP are besties. They’d seem to have quite a bit in common.
By the way, the doco “U.N. Me” is worth a watch.
sdog
19 Oct 12 at 9:20 am
It’s not surprising that Gillard has succeeded on the ground yet again, where Rudd could only flap his gums.
m0nty
19 Oct 12 at 9:23 am
A five year campaign costing $45 million according to their ABC and for what? A two-year temporary seat to do what?
Gab
19 Oct 12 at 9:33 am
Bash the evil Jews
harrys on the boat
19 Oct 12 at 9:39 am
Oh for Pete’s sake – Comrade Dear leader (in exile) will this very morning be having a final fitting for the uniform up in The Only True and Lawful Lodge in Norman Park. There’ll be a march past just before the start of the Gold Coast 600 V8s on Sunday – all pith helmet, sedan chair and native bearers.
It has a ring about it – His Excellency, President for Life, Field Marshal Al Hadji Doctor Kevni of Tripoli Dada, VC, DSO, MC, Lord of the Beasts of the Trade Unions and Wimmenses of the Cabinet, Ditcher of the Bitch from Altona and Rightful First Choice in the Nambour Primary School Playground Cricket Team (gees we’ve paid dearly for that slight endured 40 odd years ago).
He’ll present something like this as he takes the salute … http://eurekavideo.co.uk/moc/images/covers/large/045-general-idi-amin-cover-lores.jpg
Mick Gold Coast QLD
19 Oct 12 at 9:40 am
A two-year temporary seat to:
Ah, I see give more money.
Gab
19 Oct 12 at 9:42 am
What odds Lee Rhiannon? She’d love to join the collective, especially if New York has a few Max Brenner shops to protest at.
harrys on the boat
19 Oct 12 at 9:43 am
We have Abrams now. Bigger and better.
Shame that $3 billion dollars used to buy this seat was only part of the 10 or so billion stripped from defence over the last few years (including 5.5b just last budget).
But monty raises a good point – what with funding all these inevitable UN commitments abroad, what do the soldiers use to peacemake? Sticks and stones?
Happymonkey
19 Oct 12 at 9:45 am
Typical UN triumph of hope over experience. Being on the UNHRC didn’t change the activities of Jordan, Saudi Arabia or Cuba much, did it?
Thought not. At its best it’s a screen for tin pot dictatorships, so why do we need to be there?
Oh, hang on . . . . .
Cato the Elder
19 Oct 12 at 9:54 am
Where are people getting this “$3 billion” figure from?
Gab
19 Oct 12 at 9:54 am
Last year I was working as a consultant in an Commonwealth agency that was ‘asked’ to host a study visit of two weeks by a group of senior civil servants from The Gambia.
I conservatively estimate the cost of the exercise – fares, accommodation, agency resources and support etc – at around $150,000.
As anyone with a hard copy or online atlas can easily verify, The Gambia is one of the smallest nations in Africa, located in the area of that continent that is most remote from Australia. It is hard to think of a country of less strategic or economic importance to Australia, although Andorra and San Marino come to mind.
The Gambia is, of course, a voting member of the UN.
Des Deskperson
19 Oct 12 at 9:55 am
The uplift in aid spending and budgetted, since the bid was announced.
This graphic from the telegraph shows it.
Keith
19 Oct 12 at 10:09 am
Also in cohenite’s link above.
Keith
19 Oct 12 at 10:09 am
I’d like to see the UNSC adopt some Australian lingo.
“UN Tells Ahmadinejad: Pull Your Head In”
“Jung Il Woo Named As Drongo By UN”
“Chavez Told By UN: Don’t Come The Raw Prawn”
m0nty
19 Oct 12 at 10:11 am
Thanks, Keith. I hadn’t seen that. Over $3 billion it is then.
Gab
19 Oct 12 at 10:12 am
Right Candy, we will be expected to live up to the humanitarian standards of our co-chairs Rwanda, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Togo and Pakistan.
Cold-Hands
19 Oct 12 at 10:16 am
Will the Finnish Government be brought down by this crushing defeat? Fancy being overlooked in favour of Luxembourg.
Cold-Hands
19 Oct 12 at 10:18 am
Somehow, I doubt Rwanda spent as much money as we did.
Fleeced
19 Oct 12 at 10:27 am
Australia has served four previous terms on the council: 1946-7, 1956-7, 1973-4, 1985-6.
So what was achieved?
Gab
19 Oct 12 at 10:27 am
We sure did have to suck to a lot of misogynists to win this seat. I guess it’s all right to stone women and deny them an education and even a drivers licence, but don’t dare make them look silly in parliament.
Infidel Tiger
19 Oct 12 at 10:28 am
Misogynists and homophobes.
But remember, “It’s different when they do it, because shut up.”
sdog
19 Oct 12 at 10:37 am
I wish the Libs had the balls (once in power) to say, “Thanks, but no thanks” and remove themselves from the council… but that will never happen.
Fleeced
19 Oct 12 at 10:57 am
<e"Right Candy, we will be expected to live up to the humanitarian standards of our co-chairs Rwanda, Azerbaijan, Morocco, Togo and Pakistan."
Cold-Hands i was just being sarcastic, i think it opens the door for even more asylum seekers and we are bound to take all now.
candy
19 Oct 12 at 11:08 am
Gotta give credit where it is due, not a bad effort m0nster, pretty funny.
BTW, what’s your take of the mental and physical weakness of your beloved Hawks?
Huckleberry Chunkwot
19 Oct 12 at 11:42 am
In giving some thought to which brave warrior Labor might be forced to volunteer for this demanding self sacrifice in New York some contenders eliminate themselves (sitting members, Senator Boutros Boutros Carr who has already been gifted his payoff and so on).
They have yet to find a place for Comrade Barbie Doll Keneally. Wimmenses have delivered such extraordinary results for them, you see, and anyway all men are bastards.
It makes sense in that Comrade Gutless Garrett may finally discover the ticker to tip a bucket on them if dis-endorsed for “her” seat of Kingsford Smith, she’s a Yank, pretty (in some minds – I see her rather as Sharon Stone honey-trap-ice-pick nasty) and they’ve got to get her properly set up before they’re evicted.
Such a prize could glide ever so easily among the UN’s diplomatic elite – you know, the interesting and worldly and oh so European Dominique Strauss-Kahn types, who no doubt would be curious to know more of ALP practice and culture in the Gillard-Wilson-Emerson-Timmeh, Roxon-Short Billy, Cairns-Morosi manner.
Mick Gold Coast QLD
19 Oct 12 at 11:50 am
Hi Candy, given the human rights record of the countries I named, I was being sarcastic right back atcha. The UN desperately needs reform or dissolution and membership of the Security Council an irrelevance except to the five nations with veto powers.
Cold-Hands
19 Oct 12 at 11:56 am
You remind me Cold-Hands they are dissolute alright, they’re truly first class at that.
Mick Gold Coast QLD
19 Oct 12 at 12:02 pm
I’d say that our Government now gets a chance to demonstrate its ineptitude on the world stage. At least the world is so fucked up they can’t make things much worse. Or can they?
Lloyd
19 Oct 12 at 12:07 pm
Hopefully Australia is put in charge of insulating the UN building and it burns to the ground.
Infidel Tiger
19 Oct 12 at 12:09 pm
Now that we’ve got the seat, Australia can resume its traditional bipartisan support for Israel, come down hard on third world corruption and defend free speech against Islamic intimidation. Or pigs might fly?
Cold-Hands
19 Oct 12 at 12:10 pm
I say Gillard should elevate herself to serve on UNSC. I’d pay real money to see her lecture the SC on sexism and misogyny, especially with the current line up…
Lloyd
19 Oct 12 at 12:13 pm
I hope the Saudi ambassador tells her to shut her fat trap.
Infidel Tiger
19 Oct 12 at 12:15 pm
Rudd has no chance of being placed in a UN position. Gillard wouldn’t appoint him and Abbott would be foolish to have anything to do with Rudd in any shape or form.
No, Kevin Rudd has his eye fixed squarely on revenge…. after the defeat and destruction of the Gillard lead Labor party at the next election… Rudd will maneuver himself into being placed as the leader of the opposition Labor party, or what’s left of it… and from there he will guarantee himself twenty years of leading a political fiefdom in opposition.
..and the Labor party deserves him every second of every minute of every decade he leads them….:-)
J.H.
19 Oct 12 at 12:36 pm
Australia paid for Rwanda’s campaign too – thus getting its vote for Australia.
Samuel J
19 Oct 12 at 5:08 pm
Rwanda! How does comrade Carr explain their success in similar terms to how he did Australia’s success. His theory of why we got there is so shot to bits by the character of other successful applicants.
blogstrop
19 Oct 12 at 7:15 pm
I long for the days when Burkina Faso assumed the rotating presidency of the UN Security Council.
Respect.
jupes
19 Oct 12 at 7:20 pm
Now that we’ve got the seat, Australia can resume its traditional bipartisan support for Israel,
Why should we support Israel’s policies on the West Bank?
sdfc
19 Oct 12 at 7:21 pm
Because it’s rightly Israel territory, but you’d know only the fables, not the actual history since the late 1940s, sdfc. Troll, Piss off.
blogstrop
19 Oct 12 at 7:38 pm
How so?
sdfc
19 Oct 12 at 7:40 pm
No no, we should support Israel regardless and punish the haters for making an issue of the miniscule “occupation”. Actually, Arabs are occupying an area of land about the size of Russia, but never have to field accusations of colonialism. So we should always vote for Israel and for free speech motions at the UN.
Fisky
19 Oct 12 at 7:42 pm
Good luck with that Fisky
Tal
19 Oct 12 at 7:44 pm
And has had difficulty in doing anything much in the way of kosher elections between military coups. The constitution is suspended. There has not been a certified free and fair election lately.
Great company we’re keeping.
blogstrop
19 Oct 12 at 7:47 pm
So your contention is that the Palestinians should just leave (to where who knows) because somehow they have less rights than Israelis.
That’s a funny comment to make on Australia’a leading libertarian blog.
sdfc
19 Oct 12 at 7:47 pm
No no, my policy is that the Palestinians should apologise for being Arab imperialists. After that, we can come to some kind of deal, but they must first own up and apologise for imposing the Caliphate on the Jews.
Fisky
19 Oct 12 at 7:49 pm
The state of Transjordan, now Jordan, was created for the Hashemite dynasty, who were evicted from Saudi Arabia by Ibn Saud. The West Bank was not part of that. Jordan took it by force after the declaration of the state of Israel, and Israel took it back in 1967.
If the legitimacy of Israel is to be questioned, and bear in mind that they have history and a UN (you know, the sacred UN) resolution on their side, then disband Pakistan and Bangla Desh while you’re at it and give them back to India. Artificial constructs can be done, but no point whinging about it forever more.
blogstrop
19 Oct 12 at 7:52 pm
Oh, and Jordan is about 80% populated by Palestinians (so called). The second state exists already. There is no point creating another one out of more unviable remnants. It’s just plain stupid or calculated for mischief. Not for peace.
blogstrop
19 Oct 12 at 7:54 pm
So the Palestinians in the West Bank should just upsticks and move to Jordan because for some unexplained reason they have less rights than Israelis.
sdfc
19 Oct 12 at 8:03 pm
That’s how you win the Eurovision song contest.
So what is going to be the theme for next year’s show? The winner gets to host the next event, don’t they?
Token
19 Oct 12 at 8:06 pm
No SDFC, they should celebrate the fact that their citizenship of Israel gives them the unique rights to vote and participate in a mature democratic state.
Something no other Palestinian in the mid east can do with equal freedom.
Token
19 Oct 12 at 8:11 pm
[...] Files, which claims to be ‘Australia's leading libertarian and centre-right blog’, Samuel J seems open to a charge of sore-loser: Unfortunately Australia has won its campaign for a temporary [...]
Australia: Surprise Seat on United Nations Security Council · Global Voices
21 Oct 12 at 7:09 pm