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The election - any date won't do

By Julie Bishop - posted Thursday, 14 February 2013

She will also need to decide whether to attend the United Nations in New York when Australia assumes the rotating presidency of the Security Council on 1 September this year.

There is a tradition of the September chair of the UNSC holding a summit of the leaders of those nations on the Council during that month.

We are entitled to assume that the Prime Minister realises that Australia will be the UNSC president during the month of September. This makes her choice of September 14 even more inexplicable.

It would be disappointing if Prime Minister Gillard's infamous lack of interest in international affairs led her to dismiss the importance of the G20 Leaders Summit and the presidency of the Security Council.

These are obligations that no Prime Minister of Australia can lightly ignore and her decisions may have lasting consequences in terms of perceptions of our nation as a responsible international citizen.

Julia Gillard must make an early declaration of her intentions with regard to these important international commitments so that contingency planning can take place, regardless of her decisions.