How Australia votes at the UN

Does Australia vote with the US at the UN?

Australia agreed with the United States on 23% of recorded votes in 2025, down from 72% in 2024. The drop came from a change in US voting, not Australia's. In 2025 the Assembly held 192 recorded votes, against 95 in 2024. On 43 of them the United States was the only country voting no, and Australia voted yes on 42 of those. Australia stayed with its CANZ partners (Canada and New Zealand) and the European majority.

Australia's security ties with the United States (the ANZUS treaty of 1951, and the AUKUS pact of 2021 with the United States and the UK) shows more in security votes than in overall agreement. Australia does not vote yes on the yearly resolution backing the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which 119 countries supported in 2025. It abstains, having moved from no to abstain in 2022. Foreign Minister Penny Wong describes Australia's aim as a region "in which no country dominates, and no country is dominated." Australia is seeking a Security Council seat for 2029-2030, with the vote in 2028.

How did Australia's votes on Israel and Palestine change?

Australia abstained on the December 2017 Jerusalem resolution under then Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull. In December 2018 the next prime minister, Scott Morrison, recognized West Jerusalem as Israel's capital. Foreign Minister Penny Wong reversed that recognition on October 18, 2022.

Under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (from May 23, 2022), Australia's votes shifted. Australia abstained on the October 2023 Gaza truce text. Ambassador James Larsen said "this resolution as drafted was incomplete." Australia voted yes on the December 2023 ceasefire text and yes in May 2024 on a resolution backing Palestine's membership bid. The resolution gave Palestine extra rights at the UN but not membership. Larsen said "Australia has long believed a two-state solution offers the only hope for breaking the endless cycle of violence." Australia abstained again in September 2024 on a text that followed an advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice and demanded an end to what the court called Israel's unlawful presence in the occupied Palestinian territory. Larsen said its demands went "beyond the scope of the Advisory Opinion." In June 2025 Australia voted yes on a Gaza ceasefire text. Larsen said Australia was "disappointed that today's resolution failed to condemn Hamas."

Australia recognized Palestine on September 21, 2025. The next day the opposition leader at the time, Sussan Ley, and the shadow foreign minister, Michaelia Cash, said "Recognition must come at the end of a peace process not during the conflict."