Omar Halaby 19 year old Muslim Insurgent / Rioter and Disability Pensioner.

Bloody idiot rioter's pension reviewed

CLEMENTINE CUNEO and AMY DALE 

The Daily Telegraph 

January 23, 2013 12:00AM

WHILE the taxpayer supports accused rioter Omar Halaby, he spruiks about terrorism and illegal drugs on his Facebook page - and even does the odd day's work on a construction site, despite receiving a disability pension.

Now it is understood Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin will review the 19-year-old's case after he bragged on the social network site about being employed.

The Padstow man, who was one of seven people charged for his role in last September's Muslim riot in the CBD, claims to have learning and physical disabilities from a past football injury that prevent him gaining employment.

But The Daily Telegraph can reveal that, while Halaby is collecting a $200-a- week pension, he works as a sub-contractor on a construction site.

In his Facebook profile Halaby also refers to the US President Barack Obama as a terrorist and posts pictures of drugs and police dressed as pigs.

Photos of him covered in blood after "a fight with me bro" were also among his pictures,as well as photos of guns, swords and motorbikes.

Halaby last week escaped with a 12-month good behaviour bond for his role in the riot, with his lawyer telling magistrate Pat O'Shane that he suffered from learning and physical disabilities.

"He has literacy issues, a short attention span, things to that effect," Legal Aid lawyer Sophie Edin said.

He pleaded guilty to smashing the windscreen of a marked police car with a milk crate and assaulting a TV cameraman.

The court heard Halaby yelled Islamic slogans at the camera crew and pushed a cameraman during the protest. He paid $500 for the damage to the police car.

Just before his court appearance last Friday, he posted on Facebook: "Having the time of my life at Downing Centre Local Court."

A spokeswoman for Community Services Minister Jenny Macklin last night said Halaby's case would be reviewed.

To be eligible for the disability support pension, a person must have a permanent disability or medical conditions that make them unable to work.

Halaby would not answer the door at the home he shares with his parents yesterday - instead he yelled taunts out the window.

Several men remain before the court charged over the Sydney riot, with at least one to face a hearing next month.

Benjamin Homan, one of the other men convicted over the Sydney riot, was hit with an eight-month suspended sentence and ordered to do 300 hours of community service.

Former champion boxer Ahmed Elomar, the only person to be kept behind bars after the riot, appeared briefly in Central Local Court yesterday. His case was adjourned until January 31.

Muslim rioter and vandal Omar Halaby spared jail following September 15 2012 Sydney CBD Muslim Insurgency Riots..Life on the pension is a riot for Omar

What makes the "Mufti of Sydney's Occupied Territories and his fellow insurgents "feel like we is on cloud nine" ?

Sydney's Muslim Insurgency Riots Aftermath: Spin Doctors and apologists still performing CPR on Multiculturalism.

Sydney's Occupied Territories: Four more Women arrested following Genital Mutilation of two girls

Australia Shut the Gate before it IS too late.

Green Loon says Geert Wilders not welcome in Australia

Sydney Muslim Insurgency Riots: Ahmed Elomar refused Bail again

Sydney Riots: The radicalization of Muslim children you have when you are not radicalizing Muslim Children

Sydney CBD Muslim Insurgent Riot Govt. and apologists start the SPIN

Muslim Insurgent refused Bail over Sydney CBD Riot

Australia's Freedom FROM Information Minister calls for Video Ban

The Bolt Report, September 16 2012 Pt's 1,2 and 3

Why would the Australian Government help facilitate this.......

September 15 2012 : Sydney's "Harmony Day" who's responsible ?

The Australian in this Coffin.......

Muslim Insurgents Sydney Riot latest Video and Pictures

Sydney under attack from Muslim Insurgents

Sydney's Occupied Territories erupt with bucket loads of Taqiya and Harmony Day Spin

Sydney's Occupied Territories:Sheik Shabbir Mohammedbhai Vaziri and Helen Magennis, charged with Female Genital Mutilation

Terror Australia: Terror Suspect admitted to Hospital with Stomach ( Period ? ) Pain

From Sydney's Occupied Territories: Sheik and a Nurse charged over Female Genital Mutilation

Terror Australis:Syrian linked Muslims arrested in Australian Terroro raid

More Harmony Day's Down Under

Sydney's Occupied Territories:Swaggering Muslim Rat with a Gold Tooth,Mahmoud Mariam, gets away with Murder sniggers and laughs at sentencing in Sydney Court.

Sydney's Occupied Territories:"...accidents are being staged,baseball bats used to add damage to vehicles,assessors threatened or bashed,"

1982 Sydney PA (Harmony Day celebration ? ) Bombing investigation re opened

Daniel Pipes speaks with Alan Jones

Melbourne Australia:Sudanese and Somali Refugees Crime five times that of Australians and Greens call for increased refugee intake

If only it were ONLY 10,000 predominantly Muslims massing in Malaysia preparing to invade Australia

Now it's Tamil (Tiger ?) Colonization of Australia, why not ? everyone else is brought here by the Government.

From Sydney's Occupied Territories:10,000 Muslim Insurgents mass to worship Paedophile Pirate Slave Trader and Prophet "Tonight is the Laylat al-Qadr,''

The Labor Governments Islamic Colonization of Australia continues unabated

Labor Green Loons latest Illegal entrant filled boat arrives with 211 illegal's aboard

Convicted Islamic Terrorist,Belal Saadallah Khazaal, High Court of Australia denies appeal.

Pious Muslims riot and attack Police at another Harmony Day Cultural Enrichment Ramadan Holy Festival in Sydney;s Occupied Territories

Labor Green Loon Islamic Colonization of Australia

Labor Green Loon's Islamic Colonization of Australia :Truth worse than the Fiction

Australia's Labor Green Loon Co Party Government sets new Olympic Record for Islamic Colonization of Australia 

Pious Muslims Iftikhar Ahmed, 52, and his wife Farzana Murder Daughter because she was too westernised

Malek Fahd Islamic School, Ordered to repay $9 Million to Australian Tax Payers

Bolt Report Piers Akerman Maj Gen Jim Molan Australia up for grabs

Islamic Sociopaths Inc. London on Terror alert ahead of Olympic Games.

Mohammed Fouani: Jilted man's plan to burn his girl alive

Indian "Cultural Enrichment" and "Harmony Day" ambassador Extradited to Australia to face Rape Charges

When too much of the Religion of Peace is barely enough : Shocking acts of Godless Satan inspired savagery..........

Please someone get these Godless Loons out of OUR Parliament

Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the USA a story of betrayal

Why we're following US towards a dangerous debt with destiny

Jeff Kennett 
The Daily Telegraph 
January 10, 2013 12:00AM

AS you read this column today my wife Felicity and I will be returning to Australia, having spent three weeks in the US. In New York, Boston and Washington.

It has been a wonderful experience. The extraordinary bustle and energy that is New York, where every language and colour fill the streets. The sights, the theatres, the shopping, the restaurants and the sounds. Simply electric.

But more significant than the sites we visited has been the opportunity to observe the failure of the politicians, the President of the US, the Congress made up of the House of Representatives and the Senate, dealing with the issues surrounding the "fiscal cliff".

The cliff was a political device created in 1917 in an attempt to control the nation's level of debt. Until recently gaining support from both houses of Congress for increasing the debt has not been an issue, as debt levels have 

been manageable. But that has not been the case in recent years. US debt stands at $16 trillion. That is about 106 times our Australian debt of $150 billion.

Under President Barack Obama, US debt has risen from just under $10 trillion when he was elected four years ago by a massive 60 per cent to the $16 trillion the country owes today.

The US fiscal cliff had two inbuilt components which, unless legislators acted, would have automatically become law on January 1, 2013 - substantially higher taxes to generate extra revenue, and a range of expenditure cuts to attempt to stop the growth of the deficit.

Legislators have had two years notice of the December 31, 2012, deadline - yet did nothing until the last week. After a lot of political manoeuvring the Senate and house agreed to what I would call a totally unsatisfactory, in fact cowardly, outcome. A rise in some taxes for those with incomes above $400,000, or $450,000 for couples, some other small income increases, and absolutely no cuts in government expenditure.

In fact, with other new government spending commitments adding $4 trillion to US debt over the next few years, the US economy is going backwards. Within the next two months the president and the legislators will have to return their attention to dealing with the debt ceiling when it reaches its legislated $16.4 trillion limit. If the cost of government programs is not reassessed and reduced, the US is heading for a debt level of $22-24 trillion in four years. That would make the Obama administration the most economically disastrous in American history, with frightening ramifications.

What I have witnessed is the greatest demonstration of a failure of leadership, from the president down.

Never have I seen the philosophy of spending your way out of debt work.

We did not do it in Victoria in the 1990s, nor has Canada nor Turkey. Latvia has not done so in rebuilding its economy.

Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, the UK to some extent, and clearly the US, are clearly trying to do so - printing more of their currency to get through the next few years without addressing the fundamental reasons for their current economic condition.

They are spending more on recurrent expenditure than they are raising from taxes and charges. Each of these countries are living beyond their means.

A day of economic reckoning will come for them all, and it will not be pleasant.

What is the principal lesson I have learnt from this trip in relation to Australia?

Our economic position is not nearly as bad as the US, at present, but the mentality of our politicians, and we the public, is exactly the same.

We are not accepting any sense of responsibility for our economic and social future.

We are over-governed, we demand and seek too many entitlements from governments, our politicians think short-term, and electoral popularity is more important than electoral responsibility.

It is time for greater accountability and responsibility by all of us. Read the tea leaves, here and in the US!

To ignore the experiences of the US, Greece and Spain, in the belief their economic challenges cannot develop here in Australia, could be the greatest act of hubris of our generation.

Jeff Kennett is a former premier of Victoria and the chairman of beyondblue

1 / 85 Kerr St. Fitzroy Tony Abbott

Proof: PM told firm what she won't tell parliament

HEDLEY THOMAS, NATIONAL CHIEF CORRESPONDENT
The Australian 
November 29, 2012 12:09PM

JULIA Gillard admitted during a secret internal probe to writing to a government department to help overcome its objections to the creation of an association for her then boyfriend and client, union official Bruce Wilson.

The revelation, contained in a document released today after 17 years, comes after days of stonewalling by the Prime Minister, including in parliament, on the question of whether she had personally vouched for the Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform Association.

The document, a record of interview between Ms Gillard and her law firm, Slater & Gordon, in September 1995, reveals the association was initially regarded as ineligible because of its "trade union" status.

Ms Gillard overcame the obstacle by writing to the Commissioner for Corporate Affairs in Western Australia in 1992 and arguing that the decision to bar it should be reversed.

Ms Gillard also wrote the association's rules, which emphasised worker safety but made no mention of its true purpose of funding the elections of union officials.

The document reveals she "cut and pasted" some of the rules from her earlier personal work incorporating the controversial Socialist Forum, which she helped found at Melbourne University in the 1980s.

Ms Gillard has admitted providing legal advice to help Mr Wilson and his union colleague Ralph Blewitt set up the association, which was later used by the two men to defraud hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Prime Minister later described the association as a "slush fund" for the re-election of union officials, but she has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, saying she had no knowledge of the workings of the association.

But Opposition Leader Tony Abbott claimed Ms Gillard may have broken the law in arguing the case for the association to be incorporated.

“Plainly on the basis of the documentary evidence of the unredacted (Slater & Gordon exit interview) transcript, she gave false information to the West Australian authorities,” Mr Abbott told the Nine Network this morning.

“For a senior lawyer to make false claims to an important statutory body like this is a very, very serious matter... it's in breach of the law I would think and it's certainly very, very unethical.”

Manager of opposition business Christopher Pyne today called on the Prime Minister to resign.

“I think her position is entirely untenable and if the Prime Minister had any respect for the parliament, for the Australian public or for the Labor caucus she would resign as Prime Minister today and allow the Labor party to select a new leader and to move to put this sordid mess behind us.”

But Workplace Relations Minister Bill Shorten said there was “no smoking gun” in the fresh revelations.

“Let's be really straight, what do you think it is that the Prime Minister has done wrong? What law has she broken?” Mr Shorten told Sky News.

“People just want to make this great fuss about a 20-year vendetta against the Prime Minister.”

In parliament this week, Ms Gillard has refused to answer repeated questioning from Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop on whether she wrote to the West Australian authority to vouch for "the bona fides of the AWU Workplace Reform Association".

On Monday, she told parliament: "The claim that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has now made is a claim that appeared in The Age . . . The correspondence she refers to has never been produced, so the claim has been made but no correspondence has ever been produced."

Yesterday she told parliament she had "dealt with these matters fully".

"I have dealt fully with my role in providing legal advice on the incorporation of this association. I have provided detailed answers on this. They were provided in press conferences; they have been provided in this parliament," she said.

Later she added: "Once again, we are in a situation where the Deputy Leader of the Opposition is asserting things she has got no sources for, except she read them somewhere."

Last night, a spokesman for the Prime Minister said she had "no recollection of receiving or sending the claimed correspondence in this matter".

The evidence that she did write to the West Australian body is contained in a section of transcript from the September 11, 1995, tape-recorded interview with Ms Gillard during an internal probe led by Slater & Gordon's then senior partner Peter Gordon.

Some of the transcript was provided to The Australian in August.

The latest section of transcript is being released now by the firm's former equity partner, Nick Styant-Browne, after Mr Wilson's interview on the ABC's 7.30 meant his legal confidentiality as a former client of the firm was waived.

In his 7.30 interview, Mr Wilson explained some of Ms Gillard's role and legal advice in making "the necessary changes" for the association to be approved.

In the section of transcript from the 1995 Slater & Gordon interview that was released, Mr Gordon asked Ms Gillard about those changes: "Do you recall whether, when it was necessary to argue the case with the, with the relevant Western Australian authority, whether you consulted anyone else in the firm as to what would or would not get, become acceptable or appropriate?"

Ms Gillard: "I once again don't recall talking to anybody else in the firm about it."

Mr Gordon: "Beyond that, and it seems from the file, that after that letter it was successfully accepted as an incorporated association and duly was created and presumably accounts were set up."

Ms Gillard told Mr Gordon she had nothing to do with the association's accounts, and that she attended only to its incorporation.

Mr Gordon referred to Ms Gillard's letter to the government authority and he stated that, "it appears from the file to be the letter arguing that it ought to be not construed as a trade union - did you have anything personally to do with that incorporated association afterwards?"

Ms Gillard: "No, I did not."

It was unlawful under the Associations Incorporation Act for an association to be named in a way "likely to mislead the public as to the object or purpose".

After the association was incorporated, about $100,000 from its accounts went towards the purchase of a $230,000 Melbourne terrace house in 1993 for Mr Wilson to live in. Ms Gillard went to the auction and witnessed a power of attorney document for Mr Wilson to buy the property in Mr Blewitt's name, while Slater & Gordon managed the conveyancing and organised the mortgage.

The association issued invoices in its official-sounding name and received money for work that did not exist.

Neither Ms Gillard nor the firm of Slater & Gordon told their client, the AWU, about the existence of the association carrying the union's name, resulting in further fraud and the draining of accounts amid police investigations into separate fraud allegations involving Mr Wilson.

Ms Gillard had not opened a file at the firm for her legal work for Mr Wilson on the association. Her legal partners were unaware of its existence until August 1995, when Mr Wilson's separate Victorian slush fund was exposed and police were called in by the AWU's national leaders to launch a fraud investigation. Ms Gillard's conduct at the time and the firm's internal review of her actions led to a breakdown in trust and relationships, resulting in her leaving.

Elsewhere in the newly released section of transcript, Mr Gordon was concerned that other partners at the firm might have been involved in the matter and the legal work that Ms Gillard had performed.

He asked Ms Gillard: "And last Monday I think you gave to (fellow legal partner) Paul Mulvaney a follow-up which demonstrates that Slater & Gordon had drafted model rules for, for that, had submitted those rules to the relevant Western Australian government authority; that there'd been a letter from the authority suggesting that it might be a trade union and therefore ineligible for incorporation under that legislation; and that we had prepared a response submitted on Wilson's instructions to that authority suggesting that in fact it wasn't a trade union and arguing the case for its incorporation. My recollection is that all of that happened in or about mid-1992. Is that right?"

Ms Gillard: "I wouldn't want to be held to the dates without looking at the file, but whatever the dates the file shows are the right dates, so . . ."

Mr Gordon: "Yes. And to the extent that work was done on that file in relation to that, it was done by you?"

Ms Gillard: "That's right."

Mr Gordon: "And did you get advice from anyone else in the firm in relation to any of those matters?"

Ms Gillard: "No, I didn't."

Mr Gordon: "Did (the firm's recognised lawyer on incorporations) Tony Lang have anything to do with the model rules or the drafting of them?"

Ms Gillard: "No, I obtained, I had just in my own personal precedent file a set of rules for Socialist Forum, which is an incorporated association in which I'm personally involved. And I've just kept them hanging around as something I cut and paste from for drafting purposes."

Ms Gillard assured him Slater & Gordon had nothing to do with setting up bank accounts for the association and that nobody at the firm, including herself, had anything to do with the association beyond advising on its incorporation. Mr Gordon asked Ms Gillard: "Can I ask you then - following the last thing that we did to setting up the incorporation, which appears from the file to be the letter arguing that it ought to be not construed as a trade union - did you have anything personally to do with that incorporated association afterwards?"

Ms Gillard: "No I did not."

Mr Gordon: "Right, to the best of your knowledge did anyone at Slater & Gordon?"

Ms Gillard: "To my knowledge, no one at Slater & Gordon had anything to do with it post that time."

The Australian asked Ms Gillard's office yesterday whether she had anything to add to her previous statements about her role. A spokesman replied last night that Ms Gillard "has no recollection of receiving or sending the claimed correspondence in this matter".

"The Prime Minister sighted, witnessed, dictated and signed thousands of documents in the course of her legal career," he said. "Any correspondence in this matter would have been received or sent in her capacity as a lawyer acting on instructions. As the Prime Minister has noted, the application to incorporate the (association) was lodged by its office bearer, Mr Ralph Blewitt. The decision to incorporate the association was made by the WA Commissioner of Corporate Affairs."

Ms Gillard said on Monday, when asked why the AWU was not informed about her role in the incorporation of the association: "Did I need to separately advise the AWU this was occurring?

"Of course I didn't. The people I was dealing with were elected officials of the AWU."

Asked why she did not disclose the existence of the association to the AWU three years later, amid a police probe into Mr Wilson's other slush fund, she said: "I did not have in front of me any evidence of criminality or wrongdoing but there was a lot of rumour about what was happening in the Victorian branch of the AWU at that time. In those circumstances, I came to a personal decision about ending my relationship with Mr Wilson and I did so."

Additional reporting: Lanai Vasek

1/85 Kerr St. Fitzroy: Sensational new evidence released by Slater and Gordon Lawyer

Fresh claims Julia Gillard argued for union body

The Daily Telegraph
November 29, 2012 12:00AM

THE Prime Minister will enter parliament for the last day this year under intense pressure to explain new allegations she was heavily involved in the creation of a union body later 
used as a "slush fund".

The Australian reports today that documents, released after 17 years, show Ms Gillard argued the case for the incorporation of the Australian Workers Union Workplace Reform 
Association.

Ms Gillard told her employers at the law firm Slater & Gordon in 1995 that the association was a "slush fund" to be used for the re-election of union officials.

However, it eventually became the vehicle through which major union fraud was committed, with $100,000 from it being used to buy a Melbourne home which Ms Gillard's 
boyfriend, union official Bruce Wilson, lived in.

Ms Gillard has always vehemently denied any knowledge of the fraud.

She has admitted having only been involved in providing legal advice to Mr Wilson and their friend, union bagman Ralph Blewitt, as to the incorporation of the association.

The newly released documents, a record of interview about the association between Ms Gillard and Slater & Gordon then-senior partner Peter Gordon in September 1995, show Ms 

Gillard alone prepared the response when the authority suggested it was ineligible for incorporation due to its "trade union status".

The documents show that Ms Gillard in 1992 wrote to the Commissioner for Corporate Affairs in Western Australia, where the association was being incorporated, arguing for the 
decision to be reversed.

This week Ms Gillard refused to answer repeated questioning in parliament from Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop as to whether she wrote to the authority to vouch for "the 
bona fides of the AWU Workplace Reform Association".

On Monday, Ms Gillard told parliament: "The claim that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has now made is a claim that appeared in The Age ... The correspondence he refers 
to has never been produced, so the claim has been made but no correspondence has ever been produced."

The documents relied upon by The Australian were released by Slater & Gordon's former equity partner Nick Styant-Browne, after Mr Wilson's interview on the ABC's 7.30 on 
Tuesday night.

However, Mr Styant-Browne released them on the basis that Mr Wilson's interview meant that he had waived his legal confidentiality as a former client of the firm.

The documents also show Ms Gillard wrote the association's rules.

While they emphasised worker safety, her document did not outline that the association was to be used for the re-election of officials.

It was also revealed the rules Ms Gillard used were "cut and pasted" from rules she had earlier used when incorporating the Socialist Forum which she had helped found at 
Melbourne Univeristy in the 1980s.

Last night, Ms Gillard's spokesman told The Australian the PM had "no recollection of receiving or sending the claimed correspondence in this matter".

State of Socialist Governance in Australia: Corrupt to the Core

Racist Bigot and Misandrist Green Loon Christine Milne blames it all on" older white men"

1/85 Kerr St.Fitzroy: Former Julia Gillard Lover defends her over AWU SCAM involvement

1 / 85 Kerr Street Fitzroy : Dear Prime Minister. You are a liar.

1 / 85 Kerr Street Fitzroy : The Prime Minister tells lies,she always has.....

What Julia Gillard said on August 23 2012

Australian Politics: Madame Gillard returns from Thailand gabfest to AWU SCAM allegations

Ralph Blewitt Ben Fordham discuss Julia Gillard and the AWU SCAM

Alan Jones Michael Smith on Julia Gillard and the ex AWU Official Boyfriend

Australian Politics: Madame Gillard returns from Thailand gabfest to AWU SCAM allegations

Australia: Muslim Insurgents and Colonilaists demand Australia support Muslim Terrorists

PRO-Palestine broadcaster ABC ...Rats in the Silo aka. "their ABC " destroys Australia’s Middle East legacy

Australia Day Race Riot HUCKSTER and Unions ACT Secretary, brands Tony Abbott ".. a raving Zionist"

• Wayne Hem, former AWU employee recalls the $5,000 from Bruce to Julia
• Senator The Honourable George Brandis SC - the shadow Attorney General
• I know that there are a few people who want me to disclose details of my personal phone calls
• From the source re One Nation
• Urgent dispatch from Right Wing Misogynist Conspiracy Central
• Julia, people aren't stupid, this bloke lobbed a blog comment - he can work it out. Why don't you do something for the people who lost the money?
• Kerr Street Fitzroy Sale in 1996
• My own thoughts on Bruce Wilson's admissions on ABC 7.30 last night
• Doing our bit for recycling.
• Paper for comment please - The Boulder Mystery

Gillard backs down forced to support "The Savage" over Israel in UN Vote to save own job

Gillard's UN vote backdown to save her job

Simon Benson 
The Daily Telegraph

November 28, 2012 12:00AM

• Poll: Do you support our stance on Israel?
• Editorial: Left forces the Julia Gillard's hand
• Neutrality: Not reality as perceptions change
• 
  

JULIA Gillard's leadership came close to collapse yesterday after cabinet refused to back her policy to vote against a UN resolution tomorrow to give greater recognition to a Palestinian state.

After initially snubbing the majority view of her cabinet colleagues on Monday night, the Prime Minister was only convinced yesterday morning to back down when faced with the threat of ministers voting against her in caucus.

It is believed to be the first time since Bob Hawke pushed ahead with uranium mining at Coronation Hill in 1991 that a PM had defied recommendations from cabinet.

Cabinet sources confirmed the PM was forced into a desperate backdown during caucus yesterday after reported threats that Foreign Minister Bob Carr would vote against her if it was put to a vote on the floor - a precedent which would have forced his resignation.

The PM only warded off a caucus bloodbath by announcing a compromise position for Australia to abstain from the UN vote. Her spokesman said yesterday she did not comment on caucus or cabinet matters.

Socialist's always side with the savage

The forced shift in Middle East policy has stunned US and Israeli officials who had believed Australia would vote in lock-step with them against the UN resolution.

And it came largely through pressure from NSW Right MPs who were more concerned a no vote at the UN would offend Middle East and Muslim communities in their fragile southwest Sydney seats ahead of the election.

It is believed up to 10 cabinet ministers, including Mr Carr, Anthony Albanese and Greg Combet, spoke against Ms Gillard's position to oppose a UN resolution giving the Palestinian territories non-member observer status. Ms Gillard also lost support from the Labor National Right, which also met on Monday and refused to be bound to a vote in support of the Prime Minister's position. Only two cabinet ministers, Victorian Right faction leaders Bill Shorten and Stephen Conroy, are believed to have supported her.

Mr Gillard is believed to have argued that a UN resolution to upgrade the Palestinian status to non-member observer status could damage an already fragile peace process.

A ceasefire is now in force between Palestinian militants Hamas and Israel after a 10 days of conflict.

However, Mr Carr is believed to have spent an hour with Ms Gillard before Monday night's cabinet meeting explaining the electoral problems in Sydney if Australia did not at least abstain from the vote, if not vote yes.

Senior Labor sources said Ms Gillard's leadership had come "close to the brink".

"As it dawned on her that she would be in trouble numbers-wise, it quickly came a straight out defacto leadership issue," one senior Labor MP said. A senior minister said: "She came as close as she has ever come to losing her job. She could not have handled this more poorly. She had expected the Right to lock in on it.

"Her leadership would have crumbled around her."

But Mr Carr denied there had been threats or pressure brought to bear on Ms Gillard, claiming that it was common sense for Australia to adopt a middle-road approach to such a polarising issue.

He said she had "shaped the decision and showed smart leadership".

"Australia strongly supports a negotiated two-state solution that allows a secure Israel to live side-by-side with a secure and independent future Palestinian state," Mr Carr said.

Pro-Israel Labor MP Michael Danby, who chairs a parliamentary foreign affairs committee, was reportedly among those angry at the PM's backflip.