Australia Un Seat 2008

March 2008, Kevin Rudd announced that Australia would be vying for one of the 10 non-permanent seats in the UN Security Council. Vying for two spots against Luxembourg and Finland who announced their interest in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Both these countries extremely strong claims to be voted on the council with Finland former president winning the Nobel Prize in 2008 for his work on international conflicts and Luxembourg contesting for their first Security Council seat. From this information it would seem that Australia has given up 8 years and has a lot of ground to make up. Would you find this bid a waste of Australian Tax Dollars given how far behind from the outset we were and how strong the cases are for the other two competing nations?

Australia is a wealthy country, occupying a large vast land, located at the bottom of the world. Though we are a founding member of the UN, Australia has only held a seat on four occasions the last, which was in 1985-1986, with our latest bid failing miserable in 1997. Australia is the 13th largest contributor to the UN, which doesn't include peacekeeping missions, UN agencies and UN support. Do you see these numbers to be enough for Australia to either win a seat, or enough to event run for a seat in the UN Security Council?

Is it in Australia's best interest to have a seat on the UN Security Council? Is it in the UN's best interest to have Australia on their panel for term? Does the war on terrorism? Or the conflict in Libya hinge or encourage our chances? In UN policies it is imperative that vying nations contribute to international security. Article 23 of the Charter provides information that "election of non-permanent members, due regard should be paid .... to the maintenance of international peace and security...equitable geographical distribution."