Foreign Minister Penny Wong has admitted the conditions Labor attached to recognising a Palestinian state carry no consequences, telling a Senate estimates hearing on Wednesday that recognition will theoretically stand even if the Palestinian Authority never delivers the elections it promised, never ends its payments to terrorists and their families, and Hamas is never removed from any role in a future Palestinian state.

The concession came at the Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Legislation Committee, where Liberal Senator James Paterson reminded the minister that the government's policy was "predicated on the delivery of these key issues including elections."

He then asked whether there were "any circumstances under which the government will revoke the recognition of Palestinian statehood" if the PA continued to delay elections and failed to deliver on its commitments.

"No, we have recognised the state of Palestine," Wong replied.

"Well, it's not a precondition then, is it?" Paterson shot back.

Wong argued recognition was "a contribution to peace in the Middle East" and, when Paterson asked whether the PA simply didn't have to adhere to the commitments, replied "May I finish?" before declaring "there is no peace without two states."

Paterson summed it up: "You have just said that it does not matter whether they deliver on these or not. We will not change our policy. We will continue to recognise Palestinian statehood, even if they do not deliver on these preconditions, Minister."

A departmental official then told the committee that Australia had recognised Palestine and "what we made clear at the time was that further steps, including the establishment of diplomatic relations and the opening of embassies, would be considered as the Palestinian Authority makes progress on its commitments to reform."

"So the recognition has happened, but further steps are contingent on these," the official said.

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In other words, the one thing the PA actually wanted has already been handed over. All that remains on the table is the paperwork.

Paterson pressed the obvious point. "Minister, why would the Palestinian Authority feel any need to deliver on these commitments, given that you won't change your policy? You will allow them to flout these and not change your policy."

"That is your words, I disagree with them," Wong said, insisting "the Palestinian people want a state" and that it was "a legitimate aspiration." She closed, as the chair moved the call, by turning to "the actions of the Netanyahu government in the West Bank."

The hearing came less than three weeks after Mahmoud Abbas issued a decree scrapping the legislative elections scheduled for November 28 and pushing both legislative and presidential polls back to September 11, 2027. Wong herself called the delay "deeply disappointing" at the time and warned that "continuing to delay elections undermines the prospects of a two-state solution." On Wednesday she still had no consequence to offer.

When Anthony Albanese announced recognition, he said Abbas had given "direct undertakings to Australia," including a commitment to hold democratic elections. He also leaned on the Arab League's position that Hamas "must be isolated, it must be disarmed." A year on, Hamas has told mediators it will not discuss giving up its weapons without guarantees of a full Israeli withdrawal, and a member of its political bureau said in June the group would not be "handing them over."

Hamas, for its part, welcomed Australia's decision from the start. A statement from the office of co-founder Hassan Yousef called it "an important step towards achieving justice for our people". Senior Hamas official Ghazi Hamad had already told Al Jazeera that the wave of recognition "is one of the fruits of October 7."

Sussan Ley, then leading the Opposition, said at the time: "When you have terrorists cheering on your foreign policy, you know that you have got it wrong."

After this month's election delay, Shadow Foreign Minister Ted O'Brien said "the promise of democratic elections gave Labor's premature recognition of Palestine a veneer of legitimacy, and now that veneer has been stripped away." AIJAC's Colin Rubenstein said recognition "should not remain a blank cheque."

On Wednesday, the Foreign Minister confirmed that is exactly what it is. The conditions were never conditions at all, and the people who cheered loudest when Australia recognised Palestine were the terrorists who started this war.