The special minister of state, Alex Hawke, has come out in favour of moving Australia’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, saying he believes the decision would be in the national interest.

Speaking on the ABC’s Q&A program on Monday night, Hawke became the latest member of the government to publicly back the controversial proposal to follow the Trump administration in shifting Australia’s embassy from Tel Aviv.

A member of the outer ministry in Scott Morrison’s government and a conservative power broker in New South Wales, Hawke said Australia should “respect” Israel by moving the embassy. “I think it is [in the national interest],” he said.

Describing Israel as “the only stable democracy in the Middle East”, Hawke said Australia should “stand up for what’s right” in the international community by supporting the shift. “And supporting Israel is one of those things,” he said.

“It’s absolutely in our interest to stand up for democracies in the world and other nations that we can get along with and are compatible with western values.”

Asked if he would be “disappointed” if Morrison didn’t go ahead with the proposal, which he floated before the Wentworth byelection, Hawke said the government would weigh up the security, trade and foreign policy considerations.

But, he said, there were “very good arguments” for moving the embassy.

“Ultimately the Australian government’s got to make a decision about what’s good for Australia and there are very good arguments about ensuring we respect Israel’s capital of West Jerusalem,” he said.

“This didn’t come about about the byelection, as Mark [Dreyfus, the shadow attorney general] says.”

Morrison first flagged the idea of moving Australia’s embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during the lead-up to the Wentworth byelection in October. The proposal – which the prime minister has said he will make a decision on before Christmas – sparked a diplomatic blowback and has caused growing division within the government.

On Thursday the treasurer , Josh Frydenberg, publicly rebuked Christopher Pyne for commenting on the possible move, describing the defence minister as a “legend in his own lunchtime”.

Pyne, who last month floated the idea of two diplomatic presences in the fraught territory, an idea he repeated on Monday, said it was up to his colleagues to explain why such a delicate foreign policy debate was being played out publicly.

It followed reports the minister for defence industry, Steve Ciobo, told his Indonesian counterpart there was “less than a 5% chance” of Australia moving its embassy, and Frydenberg’s advocacy for the change.

Labor’s shadow attorney general, Mark Dreyfus, told the Q&A audience the proposal was a “monumental blunder” made for “grubby” political reasons.

“[It was] a monumental blunder [for] Morrison to have even suggested without consulting his foreign minister, without consulting any neighbours, any neighbouring countries, without consulting our security agencies, he just announced for really quite grubby political reasons of scrounging for a few votes in the Wentworth byelection, and now we watch this government in complete disarray,” he said.

“Today they’ve fallen to fighting with each other about this decision. This is a problem entirely of Mr Morrison’s own making.”

Is it really in Australia's best interests to move our embassy to Jerusalem? #QandA pic.twitter.com/srEXO4nCc4 — ABC Q&A (@QandA) November 19, 2018

Another panellist, the US journalist Susan Glasser, said she imagined the Trump administration would be “delighted” if Australia followed the US in moving the embassy, and that it was possible it was pushing for that behind the scenes.

“I imagine that President Trump would be delighted if Australia followed him,” she said. “One of the things that’s been striking about this decision once it’s been taken by the US president is that many other countries have not followed behind.

“That’s one of the things that’s notable in general about the Trump foreign policy. It’s a much more unilateral moment in the US. We’ve been used to leading with partners and pursuing a much more multilateral course. And would have avoided in the past actively avoided taking steps that we knew others weren’t going to follow, whether it was internationally or at the United Nations, for example.

“President Trump has shown a real willingness to go it alone. I imagine he would be eager for others to follow.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if behind the scenes you’re seeing actual pressure from the Trump administration to this government here in Australia.”