Australia's election to serve a two-year term on the United Nations' Security Council is "highly significant", according to a senior lecturer in political science at Charles Sturt University (CSU) in Bathurst.

Dr O'Sullivan, from CSU's School of Humanities and Social Sciences, said the win positions Australia for the highest level influence over international responses to conflict and threats to international security.

There has been criticism of the $25 million spent lobbying for the Security Council seat, but whether or not this is money well spent is a highly subjective question, depending on what people want Australia to achieve through its Council membership," he said.

The Security Council is one of the most important bodies within the United Nations, and features the United States of America, the United Kingdom, China, France, and Russia as permanent members.

Australia was elected to one of the remaining 10 non-permanent seats on the 15-seat council, along with Argentina, Rwanda, Luxembourg, and South Korea, and will begin its two-year term next year.

Dr O'Sullivan said he is unconvinced by suggestions that Australia will always and uncritically cast its vote with the USA, even though instances of shared interest will commonly see the two countries vote together.  

"Australia will want to make a distinctive contribution, so will be careful that it does not blindly vote in the same way as any other nation," he said.

"However, Australia's willingness to put populist domestic politics ahead of human rights in relation to asylum seekers, for example, does suggest that Australia’s vote will not, as a matter of course, be directed towards the protection of human rights as something that contributes to international security."