Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Regional Health) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to commend this motion, a bipartisan and lengthy motion, that sets out what most decent Australians would support without question. Regrettably, a minority of people in this country and, sadly, a minority in this place have chosen to take a moment of solidarity with Israel to play politics. I don't intend to dignify that with a response. We would only be playing into their hands.

It has been hard to escape the horrific images of Gaza that we have all regrettably seen or read about. The start of another war is tragic indeed. There is no other word to describe it. War should never, ever be glorified. It is horrible to think that, while we are into the 601st day of Russia's illegal war in Ukraine, now we have an Israel-Hamas conflict. On the numbers, to bring the horror we are talking about into crystal-clear focus, as at the last check the death toll from the initial attack was over 1,400 people, most them civilians. The subsequent deaths in Gaza have surpassed 3,000, including at least 600 children and 370 women, with over 12½ thousand people wounded. An estimated 200 people are being held hostage by Hamas. I will not pretend to know the operational details of the attacks or the counteroffenses. Those horrific numbers are the facts that matter. I hope and pray the number does not rise. Those numbers are chilling and should spur everyone to pursue a solution. Call me a flower child of the seventies if you will, but every effort must be made to bring about peace.

The stories from those who have experienced the attack by Hamas on Israel this week are worse than atrocious. I don't know how we would react if they were our babies slaughtered in cold blood here in Australia. Yet in Sydney, Melbourne and around the world individuals made the journey to public places and rejoiced the attacks on Israel. This is fundamentally wrong and should be strongly condemned by every person in this place and every decent Australian.

Soon after the attack on Israel the New South Wales Labor government rightly moved to show its solidarity with Jewish people by mourning with Israel and projecting the Israeli flag on the Sydney Opera House. It should have been a moment of solidarity with those in Israel who have been mercilessly treated and killed. Instead, the coverage of the event was dominated by those who sympathise with the actions of terrorist group Hamas. Why? For reasons we may never fully know, somehow either the New South Wales government and/or police allowed these antisemitic views to be expressed right on the steps of the illuminated Opera House. Initially, New South Wales Premier Chris Minns called the decision by police 'operational'. It was a sad deflection of responsibility. A man carrying an Israeli flag instead found himself apprehended for his own personal safety and his flag confiscated. In whose mind is this reasonable or rational? I join with those that called for the New South Wales Minister for Police and Counter-terrorism, Yasmin Catley, to stand down. Hamas's attacks and anyone condoning them are an outrage against democracy, goodwill and human decency. This is something that should disturb every Australian.

I want to pick up on the third to last paragraph of the Prime Minister's motion, which reads that we in this place recognise:

… an attack on any religion is an attack on all religions and that we all share a responsibility to unite, condemn and defeat such an attack on our common values and way of life;

Now is not the time to reflect on the lack of protection for religious freedom in Australia. It is, nonetheless, sad that in 2023, given some of the campaigns for equality that have occurred here and throughout corporate Australia, some people—a minority—see people of faith as fair game for hateful comments to celebrate when terrible things happen to them, to justify violence against them, or, worse, to target them with violence. It is a gaping hole in our equality framework, and it needs to be addressed. Not that long ago Australia through its armed forces servicemen and servicewomen participated in an overseas conflict against the deadly and repulsive ideology of ISIS, ISIL or Daesh—whatever you want to call the Islamic state. The former government put a deal of effort into repressing a brutal, hateful ideology that in one of its strongest tenets saw people of particular faiths or lifestyles as legitimate targets for their worst atrocities. From what we saw in Sydney in particular it appears there is still much more work to be done, which is some cause for reflection and perhaps the need for action, as the Leader of the Opposition has been saying this week.

In August last year I was part of a parliamentary delegation to Israel. I met with ministers from the Israeli government and with the Palestinian Prime Minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh. I left those meetings concerned about how strongly terrorism could and would be restricted in the West Bank and Gaza. Our delegation visited both the West Bank and Gaza, and, when we visited the Palestinian West Bank, we saw how the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the UNRWA, sustains that population. I was concerned to see that there appeared to be little incentive for the population there to do anything but rely on the internationally financed welfare system of the UNRWA. It was clear from that visit that Hamas and Hezbollah are constant threats to the people of Israel, particularly through rockets launched on the population. These terrorist organisations' threat was ever present. We also went to Sderot, where we saw bomb shelters in every block. Even within primary schools there are bomb shelters. How sad that children should grow up under the threat of mortal danger, and tragically now we see that danger has become a reality with the death of completely innocent infants. It is horrific and inexcusable. Israel has every right to defend itself in response and to deter future attacks and other acts of aggression, coercion and interference.

The second paragraph of the Prime Minister's motion, which we support, is clear on that. It has to be restated because, sadly, there are some who don't agree with that proposition. It is crucial that nations and leaders across the globe express their support for Israel—its right to exist and its right to self-defence. It is also crucial that we stand united across the globe against antisemitism in all its forms.

See this speech in context