Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It was heartbreaking to learn this morning that the prospect of a ceasefire in the awful war in Gaza will not proceed at this time. It means more than 100 Israeli hostages remain in captivity. It's abhorrent that they were ever taken. They should have been freed unconditionally on the days since the Hamas terrorist attacks on 7 October. It means the unconscionable bombardment and suffering of the people of Gaza will continue, and that's unacceptable. Australia has joined other nations in calling on all sides to deliver a ceasefire.

Every country has the right and the obligation to defend its citizens, but not every military action constitutes self-defence. The wholesale destruction of Gaza is not self-defence. Australia expects Israel to act in accordance with the ruling of the ICJ. The truth is that Gaza is being bombed into rubble, with 70 per cent of buildings damaged and the entire population being squeezed further and further south, in starvation conditions and without basic medical services.

In Ukraine, a nation of 44 million, 10,000 civilians have been killed in the course of 24 months. In Gaza, a district of two million, 28,000 civilians have been killed in four months, two-thirds of whom are women and children. It is wrong and it has to stop. I will always be an advocate for peace and nonviolence and I will always be rigorously critical of military action, because history tells us that violence almost never solves anything. State sponsored violence almost always causes enormous, disproportionate harm to innocent people.

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