Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to indicate that the opposition will be voting against this motion. In this place we should value the lives of all innocent civilians, including innocent Israeli civilians and innocent Palestinian civilians. In this place we should support the two-state solution and the desire of all fair minded observers for a lasting peace and the existence of two states. But it is quite remarkable that the Greens continue to pursue a narrative in relation to the events currently unfolding which entirely ignores and airbrushes away the horrors of the 7 October terrorist attack upon Israel committed by the appalling terrorist organisation Hamas—a shocking and violent attack in which innocent and unarmed men, women and children were killed, injured and taken hostage. The depraved and horrific nature of this violence, including sexual violence and deliberate harm to young children, is sickening, and yet the Greens again move a motion which is completely silent about the fact of that appalling terrorist attack having occurred. They completely fail to mention in this motion that there remain Israeli citizens being held hostage in Gaza by the terrorist thugs of Hamas. Indeed, they continue to completely ignore the existence of Hamas. (Time expired)

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