Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Griffith from moving the following motion —That the House calls on the Government to immediately end all trade of military equipment with the State of Israel.

Countries around the world are banning the export of weapons to Israel, but here in Australia this Labor government is allowing Australian weapons companies to manufacture and export to Israel weapons and weapons materials to assist in carrying out a genocide on the Palestinian people. Not only that, but Labor is handing over public money to Israeli weapons companies who make claims and brag about testing their weapons in Gaza and on the Palestinian people. So the Greens are moving a motion today to ban all weapons trades with Israel, because it is the bare minimum that this parliament should be doing to stop the genocide in Gaza.

Canada recently voted to halt all arms sales to Israel, and now the UK is threatening to end the arms trade. They will join Japan, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium and many others in ending weapons exports to Israel—countries that know that to send weapons to Israel right now is to be complicit in genocide. But not this Labor government—a Labor government that has stopped aid funding to Palestinians for 48 days, while they suffer under the worst famine since World War II.

At least take some responsibility for it. This is a Labor government that temporarily suspended visas for Palestinians fleeing the killing. This is a Labor government that has taken actions against Palestinians but provided money, weapons and support to Israel. As we speak, Israel is laying siege to three separate hospitals in Gaza, with witnesses reporting carpet bombing from Israeli jets near Al-Nasr hospital. But Labor continually deny that Australia is exporting weapons and weapons materials, despite all of the facts, including those from their own departments.

Here's what we know. Despite the secrecy of this Labor government, we know that, thanks to DFAT's own data, the Australian government are exporting weapons—millions in arms and ammunition—to the state of Israel. They exported $10 million over the last five years, including in October 2023. Drone engines, parts of missiles, mechanisms for bomber planes and metals for tanks are all made in Australia and are being used by Israel during their ongoing invasion of Gaza. In Tingalpa, Brisbane, Ferra Engineering is the sole supplier in manufacturing the mechanisms that hold and release 900-kilogram bombs in Lockheed Martin's F-35 jets. These bombs are being used in Gaza right now. They are, potentially, the ones carpet-bombing the Al-Nasr Hospital. Each time that happens—killing hundreds of civilians—it can only happen because of mechanisms manufactured in Australia and exported to Israel.

During this time we have also seen the Albanese government provide hundreds of millions of dollars to Israeli arms companies such as Elbit Systems. This company is currently using Palestinians as test subjects for their new weapons. They are using the destruction in Gaza as their sales pitch. It is clearly working because the Albanese government bought it. In February this year Labor signed a $900 million contract with Elbit Systems. Not only this but the Future Fund has $500,000 invested in the company. Countries like Norway and Denmark have blacklisted Elbit Systems for repeated, evidenced violations of humanitarian law. But the Australian government, while a genocide is occurring, is signing off on new contracts with them.

So what have these weapons done? They have helped kill 31,000 Palestinians, 13,000 of whom are children. They have injured 74,000 people. They have helped enforce an engineered famine on the people in Gaza. There are estimates now that 677,000 people, or 32 per cent of all Gazans, are in catastrophic conditions today—famine conditions. Forty-one per cent are in emergency conditions. It is expected that fully half of Gaza's more than one million people will be in catastrophic famine conditions within weeks. In all, 1.1 million Palestinians in Gaza—about half the population—are experiencing catastrophic shortages of food.

What we know is that the consequences of this are not only potentially hundreds of thousands of Palestinians dead in the next few months; we know that there will be long-term consequences as well. This is from a recent article on the famine in Gaza:

Little children who survive starvation face lifelong deprivation. They tend to grow up to be shorter than their peers and suffer reduced intellectual capacity. The World Health Organization warns of an "inter-generational cycle of malnutrition" whereby infants with low birth weight or undernourished girls grow into smaller and less healthy mothers.

This is what Israel is enforcing: a manufactured famine on Palestinians in Gaza. They are doing it with weapons and weapons parts exported from Australia. If Canada and countries around the world can ban weapons trade with Israel, then why can't Australia? This is the bare minimum that we could be doing right now. There are brave protestors attempting to stop the export of weapons from Australia to Israel, but they have been met with violence from Australian police.

Australians are pretty sick right now of a government that can't even do the bare minimum to stop the killing of men, women and children in Gaza. Frankly, this Labor government has underestimated the public opposition to this. They have underestimated how angry and fed up people are. Come the next federal election, I think they will learn what happens when they give up all moral legitimacy and help fund and support a genocide in Gaza.

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