Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I oppose this suspension of standing orders. This is the wrong motion at the wrong time moved by the wrong people. This will do nothing to change the situation on the ground in the Middle East and it will not do anything to beneficial social cohesion in this country. The coalition supports a two-state solution in the Middle East, but we are opposed to the unilateral recognition of a Palestinian state. A Palestinian state should only be recognised by Australia after a peace agreement has been reached with Israel after negotiations have been concluded on the ground. Key to that recognition is for Palestinian leaders to recognise Israel's inherent right to exist, which many of them simply don't. The member for Melbourne's motion undermines the work of peacemakers on the ground and rewards those who choose violence over negotiation.

The motion comes at a time that sends a message that Hamas's violent terrorist attacks—its murders, its abductions, its gang rapes, its dismemberment of innocent children and its torture of people—should somehow be rewarded. This motion means recognising a Palestinian state when Palestinian leaders continue to refuse to recognise Israel's right to exist. This motion means recognising a Palestinian state when Hamas still has not released 130 Israeli hostages. This motion runs contrary to the traditions of Australian foreign policy. Australia simply doesn't recognise countries that have yet come into existence.

In some respects this Greens motion shouldn't amaze me, but it does. Why is a party that spends so much time talking about the rights of women and LGBTI people so keen to advocate for the cause of organisations like Hamas, which are among the greatest abusers of women and LGBTI people in the world? But the Greens are content to ignore these inconvenient facts. We shouldn't surprised by the Greens actions—they've got a terrible history when it comes to antisemitism. They've got no moral courage and they repeatedly fail to stand with our Western, liberal, democratic allies. Antisemitism has become a central plank of Greens philosophy. Every time the Greens have had the chance to stand with the Jewish community in this country, or our Western, liberal, democratic allies, they chose to stand against them. The Greens voted against the bipartisan motion in this House that condemned the 7 October terror attacks, even before Israel had begun its operations in Gaza. They voted against a bipartisan motion in the Senate last week condemning antisemitic chants at universities. The federal Greens have refused to condemn Jenny Leong for her comments that Jews had tentacles and that Jews shouldn't be able to participate in the public life of this country. On Insiders, the Greens leader couldn't bring himself to clearly say that he thought Hamas was a terrorist organisation. Similarly, when directly asked whether he support the idea of a Jewish state, he refused to answer.

Many people in this country vote for the Greens because they think they're a party of environmentalists, but their actions in this place show they're more interested in rewarding terrorists than in protecting the environment. Of the nine suspensions of standing orders the Greens have moved since 7 October, only a third relate to the environment while more than 55 per cent— (Time expired)

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