Phillip Thompson (Herbert, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That so much of standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the member for Herbert from moving the following motion immediately:

That the House condemns the act of defacing war memorials by pro-Palestinian protesters which is deeply insulting for current and former members of the Australian Defence Force and undermines the significance of these memorials as symbols of national pride and remembrance.

We must suspend standing orders to bring on this urgent debate. This is a matter of significant importance. It is our responsibility to the community, as a parliament, to debate these serious topics here in this nation's parliament. We must call out and condemn these disgusting acts, this despicable behaviour, and that's why we are calling on this suspension.

Saturday night's attacks were not an exercise of free speech but of criminal behaviour. The Australian National Korean War Memorial, the Vietnam Forces National Memorial, the Australian Army memorial: no cause gets the right to desecrate our most sacred sites. There has been outrage throughout the community. People are rightly upset. And I'm sorry to all of our Defence Force members, our veterans and their families that they had to witness such disgusting, such despicable acts that have occurred not just in the nation's capital, but around this country. No cause gives you the right to desecrate these sites. It does not represent the community's attitude towards our ADF, our veterans or their families.

The freedoms that we enjoy in this nation are on the back of hard fought battles, wars and sacrifice that those in uniform, those that have served and their families have made. To turn on the TV or to wake up in the morning and open the paper to see this criminal activity—vandalism, spray-painting, the desecration of the Australian War Memorial and other war memorial sites—is not just a kick in the guts to every veteran; it's a slap in the face to the Australian public, who believe in the rule of law and freedom of speech. This should never occur in this country or anywhere else around the world. And I don't believe it has been condemned enough in this parliament. I don't believe that we have had time to debate this, to call out this behaviour and to say, 'We stand as one, because this behaviour needs to stop.'

The veterans community is rightly angry. From the time the first person would have seen this disgraceful vandalism, my phone, my social media, even my door being knocked on, like many other people in parliament—from veterans who are angry, who are disgusted and who are sad that this has occurred.

Here's what a few veterans have had to say. One said: 'We should be proud of all of our veterans and those who have served. Those who desecrate memorials should be jailed. This does not fall under freedom of speech.' A veteran's son said: 'As the son of a Kapyong veteran, I'm disappointed that people have no respect for the personnel that put on the uniform in our armed service.' Another veteran said: 'It's so sad that these people who have fought, died for our freedom—and this is the thanks that they get. I try not to hate anything, but I do hate the people who desecrate war memorials. This is disgraceful. I do not stand for those who have desecrated these war memorials. People have paid the ultimate sacrifice for our freedom and they deserve respect. This makes my blood boil. And, as I come from a proud family of ex-ADF personnel, I want to say thank you to those who have served.' These are just some of the messages that I and others in this parliament have received.

I took a phone call only yesterday where the mother of a veteran was in tears—in tears because the one place that is the most sacred for all that have served has been desecrated. She said to me, 'Stand up. Be counted. Call this out.' That's why this suspension motion to bring on debate must happen—because I do not believe that yesterday's gag on the debate, shutting it down, as we saw, was in the national interest. We want to see both sides of parliament stand up and be given the opportunity to call out this disgraceful attack on our veterans and on the community, and call out the antisemitism that has been on display. We must debate this. We must.

This has hit our veterans community extremely hard, and I think that it's right to say that they expect more from us. We have a responsibility to our communities and the people that we represent. This is the nation's national parliament. We must condemn these disgusting acts, and yesterday's move to gag debate, to shut down the discussion, is abhorrent. To say there was no time—it took 25 minutes from the first mover to when the debate was gagged. You cannot tell me that you have no time to stand up and condemn these disgraceful, despicable acts. And every single speech from a government minister, including the defence minister, should say, 'We stand as one in this parliament,' because that's not the message that the Australian people saw yesterday. It shouldn't be concerning for the government, because this is the same wording in this suspension as Senator Lambie's motion in the other place on Monday.

We want debate to occur because our veterans, this country, want to see us standing as one in condemning the disgrace of the Greens, the disgrace of their commentary of late, saying that desecrating the Australian War Memorial is somehow a part of their free speech, somehow a part of free speech. They are not fit to sit in parliament and they are not fit to co-govern with the Labor Party. They are a disgrace. And because you cannot call them out, because you cannot stand up and debate this with us today, that is why a second suspension has been brought on. I would have thought that yesterday was the time for when the opposition and the government could stand as one and say that the despicable commentary from the Greens, the kick in the guts to all the veterans from their commentary, should be rightly condemned. But we didn't see that. We saw debate be gagged, shut down, not discussed. That is disgraceful, an absolute disgrace.

These individuals, these people in the Greens movement who are justifying this as a form of expression are despicable. They are deeply disrespectful to the memories enshrined in those on the War Memorial. More than 100,000 names are etched on the War Memorial. Some of them are my mates, and I can tell you, every time I hear about the War Memorial being desecrated, vandalised, it makes my blood boil then it makes me so angry when I see people coming into parliament saying, 'This is a part of free speech.' Garbage. It is not a part of free speech. You are a part of the problem. That antisemitic and disgraceful vandalism that we have seen at war memorials needs to be called out because I will tell you who chants, 'from the river to the sea': Hamas, a terrorist group.

To see the Prime Minister come in here and say, 'It is okay because Jewish people as well as people from Palestine both say "from the river to the sea".' That is not what the Jewish community has been telling me and they are rightly angry. This is a debate that needs to come on. We need to have this discussion now. We do not believe it is in the nation's interest to be gagged like we saw yesterday with the motion from the member for Canning. We need harsh penalties. I want to see these scumbags, these criminals who are doing this desecration in handcuffs. I want to see them off the street and put in jail. This is not good enough. Bring on debate.

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