Anne Aly (Cowan, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

On 11 June this year I represented our Foreign minister at the Urgent Humanitarian Response to Gaza Conference in Jordan. The conference was convened by King Abdullah II of Jordan, President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt, and Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary-General. There were three themes to that conference, the first being the need and the scale of humanitarian aid for the people of Gaza. There was a call from the international community to commit to more humanitarian aid, and I was honoured at that forum to announce the Australian government was committing another $10 million to the World Food Programme, bringing our level of aid to the region up to $72½ million.

The second theme was the distribution and the need for the unimpeded flow of aid into Gaza and, again, for the international community to continue to demand that the Israeli government comply by its obligations under international humanitarian law to enable the safe passage of aid through the most effective land routes into Gaza to the people who need it most. The third theme was the psychosocial recovery and the restoration of human dignity to the people of Gaza.

We talk a lot of politics in this place and there is a lot of politicking happening around this issue. Just yesterday, I watched as the member for Griffith came in here and gave a 90-second statement on Gaza and then sat down and laughed. He laughed. But the political noise happening here is so vastly disconnected from the conversations in the region, conversations led by countries at the forefront, led by aid agencies and individuals on the ground in Gaza.

The key message that I took away from my time in Jordan, where I met with leaders from across the world who were present there, was the great appreciation for what this Australian government has done to make a real difference, a material difference, to the people of Gaza. From our UN votes to our aid contributions, there was an acknowledgement that Australia is punching above its weight in our commitment and our support for peace.

I have been proud and honoured to represent my country at a number of international fora, both before and during my time in this parliament. I have represented Australia at the Whitehouse and as a UN expert advisor in places like Kenya and Vienna. I have sat in those rooms with leaders from around the world and spoken on behalf of my country on our position from an academic perspective. But I have never been more proud to serve and represent this Australian government at an international forum than I was in Jordan.

Today, we put forward a motion that reaffirms our commitment to peace and, through this motion, we send a very clear message to those people in Gaza and in the occupied territories that we support their aspirations for self-determination, that we support their aspirations for a just and enduring peace. As the assistant minister said, recognition of Palestine won't come about by votes in here or in the Senate, but what we are doing today is important. That message that we send is important but it is no less important than what we have done as a government, as a collective, to continue to make that difference to the children, to the women, to the innocent men, to the innocent people in Gaza and in the occupied territories who have suffered for way too long and who aspire only for a life of peace and for an enduring and sustainable peace.

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