Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's unfortunate that members of this House on this side were not given an opportunity to put forward amendments to this motion as my colleagues were in the Senate. The members of the coalition would have agreed to this motion if we were allowed to put the following amendments:

i. recognition by Palestinian representatives and the Palestinian Authority of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state—

And, when I'm putting these, I'm saying that these are preconditions to what we would have agreed to in relation to this motion—

ii. that there is no role for Hamas in a future Palestinian state;

iii. reform of the Palestinian Authority is achieved, including major security and governance reforms;

iv. agreed processes to resolve final status issues including agreed state borders and rights of return; and

v. appropriate security guarantees between parties to ensure peace and security within recognised borders.

As I said, it's unfortunate that members of this House were not afforded the same respect or the same ability to do what our colleagues did in the Senate, in other place.

In December of last year, along with the member for Macnamara and a couple of our other colleagues, I travelled to Israel and we saw first-hand the atrocities of what took place on 7 October. It is fair to say that that was a long-lasting—in fact, life-changing—experience for me. I stand here as the member for Fisher. I estimate that I would have probably no more than 100 Jewish people in my electorate. If you look at this purely from a political perspective, I've no skin in the game. But this is not something which we should be looking at as a political, skin-in-the-game issue. There's a what's right and there's a what's wrong.

Aside from those five preconditions that I just read out, everybody talks about how there must be a ceasefire. Why is no-one ever talking about how Hamas should surrender and return the hostages? Why doesn't this motion talk about a surrender of Hamas and talk about the return of the around 120 hostages that are still being held by Hamas today, eight months later? Can you imagine living in a tunnel and being held captive for eight months away from your friends and your family? They don't know whether you're alive.

This war was started on 7 October and this war could finish today if Hamas surrendered and returned those near-120 hostages. Why are we not talking about that? Why are we not talking about the suffering of the tens of thousands of Israelis that have also been displaced along the northern borders? The media never talk about that. There are tens of thousands of Israelis displaced who are living in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem because it's not safe for them to live in border areas because of the rocket attacks from Gaza, from the West Bank and from Lebanon. It's as though the media don't want to talk about those things, yet tens of thousands of Israelis are suffering that displacement.

This war could be over today if the people who started this war surrendered and returned the hostages to their families. If those members opposite want to make those amendments, I'm sure my— (Time expired)

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