Adam Bandt (Melbourne, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I second this motion. Action—that's what people want from their government. When we witness a genocide, starvation, destruction of people's lives, the re-emergence of polio and a court saying that the State of Israel is committing the crime of apartheid, people want their own government to take action. Enough of the hand-wringing words. Enough of the pleas and the supposed red lines that the extremist government of Benjamin Netanyahu then crosses every time without consequences. People want action.

There are things that this government could do to put pressure on the extremist government of Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the slaughter and the genocide, but Labor is refusing to do them. Governments were more than willing, with the support of everyone across the parliament, to put sanctions on Russia when it committed its illegal invasion. Since the parliament was here last time—when everyone else, certainly on the Labor side and on the Liberal side, voted against the recognition of Palestine, despite it being something that Labor said they would make a priority—we have had international courts say the crime of apartheid is being committed; we have seen ministers in the government say that the starvation of two million Palestinians might be justified and moral; and we have seen the re-emergence of polio. Not only are there the tens of thousands of deaths but we now have the re-emergence of polio. We are on the verge of epidemics that will see a whole generation of children being forced to live a life that we as humanity thought we had left behind us. They are now going to be facing diseases that we know are preventable but that we are now seeing reappear. Not only are we seeing that; we are seeing kids die because they can't get enough to eat or drink.

This is happening on a daily basis, and people want their governments to take action. We have been seeing voices right across the spectrum since we were last here. I want to pay tribute to those brave voices, including those brave and heroic voices from the Jewish community, who are saying this extremist Netanyahu government is committing war crimes. As they lend their voices not only to everyone across this parliament who is calling for the release of hostages but to those who are calling on this government to recognise that the extremist Netanyahu government has crossed lines time and time again, they are saying, like millions of people across this country, that it is the time for the government to take action.

It has been said that the words are too strong when the Greens say that Labor is complicit in genocide. Well, no, because these international treaties that we have signed up to require governments to stand up and take action when they see war crimes being committed. There is no supranational police force that is going to step in and stop governments like the extremist Netanyahu government from committing war crimes. These very treaties, like the treaty against committing genocide that Australia has signed up to, say that governments like this Labor government are required to take action when they see war crimes being committed by others, and there's a reason for that. It's because if Labor keeps letting Netanyahu's extremist government commit these war crimes then more and more will be committed. These treaties and conventions that we sign up to impose obligations on this government to take action when it sees war crimes being committed or when it sees the crime of apartheid being committed, and at the moment, when Labor does nothing, Labor is complicit. Labor is not meeting its legal or moral obligations under these treaties. It could also very simply say, as they have in the Netherlands, that it is wrong that Australian-made parts are being used in these F-35 fighter jets to drop bombs, and it won't even do that either.

So this is a chance for every member of parliament who voted against recognising Palestine before to come in now and vote to put some pressure to stop the genocide. (Time expired)

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