Ms Julie Bishop (Curtin, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That this House:

(1) restates its support for the motion moved by the then Prime Minister and passed by this House on the sixtieth anniversary of the State of Israel, and in particular:

(a) acknowledges the unique relationship which exists between Australia and Israel, a bond highlighted by the commitment of both societies to the rights and liberty of our citizens and to cultural diversity;

(b) commends the State of Israel's commitment to democracy, the rule of law and pluralism; and

(c) reiterates Australia's commitment to Israel's right to exist in peace and security, and our continued support for a peaceful two-state resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian issue; and

(2) notes with concern the fraying of the traditionally bipartisan support amongst Australia's political parties for the State of Israel, and in particular the:

(a) resolution by Greens councillors on Marrickville Council for a boycott of Israel, supported by Labor councillors;

(b) policy adopted by the NSW Greens for an Israel boycott;

(c) decision by the NSW Labor Party to preference the Greens candidate for Marrickville ahead of other candidates who did not support an Israel boycott; and

(d) decision by Labor and Greens councillors on Moreland City Council, Melbourne, to allow the anti-semitic group Hizb ut Tahrir to use Council premises in August 2010 despite Hizb ut Tahrir publicly calling for the slaughter of Jewish people, and its enthusiasm for Osama bin Laden.

It is appropriate at this time, when the world's attention is fixed on the tumultuous events in the Middle East and North Africa, that the Australian parliament reaffirm its support for the motion moved by the then Prime Minister and passed by the House on 12 March 2008 which celebrated and commended the achievements of the state of Israel on its 60 anniversary. As the world has watched those tumultuous events unfold, new-found voices in the Middle East and North Africa have broken through decades of political oppression in the region, bringing hope to people long forgotten by their rulers. So rapid and unexpected was this transformation that world leaders hesitated, unsure of the implications of the political avalanche that was occurring in the Middle East and beyond.

Australians will always stand alongside other free and democratic nations in championing the cause for individual liberty, greater freedoms and necessary political and economic reforms. While the world must hope that the removal of these regimes might lead to a better future for the region's people—a future in which economic opportunity and individual betterment replace fear and hatred—that outcome is far from assured. Throughout the recent turmoil Israel, the region's only true democracy—in fact, the beacon of democracy—has understandably watched these events unfold with trepidation that the changes sweeping the region could bring forth a new strategic environment more hostile to Israel than the one just passed.

While the world is right to rejoice in the democratic aspirations of the people of the Middle East and North Africa, Australians should never forget that Israel is the one country in the region where democratic rights and freedoms have existed interrupted since the establishment of the modern state of Israel in 1948. It has been said that a nation is born out of the fire and brimstone of war, but for Israel this has been the reality of its entire history. Australia has been, and will continue to be, a true friend and committed supporter of the state of Israel and its people. Australia's ties to Israel are deep, with our shared interests incorporating that bond of common values that unites free nations around the world. At the heart of our friendship is a shared belief in democracy, individual liberty, equal rights and the rule of law.

The British author HH Munro one said of the island of Crete that it had produced more history than could be consumed locally. The same could be said of the regions surrounding Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. To borrow President Obama's words from his speech last evening to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, Israel is a small nation in a tough neighbourhood. On my first visit to Israel I was struck by the geographic proximity of the protagonists in the history of Israeli-Arab relations. Everything is just a stone's throw away. Unless you have visited Israel and the surrounding region it is difficult to comprehend and appreciate the history and the complexity of relations. In 2009 I met with Israelis and Palestinians in Jerusalem and Bethlehem and I travelled to the Lebanese border and to the border in the south. The people live with an overwhelming anxiety and fear born from decades of conflict.

In recent times Israel has come under renewed criticism and attack by some in the international community who seek new avenues to isolate the nation diplomatically and economically. In Australia this task was taken up by the Greens dominated Marrickville Council, which passed a motion to support a 'boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign' against Israel. The motion called on the Marrickville Council to 'boycott all goods made in Israel and any sporting, academic, government or cultural exchanges' and was passed with the support of Greens and Labor councillors. Despite reports that 63 per cent of Marrickville residents opposed the boycott, Marrickville Mayor Fiona Byrne campaigned at the March 2011 state election, in which she was a candidate, for a statewide version of the boycott were she elected to the New South Wales parliament.

The House should note that the Labor Party did a preference swap with the Greens and Ms Byrne in her campaign to win the state seat of Marrickville ahead of candidates who did not support the odious BDS campaign. Ms Byrne did not win the seat and the Greens senator-elect Lee Rhiannon expressed disappointment that the Greens did not campaign hard enough on the platform of the BDS campaign against Israel. The BDS campaign is an outrageous and prejudiced attack against the people of Israel, and the actions of the Marrickville Council supporting it must be condemned. Israel is not perfect—no country is perfect—but it does not deserve the virulent abuse levelled at it by the Greens and their fellow travellers.

The coalition is deeply disappointed that the traditionally bipartisan support for the state of Israel amongst Australia's major political parties has frayed in recent years. Rather than condemn the Greens or their motion of support for a boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign, Labor Party councillors voted alongside them. As Senator Brown rightly pointed out, Kevin Rudd's Labor party is as every bit responsible for the outcome.

It is evident that the formal alliance struck by the Prime Minister between the Labor Party and the Greens in order to cling to power extends to all the way to the inner suburban councils of Sydney. Many of Australia's trade unions are also heavily involved in the push for a wide-ranging boycott, divestment and sanctions regime against Israel. In an instruction manual for supporters of the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign, 21 Australian trade unions are committed to a full or partial BDS. These are the same trade unions which play such a leading role in the Australian Labor Party, including in the selection of its political representatives, both in this place and in state parliaments around in the country, and in the decision on who leads the federal Labor Party, as we witnessed with the removal of the first-term Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last year.

The Marrickville Council resolution came shortly after another public outcry when Labor and Green councillors on the Moreland City Council allowed the anti-Western, anti-Semitic group Hizb ut Tahrir to use council premises to hold a public meeting. According to its spokesperson, Israel 'is an illegitimate state and occupation; it has to be removed.' Australia must take a robust stand against those who deny the right of Israel to exist. The Prime Minister must reassure Australians that as a result of her government's alliance—a formal alliance we witnessed with the signing of a document by the Greens senators and the Prime Minister—that our country's foreign policy will not be held hostage to Greens extremism. The coalition believes that a boycott, divestment and sanctions regime against Israel will only serve to inflame tensions on all sides, harming the chances of a peaceful resolution to the long-running conflict in the Middle East.

Under the Howard government the coalition strongly supported the road map to Middle East peace and urged both sides to stay committed to negotiating a lasting peace. The coalition is firmly committed to a sustainable solution of two independent and economically viable states, where the Israeli people and the Palestinian people can live their lives in peace and security within internationally recognised borders.

Israel embodies our faith in the fundamental human desire of people the world over to live their lives in freedom. That is why this evening I seek the support of this House for this motion that not only restates our support for the state of Israel but notes, with great concern, the resolution by the Greens councillors on Marrickville council for a boycott of Israel that was supported by Labor councillors. They should stand condemned. I commend this motion to the House.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Maria Vamvakinou (Calwell, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Middle East conflict is a serious matter, which requires a serious approach. With this motion as it stands, the member for Curtin, the coalition spokesperson for foreign affairs, has proven that she is incapable, unable or unwilling to comprehend and respond to serious and complex foreign policy issues in a responsible and constructive manner.

Paragraph 2 of this motion is a 'cheap political shot', reducing the issue to its lowest common denominator of scaremongering wedge ethnic politics, and opportunistic point scoring.

Three years ago, this parliament moved an unprecedented motion congratulating Israel on the occasion of 60 years of statehood. No other country has enjoyed such privilege, and it is indicative that the state of Israel has many friends in this parliament.

Tonight I want to speak to the member for Curtin's motion, and whilst I begin by acknowledging Israel on the occasion of its 63rd year anniversary, I want also to note that there is a dual narrative, whose genesis can be traced to the creation of the state of Israel. On the one hand, Zionist leaders sought to create a home for Jewish people in Palestine. In doing so, another injustice was perpetrated with the expulsion and dispossession of the Palestinian people from their ancestral homelands.

The member for Curtin's motion makes no mention of the Palestinian displacement of 1948, known as Al Nakba, meaning 'the catastrophe', but this House cannot in all fairness commemorate the founding of the state of Israel by ignoring the subsequent plight of the Palestinian people. The two have become intrinsically linked and the security of both Israelis and Palestinians rests on acknowledging these two conflicting narratives upon which any peace process has to begin.

For me, the following passage encapsulates that other narrative neglected in this motion, the Palestinian Nakba:

A 13-year-old Palestinian boy was forced to leave his home in the Galilean city of Safed and flee with his family to Syria. He took up shelter in a canvas tent provided to all the arriving refugees. Though he and his family wished for decades to return to their home and homeland, they were denied that most basic of human rights. That child's story, like that of so many other Palestinians, is mine.

These are the words of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian President—the man, who, despite much adversity and controversy, stands ready to make peace with Israel.

We are into the sixth decade of contrasting narratives—the birth of a state for one people, and dispossession and exile for another people. So we cannot commemorate Israel's creation, without reference to the over 400 Palestinian villages and towns that were cleansed, depopulated, destroyed and renamed. We cannot ignore the expulsion of some 750,000 Palestinian refugees in 1948, who, now into their third generation, number 4.8 million people scattered in refugee camps in Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and elsewhere.

While this motion commends 'Israel's commitment to democracy, the rule of law and pluralism', Israel's parliament, the Knesset, has recently passed the so-called Nakba law coupled with the Admissions Committee law. These laws, as Israel's oldest newspaper, Haaretz, put it on 25 March:

… are the latest in a growing list of disgraceful legislation whose entire purpose is to discriminate against Israel's Arab citizens, intimidate them and deny them their rights …

Haaretz's editorial goes on to warn that apathy and silence 'encourages the instigators of racism, creating a convenient fertile ground for them to continue their disastrous activities'. I recently returned from that part of the world, and I saw firsthand the vibrancy of Israel as a highly developed, cultured and sophisticated society. Yet, despite its prosperity and development, one thing continues to elude it: security and recognition by its Arab neighbours. And, whilst Israel prides itself on being a contemporary and cosmopolitan democracy, beyond Tel Aviv the realities on the ground reveal a darker side to the state of Israel: the imposition, maintenance and expansion of a wall that segregates, separates and alienates people on the basis of their race, religion and identity. In conjunction with the illegal settlements ever encroaching on Palestinian land and restrictions on family contact and on movement through a debilitating permit system and checkpoint regime, it is not hard to see that the alternative to peace is violence born out of despair, frustration and dejection.

This motion is right to reiterate Australia's commitment to Israel's right to exist in peace and security. It is a security that people crave; however, it is a shared security, predicated on Israel's ability to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians. The Palestinian people also have the right to live in peace and security. They also have the right to move freely without sanction within the borders of their own Palestinian state. They have the right to prosperity and growth. They too are a sophisticated, intelligent, industrious and cultured people who have great potential to grow and develop their society and their economy. I saw evidence of this potential in towns such as Ramallah, where Palestinians are building the institutional infrastructure as they prepare for statehood. They do this against incredible adversity.

Yet it is impossible for this potential to be fully realised amidst the trauma of an occupation which spans checkpoints, closures, home demolitions, settlements, the separation wall, the permit system, the two-tier system of roads and access and control over water and agriculture as well as the crippling effect of the blockade on Gaza. A peace settlement will bring enormous benefits for both states and the region as a whole, eradicating a major source of global discontent and stabilising a region bereft of peace and stability.

It has been 20 years since the Oslo agreement and 16 years since the assassination of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, a pragmatic, visionary leader, a man who carried the hopes and aspirations of his people as he led them through a process that has since stalled and hindered in the 'politics of fear and hate'. Resolution to this protracted and costly issue requires wisdom, courage, fortitude and a sense of fairness, and, like all difficult issues, timing is imperative.

Unfortunately, whilst the current political leadership in Israel hesitates in engaging in a real and substantial way with the peace process, I can inform the House that the Palestinian President, Mahmoud Abbas, has conveyed to us in no uncertain terms that the Palestinians are ready to make peace. They are ready to make a deal on the 1967 borders, on 22 per cent of their original ancestral borders. If this motion was sincere—which I am afraid it is not designed to be—in trying to advance the Middle East peace process, it would at least make reference to international law or include the following:

The borders of Israel and Palestine should be based on the 1967 lines with mutually agreed swaps, so that secure and recognised borders are established for both states.

These are the words of US President Barack Obama from his Middle East address last Thursday, and I endorse them.

The Middle East is rapidly changing. We are all familiar with the sweeping events of the Arab spring. We may not yet know what this spring will yield, but one thing is certain: key to peace and stability in the Middle East is the unresolved Palestinian question.

The truth is that Israel's current predicament in respect to the peace process is making it increasingly isolated and vulnerable. That is why, now more than ever, it is incumbent upon its friends, such as Australia, to reassure them and encourage them to re-engage with the peace process. Proclaiming that Israel has no peace partner to negotiate with because of the split between Fatah and Hamas holds no currency now, as Hamas and Fatah recently reconciled at the behest of President Abbas. It is disingenuous and highly short-sighted of the Israeli Prime Minister to proclaim that Fatah must choose between peace with Israel or Hamas. You cannot keep changing the goalposts.

Australia can play a helpful and decisive role in encouraging the Israeli leadership to return to the negotiating table. In fact, the Palestinian leadership expressed their gratitude for the very active and supportive role that Australia is playing in assisting this process. Along with other friends of Israel, such as the US, Australia needs to work towards convincing it to return to negotiations.

The motion notes with concern the alleged 'fraying of the traditionally bipartisan support amongst Australia's political parties for the state of Israel'. I cannot speak for other parties but, as a member of parliament for the Australian Labor Party, I say to the member for Curtin that she is extremely mischievous in her imputation. The state of Israel enjoys strong bipartisan support from this government because we on this side of the House have always been committed to a two-state solution, but we are also committed to the rights of the Palestinian people to the same peace and security within their own state. This is the case in both the ALP national platform and our policies in government.

I move:

That paragraph 2 be omitted.

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the amendment seconded?

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the amendment and reserve my right to speak.

Christopher Pyne (Sturt, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Education, Apprenticeships and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I was delighted to second the motion of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition with respect to the state of Israel and our support for it and the condemnation of the Marrickville Council, the Greens and their fellow travellers in the Labor Party who supported both the Greens and the BDS campaign. It is not surprising to me that the member for Calwell, in her 10-minute speech on this motion—in spite of the fact that one half of it was entirely devoted to the Greens' stance on the Marrickville Council—at no point condemned the Greens, the Marrickville Council or the unions within the Labor Party who support the boycotts, divestments and sanctions campaign. I would not expect the same from the member for Melbourne Ports, but I was disappointed. I note with absolute clarity that the member for Calwell at no point addressed that part of the motion and instead chose to depart from even government policy, let alone coalition policy, in her condemnation of the state of Israel. The boycotts, divestments and sanctions campaign is a particularly pernicious and sophisticated campaign. It seeks to undermine the state of Israel through its enemies on the left by what is supposedly a victimless campaign. Apparently nobody will be hurt by the boycotts, divestments and sanctions campaign. It is a far cry from the campaigns of the left against the state of Israel in past decades and a far cry from the bad public relations campaigns of the terrorists who have attacked the state of Israel for decades. It is much better PR to come up with a non-dangerous sounding campaign like boycotts, divestments and sanctions. It is a far cry from pushing wheelchair-bound disabled people off the Achille Lauro. It is a far cry from shooting Israeli competitors during the Munich Olympics. It is a far cry from the bombing of the World Trade Center during September 11. It is a far cry from shooting kindergarten children in northern Israel. The people who have promoted the boycotts, divestments and sanctions campaign have learnt their lesson from bad public relations. They have suckered in not only the Greens but, unfortunately, also members of the union movement that is affiliated with the Labor Party. I know that those people's views are not shared by all members of the Labor Party and I expect a much better contribution to the debate from the member for Melbourne Ports, who has stood by the state of Israel throughout his entire political career.

The boycotts, divestments and sanctions campaign was given credibility by the Durban I conference, which passed a motion endorsing the BDS and suggesting that member states, organisations and unions join up with the BDS. Having failed to conventionally defeat the state of Israel militarily since 1948, the proponents of the BDS campaign have chosen a more insidious method in order to undermine and delegitimise the state of Israel. This BDS campaign is about the delegitimisation of the right of the state of Israel to exist. That is exactly what it is about. It has been put on the same level as the South African apartheid regime. The proponents of the BDS say that Israel is just like South Africa in the pre-apartheid-abolition period—in that period from the sixties right through to the eighties and the nineties when apartheid ruled South Africa. All of it is designed to suggest to soft-headed people in the West that Israel is just like the South African apartheid regime. The campaign is designed to undermine its very legitimacy.

There are five elements to the BDS campaign. These include the desire to make Israel a pariah state; the use of lawfare through the international courts, through the United Nations and through reports like the Goldstone report to undermine the state of Israel; and the demand for an intergenerational refugee status on the right of return for hundreds of thousands of people who have left the state of Israel a very long time ago. But the very worst part of the BDS campaign is that it undermines the attempts at harmony between Palestinians and Israelis. The member for Eden-Monaro knows exactly what I am talking about because he was with me in Israel last December when these matters were debated. The worst part of the BDS campaign is that it undermines the capacity for peace in the Middle East. It undermines harmony between Palestinians and Israelis. It undermines the capacity for business connections and academic connections and, worst of all, even down to the lowest level, it opposes things like the AFL team that is made up of Palestinians and Jewish Israelis travelling to Australia to show harmony between Israeli and Palestinian people. I condemn the Greens and the Labor Party for their support of it. (Time expired.)

Shayne Neumann (Blair, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Australia and Israel share a close relationship and deep friendship based on our historical support for Israel and our shared commitment to freedom, security and democracy. It is a country of 7.4 million people and 22,000 square kilometres, less than four times the size of my electorate of Blair. During the dark days of the Cold War, Israel was firmly in the pro-Western camp. Israel is a friend of Australia and Australia is a friend of Israel. Israel has been a liberal democracy in a region where despotism, authoritarianism and Islamic fundamentalism are all too common. It has been surrounded by countries committed to its destruction. From Metula in the north, where it is attacked by Hezbollah, to Sderot in the south, where it is attacked by Hamas, Israel has been surrounded by those hell-bent on its destruction. We in the federal Labor government are firmly committed to Israel's security.

Our support for the state of Israel goes back to the creation of Israel in 1948, when the then Australian Minister for External Affairs, Dr HV Evatt, played such an important role in the negotiations leading to Israel's creation and presided over the historic May 1949 vote admitting Israel as the 59th member of the United Nations. Australia was the first country to vote in favour of General Assembly resolution 181 in 1947 to establish the Jewish and Arab states. Our relationship is underpinned by the 90,000 members of the Jewish community in Australia. Indeed, post World War II we admitted 35,000 Jewish refugees fleeing from the remnants of the Holocaust and the tragic experiences they had in Europe. The Jewish community has made a significant contribution to Australia in many fields. Trade between Israel and Australia amounted to $740 million in 2009-10.

We in the federal Labor government are strongly committed to the security of Israel. We want a negotiated two-state solution that allows a secure and independent Israel to exist side by side with a secure and independent future Palestinian state. Violence has no place in a peaceful Middle East in the future. Australia continues to support negotiations to be undertaken in this regard. Violence and actions which undermine trust and treat people as inhuman simply because they come from a different race or a different religion have no place amongst people of goodwill.

One of the largest impediments to peace in the Middle East has been the ongoing refusal of Hamas to recognise the right of the state of Israel to exist and its relentless bombing of Israelis in southern Israel. Another has been the dysfunctionality of the Palestinian leadership. After Israel pulled out of the Gaza Strip we saw a civil war break out between Hamas and Fatah, which meant that people were killed and there was no voice and no effective partner for peace for Israel for so many years. We on this side of the House have called for cessation of settlement construction by Israel on the West Bank. Personally, I welcome the comments of President Obama in his broad terms and as a constructive pathway for peaceful negotiations.

The Marrickville Council should have a good look at itself. Pathways and parks and rates and rubbish should be its focus, not foreign policy. The truth is that this federal Labor government is committed to the Palestinian people. We have provided $160 million since 2007 to support the Palestinian people. And during his visit to Ramallah in March, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kevin Rudd, outlined a significant increase in Australia's assistance to the Palestinian people—a five-year development partnership with regular budget support and a further A$18 million to the UN Relief and Works Agency, which we announced in December 2010.

We do not support boycotts that impede legitimate trade between states, including between Israel and Australia. The Marrickville Council should never have passed that resolution in the first place. The idea of banning academic, government, sporting and cultural exchanges with Israel is simply a nonsense and political stupidity by the Marrickville Council. We welcomed the outcome of the 19 April vote by the Marrickville Council to reject support for international boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel. We hope that in future they concentrate on what is their principal role in local government. I simply repudiate those opposite who want to make political capital out of this issue and say that they should stand with us in rejecting the stupidity of the Marrickville Council's initial decision. (Time expired)

Michael Keenan (Stirling, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice, Customs and Border Protection) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the motion moved by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, and I do so as somebody who is a very strong supporter of the state of Israel, its right to exist and the fact that it is a shining beacon of democracy within the Middle East. Sadly, we see very few functioning democracies within that region. That is why it is very important for this House to acknowledge the importance to Australia of the bilateral relationship we have with Israel.

It is particularly important that we acknowledge it on the occasion of its 60th anniversary. As members of this House would well know, for those 60 years they have had a very difficult existence as their neighbours and many of the other countries within their region deny them the right to exist. Sadly, that denial of their rights, the denigration of the state of Israel, is often shared by those on the left—on the extreme left, in this case—of Australian politics. We have seen it in the support that the Greens councillors who occupy positions on Marrickville Council have given for a boycott of Israel.

It reflects something rather strange about sections of the more extreme left in Australia that they refuse to repudiate and attack the behaviour of opponents of Israel, who often behave in extraordinarily bad ways. In looking at the state of Israel, instead of—to use a biblical reference—looking at the log within their enemy's eyes they try to pick on the splinter within Israel's eye. Israel is clearly not a perfect state, but I believe it is a state that behaves in a way that I think Australians have much sympathy for.

I have had the opportunity to visit Israel. For a country that has really been in a state of war for the whole 60 years of its existence, what really struck me was the very vigorous internal debate within Israel about the way that they behave as a state, about the way that they behave with their neighbours, about the way that they respond to military provocation, about the way that they respond to attacks on their people and about the way that they respond to attacks on their territory. An extraordinarily vigorous debate occurs in Israel about what they believe is moral and right and about the way that they approach these issues.

The most extraordinary policy issues that are taken by the state of Israel are issues that actually involve life or death for Israeli citizens are contestable within the Israeli legal system and you have had members of the Israeli judiciary pass judgment on the behaviour of the Israeli military in times of war. That accompanied what was a very vigorous debate within Israel and amongst Israeli citizens—always checking themselves about whether they are behaving in a way that was appropriate for a democracy and for the country that I think all Israeli citizens hope for.

From comments that have been made in this House, and certainly from comments that have been made from this side of the House, we find very strong support for the state of Israel. I know that that support is certainly mirrored by most on the other side of the House—although not all. I think that all members of this House need to get together and say very strongly that Australia enjoys a strong bilateral relationship with Israel, that Australia acknowledges 60 very impressive years of the state of Israel. We need to acknowledge not only that they have survived in what is a very difficult and turbulent region but also that they have had an economic miracle within the state—lessons which I think Australia can learn from as well.

They liberalised very decisively within the 1980s and enjoyed rates of economic growth that I think are the envy of most countries, and certainly the envy of their neighbours. It makes me wonder whether, if their neighbours were to join with Israel in creating a peaceful solution to what of course is a very difficult political problem, everyone in the region could start to enjoy some of the dynamism that you see when you visit Israel. It is great that we can acknowledge the 60th anniversary of the state of Israel and the very strong relationship we have. (Time expired)

Michael Danby (Melbourne Ports, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Great events are shaping the Middle East and these events may see impediments to genuine peace negotiations like the regime in Syria being removed. It is a shame, therefore, with such important events happening, that the member for Curtin has moved a motion which does not rise above petty point-scoring and seeks to portray one of the great political parties that has always supported the state of Israel and an equitable solution, including a two-state solution which we voted for in 1948, as 'antagonistic' to Israel. It is surprising to me that the member would turn such an occasion into a politicised issue, especially since we were together—many members of the Labor Party and many members of the opposition—in Israel on a bipartisan delegation last November; indeed, we are having a reunion this week.

The members for Blair and Calwell, to their credit—and I single out the member for Calwell—explicitly support government policy which recognises a two-state solution. The Labor Party has a very honourable history of support for the state of Israel. After all, Dr Evatt was part of the UN Special Committee on Palestine that recommended partition in 1947. And, in January 1949, it was the Labor Prime Minister Ben Chifley who announced that Australia would be amongst the first countries to recognise the new state of Israel, describing it as 'a force of special value in the world community.'

It is strange to me that the Marrickville Council and the Moreland City Council have behaved as they have. They are completely beyond their powers. They kicked an own goal, which led to the defeat of Fiona Byrne with residents obviously repudiating her stand. Labor is fundamentally opposed to the extreme foreign policy views of some within the Greens party, such as Marrickville Mayor Fiona Byrne and her watermelon colleague, the senator-elect Lee Rhiannon, who is coming to this place with her fearsome views. I would remind the member for Curtin that it was the New South Wales Liberal Party who refused, unlike their counterparts in Victoria, to allocate preferences in the seat of Marrickville, nearly ensuring that Fiona Byrne—the watermelon Greens candidate, the anti-Israel boycott divestment candidate—nearly won the seat. Unlike Victoria, this was an act of parochialism of the New South Wales Liberal Party which failed to take a principled stand against the Greens candidate in Marrickville.

I think the Deputy Leader of the Opposition may have kicked another own goal by trying to portray Philip Ruddock as foolish or, worse, a left-wing extremist, because it was he who, as Attorney-General, refused to ban Hizb ut-Tahrir. He, like I and other serious people on the intelligence committee, will take action if we have a recommendation from the security agencies that Hizb ut-Tahrir be banned—have no fear. Let us remember that the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard, said in an interview on Four Corners:

I am a strong supporter of Israel. Obviously also a strong supporter of a peace process there and a two state solution and I have that dialogue with a friends from Israel when I get the opportunity to. But I am a strong supporter of Israel and proud to be one.

Everyone here on the government side has strongly supported the government policy which supports the two-state solution—a policy that Australia has had, proudly, since 1948. We have no association with the Greens political party and some of their extreme foreign policy. I want to make it clear that there are members like me who will very strongly oppose Greens party policy, whether it is the 30 per cent death tax that they have that none of us on this side of parliament support, or crazy policies on foreign policy.

I note that the Elena Ceaucescu of the Greens, Lee Rhiannon, is about to arrive in this parliament. She will find a firm opponent in me and many people on this side of parliament, as she will on the opposition benches. There are people like me in the Labor Party, in seats in the House of Representatives—and this will probably be ignored as all important points that I find are made in backbench speeches are—who will be thinking very carefully at the next election about where we give our preferences. The Greens political party will not be getting my support—

Bruce Scott (Maranoa, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Order! The time allocated for this debate has expired. The member will have leave to continue speaking when the debate is resumed. The debate is adjourned and the resumption of the debate will be made an order of the day for the next sitting.