Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I seek leave of the House to move a motion.

Leave not granted.

I move:

That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Member for Kennedy from moving the following motion—

That the House:

(1) express its strong support for the people of Israel who, on the 7th of October 2023, were subjected to a horrific and unprovoked terrorist invasion;

(2) condemn the antisemitism being fuelled relentlessly by the Australian Greens for cynical political purposes and notes history shows clearly how horrifying the consequences of unchecked antisemitism can be;

(3) express its condemnation of the terrorist organisation Hamas, which bears responsibility for the October 7 invasion and the subsequent war; and

(4) demand that the Hamas organisation releases all hostages taken in the October 7 attack.

On point (3), I might also add the Twin Towers, where 3,000 people were murdered.

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is the motion seconded?

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

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Bob Katter (Kennedy, Katter's Australian Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

There seems to be something lacking in our education system. There seems to be an unawareness of antisemitism. Must we remind people in our universities that over six million Jewish people were murdered simply because of their spiritual faith? It was unprecedented in human history, and it came out of antisemitism. Whatever the reasons were—whether it was something about banking and the Rothschilds or whatever the reasons were—the fact of the matter is there was rampant antisemitism. Some very great people were against the persecution, including Pastor Niemoller, who preached continuously against it; the renowned and probably greatest economist in human history; and of course the German officer von Stauffenberg. If you read the history books, it just would have been so much better if they had been so much more aggressive so much sooner. Each of them sacrificed their lives, consciously, to try and stop the terrible things that were happening.

But, if you attack and you unleash the dogs of war, don't come complaining back to me when you get bitten. Who would condemn what the Russians did in Berlin after what they had suffered under the German invasion? You'd do it? Then what will follow will be payback time. You went in, in an invasion of another country, and murdered 1,200 people. On what pretext? Oh, that they won't recognise Gaza? Well, Gaza doesn't recognise Israel, so how's that for an inconsistency? Absolutely outrageous.

In any event, there is not a lot of precedent in human history for going into someone else's country and murdering over 3,000 people, as they did in the Twin Towers in the United States. There's not much precedent for going into a country and murdering 1,200 innocent civilians, and then putting it on television. I hate to say it, but some of their flags carry a sabre on them. And they say, 'We're just like you Christians.' No. Our flags carry a cross, a cross where someone was nailed and died for his faith, and what he said was: 'Love other people. Forgive your enemies.' And he was saying that while he was on the cross. Well, these people have on their flag a sabre.

Now, I don't condemn them for that, but I most certainly say: if you've read your history books, have the guts to stand up. If there is anything that distinguishes us Australians, it is our fight for the underdog and our sympathy with the underdog. Almost every single person that has ever come to this country came here because they were underdogs. Not surprisingly, our sympathy lies with that.

If the ALP thinks that, by playing footsies and having a foot on each side of the barbed wire fence, they're going to proceed to, let us say, have children—that's probably a crude expression; I'll withdraw it. If you think that you can sit idly by and watch rampant antisemitism—I don't watch television very often, but I watched on the television, as I think so many other Australians did, in horror as something like 70 or 80 people were in front of the Opera House, chanting, 'Gas the Jews.' It's a crime in this country to advocate murder. That is a crime. Did the police do anything about it? I tell you what: if I'd been there, I know what the police would have done. They'd have taken me and put me in the clink, not the people yelling out, 'Gas the Jews.' They were not touched, not criticised, not condemned. There was no criticism of the police—nothing. On these days, some of us are ashamed to be Australians, ashamed that we Australians have elected to parliament people who have no backbone, no courage, no conviction. And people like that pay a terrible price. Ask the people of Germany.

If you say that the Israelis should not be there, these Jewish people shouldn't be there, it's our country—hold on a minute. Where the hell do you think the Jewish faith came from? In 1365 Ibn Khaldun, the Arab historian, said he was very surprised that Jerusalem was predominantly Christian, as was the whole of Palestine. Well, where did all the Christians go? Where did all the Jewish people go? They were forced out or terrorised and murdered if they stayed in that country.

Why are the Jews there today? Oh, we all know why the Jews are there today. It is because, when they tried to get out of Europe, the ship of shame went all over the world, carrying 200 or 300 Jewish refugees. England would not take them, Brazil would not take them, the United States would not take them and, to our eternal shame, Australia would not take them. We couldn't even take 200 or 300 of them? Where were they to go? So they decided to go back to the historical homeland, and who could blame them? What else could they do? As I said, they say, 'You don't recognise Gaza,' but they don't recognise Israel, so that's pretty poor. The fact is that there are a whole lot of Gazans living in Israel. Are there any complaints, uprisings or anything from them? No.

Let me put this in perspective. There is no term that can describe the behaviour of the Greens in this place except 'rampant antisemitism', and it is a provocation of the ALP to try to win seats off the Labor Party on the basis of racial or religious persecution.

We don't have a lot of people of the Jewish faith in North Queensland, but those we do have are pretty outstanding. Cairns was a grubby, greasy little backwater that nobody would go to if you paid them—until four wonderful families came along. I won't go into the other three, but I will mention the Kamsler family, who built the first five-star hotel in Cairns. Their wonderful foresight enabled us to establish a world-class international tourist destination, which is now Cairns. One of the four families that created that wonderful occurrence was the Kamsler family, and I pay them very great tribute. The boys' parents were Holocaust survivors and, if there are nicer people on the planet than the Kamslers, I never met them.

They were the first hotel in Cairns to employ First Australians. Mickey Miller, the great blackfella leader I'm very proud to have looked up to all of my life asked me to stay there because it was the only hotel in Cairns that would employ First Australians.

We were just talking about lack of doctors. The first medical school built in Australia in 44 years was the result of Professor Ian Wronski, who is very proudly a person of the Jewish faith. (Time expired)

Ross Vasta (Bonner, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for Kennedy. Is the motion seconded?

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

I second the motion. The date of 7 October 2023 will go down in history as being one of the darkest days of this century, a day when 1,200 innocent Israelis were killed when more than 3,000 Hamas terrorists invaded Israel in 30 locations in what could be described as nothing other than a military style operation. They crashed through fences, they dug under fences, they flew over fences and they stormed kibbutzim, towns and villages on the borders. As I said, 1,200 Israelis, men, women and children—not just Jews, but Israelis—were killed in those attacks, and more than 250 hostages were taken on that day.

In my capacity as the deputy chair of the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security, I was shown that 42-minute video of body cams of Hamas terrorists. In those 42 minutes, we watched the slaughter of over 100 innocent Israelis. Those body cams were kept on the Hamas terrorists because they wanted all of us—they wanted you and me—to watch it. They wanted to strike fear in the heart of every person in the Western world. The attack that occurred in Israel was not just an attack on Israel; it was an attack on the world, and when countries and political parties stay silent they are complicit in that behaviour. A couple of days after I watched that video, I travelled to Israel and went to the kibbutzim. I went to towns like Sderot and saw the after-effects. I walked into the homes where people had been slaughtered, where hand grenades had been lobbed through windows and where buildings had been blown up with rocket-propelled grenades. Be in no doubt: there is no moral equivalency between Israel's right to defend itself and what Hamas did on 7 October.

For the Greens to try to move a motion today which would effectively reward Hamas for its atrocities is a stain on that party. It is a stain on their members who are members in this House and the other house. The member for Berowra put it so well when he spoke eloquently this morning: if anybody is thinking of voting Greens at the next federal, state or local government elections, I want you to think you about this day, about 7 October, and remember that it is Israel's right to defend itself. Think about what we would do as a nation if another country did that to us. The Australian people would be looking for the Australian government to defend Australian people—and that is what Israel is doing for its people. Men and women of Australia, when you are thinking about where to put your ballots or your preferences, remember the Australian Greens. I also want to call out the Australian Labor Party, because if the Labor Party thinks that they should be able to take their preferences at the next election, they should be having a very long, hard look in the mirror.

Tim Watts (Gellibrand, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

This is not the first time I have spoken in this chamber—on a suspension motion on this issue from the Greens in the morning, and from the member for Kennedy in the afternoon. As I said this morning, motions of this kind are procedural motions that, members know, are always opposed by the government. They are motions to suspend government business in the House. The opposition to these motions should not be mischaracterised as any reflection on the content of these motions. These are votes that are made the procedural reorganisation of the business, which is the substance of this motion. But today in the parliament, as we have seen in previous days, we have seen multiple crossbenchers seeking to make foreign policy via procedural motions in this parliament. That is not the way we make foreign policy in this government.

Since the appalling terrorist attacks of 7 October, the Albanese government has taken a consistent, principled approach—an approach grounded in bringing Australians together in challenging times, an approach grounded in the leadership that this country needs. We have consistently condemned Hamas's appalling terrorist attacks on 7 October. We have condemned the murder of 1,200 people, the use of sexual violence on that day and the taking of hostages which continues to this day. We have consistently called for the release of hostages, and will continue to do so until they are released. We've said that Israel had a right of self-defence in the face of this attack by Hamas but, equally, the way that it exercises that right matters. It matters that all parties comply with international humanitarian law in this conflict. We have made the point that Israel must comply with the ICJ's interim decision demanding humanitarian access and the provision of humanitarian supplies necessary for the sustainment of life in Gaza.

We have also repeatedly condemned the growing antisemitism we have seen unleashed by this conflict, as we have condemned the growing Islamophobia we are seeing. The Prime Minister, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Foreign Minister and my friend the member for Macnamara have clearly and publicly stood with Jewish communities and faith leaders in the face of antisemitic attacks and vandalism of faith-based schools and places of worship. Just this weekend, the Deputy Prime Minister and the member for Macnamara were at Mount Scopus Memorial College, where they stood in solidarity with that community who were victims of an appalling antisemitic vandalism attack. The member for Macnamara is a former student of Mount Scopus Memorial College, and he said that he was devastated by this act and that it has no place in Australian society—vilification and targeting of a school. The Deputy Prime Minister, who attended with the member for Macnamara, said that it was an appalling act of antisemitism, that it's an issue for the entire nation and that it's absolutely crucial that Jewish and non-Jewish Australians alike are standing up against antisemitism.

That is what we have done and that is why the Prime Minister moved the resolution of this parliament, supported by nearly all MPs, on 16 October 2023. It's a resolution whose principles have remained relevant throughout the horrible months of conflict that have followed. It was a resolution designed to unite this parliament in a common voice. It condemned antisemitism. It recognised that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people, nor their legitimate needs and aspirations, and unequivocally condemned the attacks on Israel by Hamas. It condemned all forms of hate speech and violent extremist activity, including antisemitism and Islamophobia. It recognises that an attack on any religion is an attack on all religions, and that we all share a responsibility to unite, condemn and defeat such an attack on our common values and our way of life. It notes that undermining social cohesion and unity by stoking fear and division risks Australia's domestic security, and it affirms in the strongest possible terms that hateful prejudice has no place in Australia.

Nearly all members of parliament were able to endorse this because it's a unifying statement, a statement of leadership whose principles have remained relevant throughout this conflict. This is what we need to resolve this conflict: peace-building. The only way that we can end this cycle of violence is through a two-state solution, with Israelis and Palestinians living side by side in peace and security within their own states. That takes peacebuilding between the parties. It won't be achieved through procedural motions on the other side of the world in this chamber.

Debate adjourned.