Max Chandler-Mather (Griffith, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Yesterday we saw Labor and the Liberals unite together to defend the State of Israel as it carries out a genocide. Labor and the Liberals are on a unity ticket when it comes to supporting Israel's invasion of Gaza. They can come together to condemn the Greens, but where's the action against Israel's genocide? Over 35,000 Palestinians have been murdered, children have been burned alive and babies have been dying in their mothers' arms as they're starved to death by the State of Israel. And what does Labor do? Well, for 48 days they stop UNRWA funding. In February this year, Labor signed a $917 million contract with Israeli weapons company Elbit Systems. That's the company that made the drones that murdered the Australian aid worker. Labor authorises the export of parts for the F-35 jets that are used in Israel. That is complicity in genocide.

Rather than getting angry about being called out and joining with the Liberals in a major-party alliance, how about Labor members in this place take some responsibility? Labor is in government. It could ban two-way arms trade with Israel, but it won't. It could expel the Israeli ambassador, but it won't. Labor can't even recognise the state of Palestine, when 143 countries around the world already have. Even thousands of public servants in the federal Public Service are calling on the Australian government to cease military trade with Israel, lest they be complicit in genocide. This is a government full of cowards and sellouts, and you should all hang your heads in shame.