Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the House of Representatives:

(1) reiterates its unequivocal condemnation of Hamas' terror attacks on Israel which took place on 7 October 2023, in which more than 1,200 innocent Israelis were killed, the largest loss of Jewish life on any single day since the Holocaust;

(2) recognises that hundreds more innocent people were subjected to brutality and violence on that day;

(3) calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all the remaining hostages;

(4) condemns the murder of hostages and the inhumane conditions and violence, including sexual violence, that hostages have experienced;

(5) mourns with all impacted by these heinous acts;

(6) condemns antisemitism in all its forms and stands with Jewish Australians who have felt the cold shadows of antisemitism reaching into the present day;

(7) reiterates Australia's consistent positions to call for the protection of civilian lives and adherence to international law;

(8) mourns the death of all innocent civilians, recognising the number of Palestinian civilians killed in Gaza and the catastrophic humanitarian situation;

(9) supports ongoing international efforts to provide humanitarian assistance in Gaza and Lebanon;

(10) calls for Iran to cease its destabilising actions including through terrorist organisations, the Houthis, Hezbollah and Hamas, condemns Iran's attacks on Israel and recognises Israel's right to defend itself against these attacks;

(11) stresses the need to break the cycle of violence and supports international efforts to deescalate for a ceasefire in Gaza and in Lebanon and for lasting peace and security for Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese and all people in the region;

(12) affirms its support for a two-state solution, a Palestinian State alongside Israel, so that Israelis and Palestinians can live securely within internationally recognised borders, as the only option to ensuring a just and enduring peace;

(13) recognises the conflict is deeply distressing for many in the Australian community;

(14) condemns all acts of hatred, division or violence, affirming that they have no place in Australia; and

(15) reaffirms:

(a) that symbols of terror and discord are unwelcome in Australia and undermine our nation's peace and security;

(b) the undermining social cohesion and unity by stoking fear and division risks Australia's domestic security; and

(c) the responsibility of each Australian to safeguard the harmony and unity that define our diverse society, especially in times of adversity.

Yesterday, on the first anniversary of the October 7 attacks in Israel, we paused to reflect on the horrific terrorist atrocities that reverberated across the world. As we did last October, this parliament comes together again to unequivocally condemn Hamas's actions on that day. On October 7 Hamas sought only to kill and to terrify. They perpetrated their crimes without mercy and without discrimination. Men, women and children were subjected to acts of degradation and humiliation that, a year on, remain beyond comprehension, yet Hamas made this waking nightmare a reality. They chose a holy day on the Jewish calendar to target young Israelis at a music festival, to hunt down men, women and children in their homes and to prey on families—on children and on parents trying to protect their children in what often proved to be their desperate final act.

A year on from that day, when death emerged out of the sunshine, we reflect on all that happened and all the devastation that has followed. We think of the brutality and the cruelty that was inflicted on so many, with such cold calculation. We think of all whose lives and futures were stolen from them that day, as they tried to save themselves and their loved ones, and of all who have had them stolen since. We think of those whose lives remain suspended in the fear and isolation of captivity. And we think of those whose own lives and hearts are so intimately connected with the hostages who were kidnapped that day through the bonds of either blood or the embrace of friendship and community. This has been a year of pain, of loss and of grief.

Last night, I attended the vigil in Moorabbin, Melbourne, where I had the sombre privilege of meeting with a relative of Galit Carbone, the Australian woman who was among those killed on that fateful day. I expressed my condolences and those of our nation. We also heard firsthand the experience of those with relatives and friends who were killed by Hamas on that day, who were killed after being taken hostage or who remain hostages. For so many, this past year must have felt like a cruel eternity. For the friends and families I spoke to prior to the event last night, in their torment of not knowing the fate of a loved one who's been taken hostage or, indeed, having the terrible truth confirmed, October 7 will always be a day of pain.

As we mourn and reflect we also reaffirm a fundamental principle of our shared humanity: that every innocent life matters—every Israeli, every Palestinian, every Lebanese—every single innocent life. It is the terrorists who close their eyes to that powerful, simple truth. It is the terrorists of Hamas who are not only enemies of Israel; they are an enemy of the Palestinian people as well. The number of civilians who have lost their lives over the past year is a tragedy of horrific proportions. An estimated 40,000 Palestinians have been killed. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is devastating.

Our government has consistently and repeatedly called for a ceasefire, for the release of all hostages and for the protection of all civilians. We remain committed to a two-state solution as the path to an enduring peace: two states, Israel and Palestine, living peacefully side by side with prosperity and security for their people—a position that has been bipartisan in this parliament for a long period of time. There can be no possibility of a just future without that. Let's be very clear. Australia's position is consistent with that of other democratic countries. I've issued multiple statements with the Prime Ministers of Canada and New Zealand. We know that it is only through diplomatic efforts that this cycle of conflict and bloodshed can be broken. Escalation denies diplomacy any chance of working. On 26 September Australia joined with 11 other nations, including the US, Canada, France, Germany, the UK and Japan, to call for de-escalation. We agree with every word in the G7 statement of this week:

A dangerous cycle of attacks and retaliation risks fuelling uncontrollable escalation in the Middle East, which is in no one's interest. Therefore, we call on all regional players to act responsibly and with restraint. We encourage all parties to engage constructively to de-escalate the current tensions. International humanitarian law must be respected.

…   …   …

We also reiterate our call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, the unconditional release of all hostages, a significant and sustained increase in the flow of humanitarian assistance, and an end to the conflict. We fully endorse the efforts by the US, Qatar and Egypt to reach such a comprehensive deal, in line with United Nations Security Council resolution 2735. The situation in Gaza is catastrophic, and tens of thousands of innocent lives have been lost. We reiterate the absolute need for the civilian population to be protected and that there must be full, rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access, as a matter of absolute priority.

In his statement, marking the first anniversary of October 7, President Joe Biden said this:

We will not stop working to achieve a ceasefire deal in Gaza that brings the hostages home, allows for a surge in humanitarian aid to ease the suffering on the ground, assures Israel's security, and ends this war. Israelis and Palestinians alike deserve to live in security, dignity and peace. We also continue to believe that a diplomatic solution across the Israel-Lebanon border region is the only path to restore lasting calm and allow residents on both sides to return safely to their homes.

A year on from October 7, Israelis and people across the world are mourning those who were robbed of their lives and futures and waiting anxiously for news of the hostages who remain in captivity. Palestinians are mourning the lives taken from them in the continuing aftermath. So much has been lost; so many loved ones buried. We join all of them in their grief. Tragically, we are seeing the situation worsening. Since late last year, we and others have been expressing this concern about the real risk of the conflict spreading. We are now seeing that come to pass. We unequivocally condemn the actions of Iran and Hezbollah. Iran must cease its destabilising actions, including through its terrorist proxies. Amid their attacks on Israel, Australia steadfastly maintains support for Israel's right to defend itself. We always have, and we always will. We repeat our call for all sides to observe international law.

It is important to recognise that the loss and grief of this past year have been deeply felt here in Australia. Sorrow knows no boundaries. It recognises no differences. Since the atrocities of October 7, Jewish Australians have felt the shadows of the past creeping into the present. We condemn the poison of antisemitism in whatever form it takes. This is a pain the Jewish people should never have had to endure again. The Holocaust is not softened by the passing of time. It doesn't recede into history. It does not offer one the slender comfort of distance.

Our Jewish-Australian community is made up of Holocaust survivors and their children and grandchildren, including, of course, our Attorney-General here in this parliament. The branches of their family trees are heavy with loss and suffering and with acts of survival in the face of overwhelming odds. It is shocking and wrong that in 2024 Jewish people are having to draw on their courage and their resilience again. I want to repeat the message that I have given to all Jewish Australians since the outset: You are not alone; your fellow Australians stand with you. Our social cohesion has been built over the course of generations by people of all backgrounds and from every faith and tradition. All of us take pride in it and all of us must work together to protect it.

This parliament gives all of us a national platform and a national duty to send a message to every Australian: You have the right to be proud of you are; the right to feel safe in your community, whether you wear a yarmulke or a hijab; the right to feel free to live the truth of your faith; and the mere act of your children walking freely to school should just be a regular part of daily life, unremarkable in its happiness. Every time parliament rises and we return to our electorates across this great continent of ours, we can travel along the streets and see synagogues. We can see mosques. We can see churches and temples. As a country and as a people, we're big enough to contain them all, and we're enriched by them all.

Each and every one of us has a responsibility to prevent conflict in the Middle East from being used as a platform for prejudice at home. I want to be clear to anyone who thinks about taking a Hamas or Hezbollah flag to a protest: these symbols are not acceptable. They are symbols of terror. They are illegal, and they will not be tolerated here. Hamas and Hezbollah serve no cause but terror. They have shown themselves to be the enemy of the very people they purport to represent, and we unequivocally condemn any indication of support for such organisations.

Today, as we remember those who were lost, we stand with all those who wait. We stand with all those who endure loss. We stand with all those who endure hope. Let us stand together as a nation and as a parliament in our shared determination to preserve the harmony that makes this the greatest country in the world, knowing in our shared commitment to a just and lasting peace that the truest act of strength is to protect the innocent. That is the truth we must hold on to—the truth of a shared humanity, the hope that peace is possible and the belief that it belongs to all people. To quote the great Dr Martin Luther King:

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

I commend the resolution to the House.

Honourable members: Hear, hear.

And I table this statement from President Joe Biden marking one year since the 7 October attack and the statement from the G7 leaders on recent developments in the Middle East.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Last night in Sydney, along with some of my colleagues, including the member for Berowra, I attended a gathering of people from the Jewish community. There were 12,000 people in total. The emotion was raw, and, to mark the first anniversary, there were a number of fine speakers who contributed to the debate, including the New South Wales Premier, Chris Minns. We heard from a number of people who had experienced firsthand the tragedy of lives being ripped from them—people who attended the Nova music festival, people who saw their friends mown down in the desert, people who had been living in the kibbutz and those who experienced loved ones losing their lives at the hands of the barbaric acts of Hamas as they crossed the border. To this day, as we know, over 100 people are still unaccounted for—people who are held in tunnels, in captivity, people who have been tortured and raped and people who have been killed with certainty. We know that.

The tragedy on that day, where 1,200 people lost their lives, was the greatest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust, where six million people were tortured, gassed and murdered. For the Jewish community, as was noted last night by many of the contributors, the last 12 months have been a truly shocking experience, particularly in our country. That's not just because of the loss of 1,200 and the indiscriminate way in which those men, women and children were attacked, but also because of the response here in Australia and the rise of antisemitism. The attack took place on 7 October. Israel hadn't responded. On 9 October, on the steps of the Sydney Opera House, people started their chants, saying, 'Where are the Jews?' It was eerily similar to what we saw in the period of the 1930s. It started on 9 October in this country, and it has run largely unabated over the course of the last 12 months. The Prime Minister himself has outlined details of his own office being protested at and picketed and some of the vile acts that we've seen supported by the Greens political party and others.

There's the antisemitism which is now rife on university campuses, where, for months and months and months, people of Jewish heritage—whether they were students or lecturers or visiting fellows or whatever it might have been—were treated as Jews have been treated over the course of history: with disdain and with hatred and with racism. Those campuses have held those protests over a long, long period of time—over many months.

We know that we've got Jewish schools in this country that have armed guards permanently present, so that young children can go to receive their education without the threat of a terrorist attack. We know that there are aged-care facilities in Australia housing elderly, aged, people of Jewish heritage, Jewish Australians, to protect them from an attack. We know that graffiti has been scribbled on the walls of Jewish schools and places of worship.

What has happened over the last 12 months is something that our country should be ashamed of. So last night, in New South Wales; in Melbourne, where the Prime Minister attended; here in Canberra, in a service that was organised by His Excellency, the ambassador; and at many other points across the country, people held a moment's silence for the loss of October 7.

On Saturday, I wrote to the Prime Minister suggesting that we should arrive at a bipartisan position and bring a motion before the House to mark the anniversary of October 7. This motion was supposed to be about October 7—about the loss of human life in the circumstances that were just graphically outlined and that people across the world now have come to understand. I proposed to the Prime Minister a motion which was balanced and objective, and I appreciated the engagement with the Prime Minister when I met with him this morning. Regrettably, we've not been able to arrive at a position of bipartisanship in relation to this matter.

I think, when you go to the detail of what the Prime Minister has proposed, it becomes clearer why the coalition cannot support this motion before the House at the moment. As has been remarked by many commentators over the course of recent weeks, this government has sought to walk both sides of the street in relation to what has been a very divisive debate for our country. It's what, in part, has given rise to the antisemitism that we've seen in university campuses but across society more generally. It's what making the survivors of the Holocaust, for the first time in their lives in our country, say that they feel unsafe here in the current environment.

So in the motion moved by the Prime Minister today are not just words of comfort and words of recognition in relation to October 7—and I acknowledge those words in his motion. But of course, it goes beyond that, and it's an extension of the way in which the Prime Minister has conducted the debate and himself over the course of the last 12 months, trying to please all people in this debate. Now is not the time to call for, as the Prime Minister does in his motion—and I'll quote the words to the House, Mr Speaker, because I'm not sure that the Prime Minister did; the words included in the motion at (11) say:

… stresses the need to break the cycle of violence and supports international efforts to de-escalate, for a ceasefire in Gaza and in Lebanon, and for lasting peace and security for Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese and all people in the region …

There are other sections here which go well beyond the intent of what should be a motion to mark the loss of life of 1,200 people, on the first anniversary—that's what this motion was to be about. But, of course, the Prime Minister is trying to speak out of both sides of his mouth, and that is not something that we will support in relation to this debate.

None of us support the loss of civilian life, and everybody in this place, I'm sure, condemns the actions of a terrorist organisation—a listed terrorist organisation, Hamas—when they put tunnels under schools and under hospitals, when they bury bombs and they store their ammunitions in residential buildings, knowing that they're using people as human shields.

But today is the day when this parliament was meant to mark what should be a solemn moment—when 1,200 people lost their lives. That is the position we put to the House. We know that under the government's rule here in the chamber they won't allow amendment to the motion moved by the Prime Minister, which is what has put us in a very difficult position. It is a deliberate strategy by the government not to allow any correspondence to be entered into to. As I've said, we've gone backwards and forwards with the Prime Minister and his office this morning, in good faith, but have not been able to reach agreement in relation to this matter.

I think it says to Australians that on this day—8 October, the first sitting day after the 7 October anniversary—this Prime Minister wasn't able to lead a moment of bipartisanship in this parliament. In my memory, that is without precedent, Prime Minister. There has always been a bipartisan position between your predecessors. You're citing Biden, France, Hawke, Keating. But you don't mention Rudd; you don't mention Gillard. There has been a position of bipartisanship on these issues, and your predecessors would have had the decency to respect the Jewish community in a way that you have not done today. For that, Prime Minister, you should stand condemned.

We have put to this Prime Minister a more than reasonable position, and the Prime Minister has rejected that position for his own political domestic advancement, and that has been recognised by millions of Australians, and for that the Prime Minister should be condemned. It is unbelievable. It is this Prime Minister who has departed from the precedent of the Labor Party—people who should be speaking up, people who should be out there advocating a position, as Bill Shorten is and as many people in the Labor Party are able to do, but not this Prime Minister. The Prime Minister has taken a position today that has further diminished the Australian Labor Party and his standing with the Australian public.

Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It takes a long time to grow a tree, but it can be cut down in an instant. When you think about what happened on 7 October, you think about how the lives of too many innocent people were cut down in an instant. I think about the Nova Music Festival, where hundreds of young people were out there celebrating. I've been to music festivals just like it. I know that many people in all our electorates go to music festivals, to go and be free and be young. Yet those lives were taken, and you hear stories of people not knowing which way to escape, not knowing which way to turn, not knowing which way was safe. That is what happened on October 7.

I went to Kibbutz Kfar Aza. The young people were on the border of the kibbutz. They were the first people attacked. You see the scale of these areas. It wasn't an operation by a small group of people; it was a large operation of people who took machine guns and went and targeted civilian people. I think about when we went to Sderot, a town commonly known as one of the most bombarded towns in the world. If you're in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem, it takes about 90 seconds from when the siren goes off to when a rocket will land. In Sderot you've 10 to 15 seconds to get to a bomb shelter. We were there, and I saw the CCTV footage of a father holding his daughter in his arms, leaving a car, running for safety for those 10 to 15 seconds. He was killed in cold daylight.

These images are ones that haunt me every single day. I mourn for those who lost their lives, and I think about the experience of the Jewish people and the Jewish community who look back at that day, at the largest loss of Jewish life, of our people, since the 1940s. It breaks my heart, and it broke our community's heart. In synagogues around this country the pain still lives with each and every Jewish Australian. I think to myself: how do you move forward from that; how do you bring people with you and reach from that moment of darkness towards a moment of a better future? It is so hard, because here in Australia the Jewish community, like so many around the world, have experienced a rise in antisemitism that I have never experienced in my lifetime. You only have to go online. I'm sure that any person in this place who has made a comment about this conflict will know that the sort of hate you receive back is just extraordinary. It's relentless and it's devastating.

Often the way it's targeted at Jewish people here in Australia is that somehow they don't deserve a place and time to have a say, to make a contribution to this debate. I think about what's happened in our schools. I think about what happened to my office, for goodness sake. It wasn't a comment on the Middle East; it was a comment showing me with horns on my head. I'm a proud Australian. I love this country. I love what this country has given me, what it has given my family and what it has given my community. But that sort of nonsense doesn't belong on our streets. I think about the fact that on our streets we've had some of the most aggressive and unnecessarily confrontational protests, with people holding up symbols of hate and terror. That doesn't belong on our streets either.

I say that all of this, the darkness and devastation that has happened to me, my family, my community and my country, is real. I also ask how, knowing all of that, we can extract ourselves from this and recognise that we are all humans, that we have a shared humanity. I think of my friends in the Palestinian community—and I have many—and my friends in the Lebanese community. Do they not feel the same anxiety and pain when they look at families back home? Do they not feel, when looking at war, the same sense of loss and devastation that my own community feels? Surely the lesson of all of this, knowing what I and my community have been through, is not to think, 'How do I scream the loudest? How do I ensure I get my place in the sun,' but, rather, 'How do I open my hand, reach out to other communities and say: "We are all one human race. We are all one people. We all want to live and we all want to hand over to our community and our kids the keys to a future in a world of peace and dignity"'?

I want to see Israelis be able to live and work free from the threat of terror and violence. I want to see Palestinian kids grow up knowing that they have a future too. I want to see Lebanese families be able to live comfortably. I know that the destabilising forces in the region, led by Iran, are having devastating impacts right across the region. The world needs to be alive to that and honest about it, and we must be a part of the international efforts to confront that terror. But I also know that here in Australia we can do more to reach out to each other. I say this as a proud Jewish Australian: the Palestinian people and the Lebanese people are not my enemies. We are all people. We all must think about the future that we need to build together.

Today, in this place, this motion recognises the pain of 7 October. It recognises the fact that, for no excusable reason, thousands of militants came in and ripped apart communities and traumatised a country. There are still over a hundred hostages in the tunnels of Gaza right now, and that is causing the most devastating pain for people right around the world and, of course, in Israel. I also recognise the fact that we are all humans, and that Yitzhak Rabin and many other giants of Israeli society didn't seek war; they sought to build peace. Those who seek to build peace will be remembered kindly by history. We have to be the peace builders, too, and we have to be the people here in Australia who say to all communities and all Australians: you belong; you are part of Australian society. We want to see a shared future of people who share our humanity, our love of life and our celebration of culture, diversity and multiculturalism. We want to see a better future for all people—for those here in Australia, for the Israelis and Palestinians and for all people in the region as well.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today we think of the 1,200 men, women and children, citizens of more than 30 countries, who were slaughtered by Hamas in the largest murder of Jewish people on a single day since the Holocaust. We think of babies being slaughtered in their cots. We think of women and girls being raped. The depravity is almost incomprehensible, but for some it seems not worth mentioning. To some in our own country it has been a point of elation. The number 1,200 does not do justice to the lives of the people. Today we think of those who perished.

We think of Eli, who was 42. When the attacks started, his sister phoned him from the Nova Music Festival. She urged him to stay away, but he set out to try to find her. He died attempting to save his sister, whose body was found several days later. We think of Margarita, who was 21. She loved art. Three days after her murder, alongside her boyfriend, Simon, her family received notice that she had passed the entrance exam for her studies to become a doctor, something she had always dreamed of. Nitikorn 'Lee' Sae Wang was 26. Lee was from Chiang Rai, in Thailand. He had borrowed money to travel to Israel to earn money for his family so they could start a new life. He was murdered before he even got a chance to meet his son, to whom he was trying to give a better life. Yehudit was born in 1947 in a displaced persons camp for Holocaust survivors. She loved Barbara Streisand and Dolly Parton. On the morning of October 7, she hid in her home. The last message she sent was a heart emoji to her grandson. Her body was found in her garden, where she had been dragged before being slaughtered.

Last night I attended the communal commemoration in Sydney, an extraordinary night of Australians peacefully mourning the loss of lives of Jewish people around the world. Twelve thousand Australians—roughly one in four people in the Sydney Jewish community—were there. I met the cousin of Naama Levy. We've all seen the pictures of Naama Levy. She was a 20-year-old triathlete and alumna of Hands of Peace, which promotes peace among Israeli and Palestinian youth. She volunteered for organisations like the Red Cross and the UN. We haven't seen pictures of her doing that, but we have seen the footage on our social media of Hamas dragging her from the boot of a vehicle, her hands bound and her sweatpants stained with blood, while her abductors chanted, 'God is great!' Naama Levy remains a hostage, along with 100 other people who were taken that day. They are somewhere under Gaza and still haven't been returned. We must bring Naama and all the other hostages home now. These are the thoughts that we should be having today.

Last night the Leader of the Opposition received no fewer than four standing ovations for his speech. To the Jewish community of this country, the Leader of the Opposition has been heroic. He has been thoroughly clear not only on the terrible attacks that occurred in Israel but on standing against antisemitism in this country and on continuing to stand with Israel, as a Western liberal democratic country in the Middle East.

Before the last election, senior Labor figures told the Jewish community in the Australian Jewish News that there would be no difference between Labor and the coalition on Israel and the Jewish community. As I've said, no greater falsehood has ever been told in the history of Australian politics. Even before 7 October, we saw Labor changing votes at the United Nations; Labor returning funding to UNRWA, an organisation that has blood on its hands from 7 October; and Labor changing its recognition of the capital of Israel. And we've seen that line continue since today.

The Leader of the Opposition is right about the origin of this motion. I know he's right because he consulted me before he put the words for this motion to the Prime Minister. The motion that the Leader of the Opposition came up with was a good motion. It was a motion that could have achieved bipartisan support. What do you do to achieve bipartisan support? You recognise that this side of the House and that side of the House are coming from different perspectives on this issue. You respect and acknowledge that difference, but you try to work through that difference, and, if you can't work through that difference, you leave out words in the motion. Have in the motion the things you can agree on, not the things you can't agree on. I'm sorry that we don't have the motion before the House that the Leader of the Opposition intended when he put forward a motion to the Prime Minister at the weekend. We wanted to see a bipartisan resolution, but there's too much difference in what this motion suggests in relation to the foreign policy of each side of this House.

We can't have a ceasefire at the moment that would allow terrorist organisations—that we list as terrorist organisations in our own country—to regroup and reform and continue to attack innocent civilians. We can't have a ceasefire when Iran continues to lob missiles into Israel, and the only reason that there haven't been more casualties in Israel as a result of this is the Israeli defence systems. We can't have a ceasefire in Israel and the Middle East when the hostages have still not been returned. We can't have a ceasefire when organisations like Hamas and Hezbollah and countries like Iran refuse to recognise the right of the State of Israel to exist. And we cannot be imposing a timetable in relation to a two-state solution without full and proper negotiations on the final-status issues. To go to the United Nations at this time and make speeches which suggest that we should set a timetable today, in the wake of this terrorist activity and the terrorist attack that occurred 12 months ago, and in the wake of the continued rocket attacks, I think fails to read the room.

I don't care, frankly, what other countries do. I care what we do as Australia because Australia has had a wonderful record of always standing with Israel, going back to the time of Doc Evatt, the former Leader of the Labor Party, who sat in the chair at the time that the State of Israel came into being. On this side of the House we continue to stand with Israel because Israel is a Western liberal democratic nation that believes in the rules of law and respects human rights, including those of women, religious minorities and LGBTQI people—people who are not respected by any of these terrorist organisations, or by Iran, for that matter. It is right that our foreign policy should be based on those values, and we should not sacrifice those values at any point or at any time.

That's why we on this side of the House cannot support the motion in its current form. We wish we could. We wish we could amend the motion. We wish we could return to it the words that the Leader of the Opposition put to the Prime Minister over the weekend, because they were good words.

I think the other point that I want to make today is that the antisemitism that we have seen unleashed in our country since 7 October has been unprecedented. The Prime Minister quoted Martin Luther King. Let me provide another Martin Luther King quote: 'In the end, we don't remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.' Too many leaders have been silent and supine in the face of the antisemitism that we have seen in this country. They range from our political leaders, particularly the Greens, some of whom have aided and abetted and encouraged some of the antisemitic activity, to our police force, university leaders and the Human Rights Commission.

I put forward a private member's bill in June of this year to deal with what I regard as the epicentre of antisemitism in this country: universities. I put forward a private member's bill for a judicial inquiry into that fact. It is a bill that is supported by every major Jewish organisation in this country. It is a bill that is supported by the government's own special envoy on antisemitism, Jillian Segal AO. It is a bill that is not opposed by the Human Rights Commission, which was the alternative place to send that inquiry, and it is a bill that is not opposed by the universities, and yet this government refuses to adopt a judicial inquiry into antisemitism on Australian university campuses.

It is appalling that in this country, a country that has been unique in human history in being good to the Jewish people, this government refuses to stand with Jewish students, with Jewish staff and with the Jewish community on something that they've asked for—to take the politics out of this issue and to ensure that we get to the truth of what's been happening for decades on Australian university campuses, where some of these ideas about oppressors and the oppressed, and bad ideas about Israel and bad ideas about Jews are allowed to fester. We can't sit around here and let this continue to fester when we have an opportunity to do something about it. What we've seen with the antisemitism that has grown in this country is that it has grown because of the failure of too many leaders in this place to take action. It's an antisemitism that began long before Israel's retaliations and Israel's operations in Gaza and it's an antisemitism that continues to this day. I'm sorry that we can't vote for the motion, because this should be a day of unity. This should not be a day for petty politics.

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

I thank the Prime Minister for moving this important motion today. It is a grave topic that all of us in this place have an obligation to rise to, to meet this occasion as leaders in this country. On this side of the chamber, as I hope on all sides of the chamber, we meet, as we did on 16 October last year, to give an unequivocal condemnation of Hamas's appalling terrorist attacks in Israel. They were terrorist attacks characterised not just by their brutality, with 1,200 innocent civilians killed, but by the appalling broadcasting of this depravity, a unique innovation in this depraved attack. Hundreds more were traumatised by the attacks, sexual violence and of course hostage-taking, with many still living in Hamas's terrorist tunnels beneath Gaza.

On Sunday night of this weekend, I attended a candle lighting in Sydney: Illuminate October. As a result of the quirk of international time zones, it was the first candle lighting anywhere in the world to acknowledge the loss of life on October 7 and the hostages that are still being held. We heard from Michal Ohana, who gave a powerful testimony as a survivor of the violence at the Nova music festival, where young people meeting to dance were met with appalling violence. We heard from Melissa McCurdie, a Jewish Sydneysider who had multiple members of her family taken hostage on that appalling day. Around the country, Australians meet and have met in the preceding days to express their shared humanity and their outrage at these attacks. It is a basic act of human decency to mourn the loss of life that we have seen. It's a basic act of decency to recognise our shared humanity as Australians and to express our shared devastation at the loss of civilian life on October 7 and in the following 12 months, with 40,000 Palestinian deaths and many innocent Lebanese civilians killed in the last week. We mourn all civilian deaths—Israeli, Palestinian and Lebanese—that have been unleashed by the appalling events of October 7.

That's why we are focused in our foreign policy on the protection of innocent civilian life. It's why we've contributed $84.5 million in humanitarian assistance. It's why we've advocated for sustained and elevated humanitarian assistance to be provided into Gaza. It's also why we've advocated for restraint and de-escalation from all parties. It's why we've emphasised the importance of urgent diplomatic solutions in the region and ceasefires in Gaza and in Lebanon. Diplomacy cannot succeed in the context of military escalation. That's why we've condemned Iran's indiscriminate and irresponsible missile attacks. It's why we've condemned Iran's destabilising actions through its proxies in the region. It's why we've condemned Hezbollah's appalling missile attacks into Israel. We recognise Israel's right of self-defence in international law. We also recognise that the only enduring solution to this conflict is a diplomatic solution. The only enduring way to conclude this conflict is through a two-state solution where Israelis and Palestinians are able to live side by side in peace, prosperity and security.

I want to dwell on one of the points of this motion. The member for Berowra said that we should leave things out of this motion if we can't agree on them. I just want to dwell on point 11. It reads:

… stresses the need to break the cycle of violence and supports international efforts to de-escalate for a ceasefire in Gaza and in Lebanon, and for lasting peace and security for Israeli, Palestinian, Lebanese and all people in the region …

I would have hoped this was something that we could all agree on. This is a motion where all of us have an obligation. All of us in this parliament, and throughout our nation, have an obligation to rise to this grave moment. An aspiration for peace is surely something that we can all agree to. Diplomacy cannot succeed in the context of escalation, and that is also true in the context of rhetorical escalation. All of us in this place, all of us in Australian society—all leaders in our society—have an obligation to model the kind of engagement and empathy that we need, to see an enduring solution to the conflict in the Middle East.

I want to endorse the outstanding contribution to this debate by my friend the member for Macnamara. He's been a leader that we've been able to look to in Melbourne, across all communities, and I'm proud to call him my friend. I should note that my office has been vandalised many times in the last 12 months too, but no-one has ever drawn devil horns on my head. Josh, the member for Macnamara, gave an interview on the ABC this week, and I just want to quote what he said:

The Jewish community has spent the past year in mourning; praying for those taken hostage to return home and grappling with an unprecedented rise in domestic anti-Semitism. There is a collective grief which is hard not to feel, and I know it will take generations to recover …

There are many communities impacted by the past year and we must do all we can to show empathy and talk to one another because if we can't do that here in Australia, how do we expect those in the region to?

As hard as this year has been, I haven't lost hope of peace. No matter how far away it seems, we must hold onto that hope.

We should reflect on that in this building. If we can't model that here in Australia, then, on the other side of the world, how can we ask those who are parties to this conflict to model that?

We've seen an appalling rise in antisemitism and in Islamophobia in Australia as this conflict has raised tensions in our community. We have not been silent about that in this place. The leaders in this place have not been silent. We have called it out regularly and directly.

We also need to see empathy. There are so many in our community that are carrying trauma at the moment. I speak as a representative for the significant Lebanese-Australian community. I'm proud to represent them in this place. I've spoken to them. I know the terror and the fear that they feel for their friends and families still in Lebanon. I reiterate the call we've been making in recent weeks. Australians in Lebanon: Now is the time to leave. I know it's a heart-wrenching decision, but it's in your interest, for your safety, to make that decision to leave now and to take one of the assisted flights leaving the region that DFAT has organised.

All of us here have an obligation, as leaders, to model the empathetic engagement that we need to see. Horrible things happening on the other side of the world are not a licence to behave horribly in our community. We're a diverse country—half of Australians were either born overseas or have a parent born overseas. Naturally, that means we'll have different perspectives on issues. We have different histories. We come from different starting points. We've got to find a way to live together in our country—in our schools, in our workplaces, in our sporting teams and in our communities. The only way we can do that is by doing less condemning, by doing less shouting, by doing more listening and by doing more empathising. We need to recognise that many of the people working side by side with us—many of our teammates on our sporting teams and many of our classmates—are carrying real trauma from the conflict that we've seen in the Middle East since October 7. We need to have a bit of empathy for that. We need to find space in our hearts to hear the suffering of our fellow Australians. Our country relies on that. If we can't do that as Australians, our nation can't continue. That's what we mean when we talk about social cohesion. It means getting on. Cohesion is not an end state—it's a verb; it's a process. It happens every day in our society.

There are many things that we can disagree about in this conflict, but the way we disagree matters. We've got to disagree in a way that recognises that we have more in common as fellow Australian citizens than what divides us. We've got to disagree in a way that doesn't close off the possibility for us to live side by side. We've got to disagree in a way that recognises our fellow humanity. That's an obligation on all of us in this place. It's something that I'm proud to have seen the Prime Minister model, something I'm proud to see the foreign minister model and something that I'm proud to see the diverse representatives of our government of all faiths model since the appalling terrorist attacks of October 7.

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Government Services and the Digital Economy) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

On October 7, one year ago, Israel experienced an horrific, unprovoked attack by the barbaric terrorist organisation Hamas. Some 1,200 men, women and children were killed, over 200 people were taken hostage and some of those sadly have since been killed. A small number have been released. It's estimated that just over 100 are still held, and we hope and pray for them to be released.

I want to acknowledge the leadership of the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Berowra in their clear, public statements in relation to how we, as the Australian nation, should respond to these dreadful events. Let's be clear: dreadful events have been continuing since 7 October 2023 because, of course, the terrorist organisation Hezbollah, which controls much of Lebanon, has been firing missiles into Israel, forcing some 70,000 people to leave their homes. It's clear that Hamas and Hezbollah are client organisations of the brutal theocratic regime in Iran. In recent months, as well as experiencing military aggression from these two terror organisations, Israel has come under extensive drone and missile attack directly from Iran.

Iran and its various front organisations represent a profound threat not just to the existence of the State of Israel but also to the liberal democratic values which underpin Australia and like-minded nations around the world. That is a key reason why our response, as a nation and as a parliament, to these dreadful events is of enormous importance. We have seen exceptionally troubling developments in this country since that time. We have seen people celebrating this act of terrorism and the appalling murder, violence and sexual violence which accompanied it. We've seen a rise of antisemitism which has led to many Jewish Australians for the first time feeling unsafe. I'm proud to represent an electorate which has the second-largest Jewish community of any in New South Wales, and I have met with my constituents who have told me they feel unsafe, who have told me of episodes of their children being exposed to antisemitic bullying and harassment in school. Sadly, this is something which is facing our Jewish community.

This is a real test of what is special about the Australian nation. We are all intensely proud of living in this enormously successful, multicultural, multi-ethnic, multiracial, multifaith nation, and our success reflects a profoundly Australian spirit of mutual tolerance, understanding and respect. It is vital that we maintain that spirit. A small number—a minority of people, but a troubling minority—are seeking to import into Australia sectarian hatred and violence which have no place here. We see this in the language and symbols used in the pro-Hamas, pro-Hezbollah protests, and there can be little doubt that agents of the Iranian regime are also involved. The great majority of Australians are rightly dismayed at these developments, and Australians recognise that this is a test for our nation and for the leadership of our nation. It is a test which demands in response strong and unequivocal leadership. It is a test which demands in response moral clarity. But we have not seen that from this Prime Minister and this government. We have seen, on a daily basis, calculations as to which gradations of words to use, informed by domestic political considerations and assessments of which seats in Western Sydney may be at risk. This is so much more important than those petty political considerations. This is a contest between good and evil, and we need a clear statement of that, a clear recognition of that.

That brings me to the reason the coalition cannot support the motion in the words it takes, in the form it takes, before the House today. As the Leader of the Opposition and as the member for Berowra eloquently explained, this wording, particularly paragraph (k), is not wording that we're in a position to support. And I note that the changes to the standing orders imposed by the government for this debate specifically prohibit any amendments to the wording of this motion. When we see language about the cycle of violence which makes no reference to how that cycle of violence commenced—with an unprecedented attack in which 1,200 innocent men, women and children were killed—we see the kind of language that reveals the lack of moral clarity that has been a consistent feature of the weak and equivocating positions taken by the Prime Minister and by other senior Labor ministers.

Let's be clear: of course everybody wants to see the people of Israel, the people of Gaza, the people of Lebanon and the people of other Middle Eastern nations living in peace and prosperity. But it is utterly fanciful to think that this objective will be achieved by pressing Israel to take no action in the face of repeated murderous attacks from terrorist organisations that are committed to the destruction of the State of Israel. To ignore that grim reality is to ignore the fundamental challenge and issue here. Unfortunately, the language of this motion reflects the continued equivocation of this Prime Minister and of this government on what should be an issue where there is clarity, an issue where it is accepted and understood and recognised that this is a conflict between good and evil.

I want to quote from Israel's ambassador to Australia, His Excellency Amir Maimon, who said Israel 'did not ask for this war'. He said:

We did not start this war, but we are determined to win this war, not just for our own sake, but for the sake of the free world.

This isn't just another conflict. This is a battle between good and evil, between life and the forces of destruction.

I want to emphasise those words: 'a battle between life and the forces of destruction'. As the member for Berowra eloquently spoke about, the images, the videos from the appalling attack on October 7—horrifyingly, videos taken and distributed in many cases by the terrorist attackers—show people celebrating indiscriminate violence and brutality against men, women and children, including sexual violence: glorification of this horrific treatment of other human beings.

In these circumstances, the response of the State of Israel—a democracy, a longstanding ally and security partner of Australia, a country that is and should be a beacon of hope for nations around the world—to defend itself, to defend its people, to restore order, is a response that is appropriate and proportionate. It is regrettable in the extreme that, at a moment when we should have been able to come together with a motion of this parliament marking the one-year anniversary of this appalling event, the Prime Minister was unable to bring himself to use language which recognised the stark moral clarity of what has occurred here. It is deeply disappointing that the coalition has been put in this position. It is so important that, on this anniversary, we acknowledge the horror and the loss and we express our support for the people of Israel.

Zoe Daniel (Goldstein, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In Goldstein there are children who have barely slept since the Hamas terrorist attacks on October 7 last year. Having a family history linked to the Holocaust means that even small children are aware of what can happen. Some have refused to go to school for much of the time since. One primary-school-aged child that I know of was only convinced to attend school when he knew that armed guards would be there to protect him—in Melbourne, Australia.

People in our community who are not Jewish say, 'Why is this our problem here?' It's because of the threads that bind us to Israel via our large Jewish communities in Sydney and Melbourne, many of whom live in my electorate of Goldstein, just as, in other parts of Melbourne and Australia, Palestinians have settled, also seeking peace. Everyone deserves that simple thing. I note the opposition leader's comments arguing that mentioning both sides in this conversation is unhelpful today. Respectfully, I disagree. The pain of more than one group of people can coexist, no matter where that pain began. Shouting at each other in this place does not cancel out anyone's pain either. I would argue that that's actually what's unhelpful. This isn't a political conversation, or it shouldn't be.

In Goldstein we welcomed refugees from the Holocaust. We offered them and their families refuge and safety, and they have flourished. In Caulfield, in Elsternwick and in Balaclava, especially, they have grown families and lives. Like my neighbours, the members for Macnamara and Isaacs—who I offer my sincere support to for the anxiety that they and those around them have suffered this year—they hoped the terror would never find them again. But it did on October 7, from across the seas. The spike in antisemitism since has been horrifying.

On the weekend I attended the 100th birthday of Abram Goldberg. Abram last saw his mother as they lined up in Auschwitz in 1944. As he told the Australian Jewish News in 2022:

When we lined up and heard the screams from the SS—'men one side, women and children the other side'—my mother realised that she was not going to get out alive …

And in those few, precious moments she told me, 'Abram, you should do everything humanly possible to survive and when you will survive, wherever you will find yourself, you should tell people what actually happened.'

Abram's mother was immediately sent to the gas chambers. He has since kept his promise, telling his story with bravery, generosity and understanding to all. As he said at his birthday party on Sunday, 'There is no place for hate between people, no matter their colour.' I have heard Abram speak several times and each time I've learnt and grown from hearing his story. I have learnt about humanity.

As we pass this anniversary we must continue to press for the release of all hostages, for a ceasefire and for parties to come to the table. This will require carefully calibrated international and regional leadership to create a regional peace framework, to keep the peace in Gaza, to dismantle Hamas and to build an organisation capable of leading the Palestinian territories on a reasoned path through negotiations with Israel. Protests are understandable, but they won't fix it.

I did hope to see bipartisan support today—to see a day that changes the conversation to one of hope. This is apparently not that, sadly. War is real. War is bloody. War is tragic. War is avoidable. As the conflict escalates into the region—attack, retaliate, attack, retaliate—soon it will be impossible to arrest that cycle. The word we need now is 'de-escalate'. We must, because the safe and secure future of the Israelis and the Palestinians is intertwined—and with our own stability, too.

Last night, I joined thousands of members of Melbourne's Jewish community to mark one year since October 7. I wasn't sure what to expect on such a difficult and emotional day, but what I felt there amid, among and between that crowd was love. Let us find our shared humanity.

Kevin Hogan (Page, National Party, Shadow Minister for Trade and Tourism) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Let me first start with what we do agree on in this chamber. I firstly want to acknowledge three members of this chamber: the member for Isaacs, the member for Macnamara and the member for Berowra. They are Jewish, or from Jewish descent, and this October 7 was obviously a very traumatic day for them, for the Jewish community and indeed for the wider community.

We have all seen the vision. We've all heard the stories and we've all read reports about what happened on that day, just over a year ago. I remember talking to someone not long after the event, and I think they described it very well. They said that evil walked the earth that day. These were human beings. We have had some nice platitudes in the sense that we're all human beings, but we have to remember there were human beings that day who thought it was okay to shoot an unarmed teenager in the face. There were human beings that day that thought it was okay to kill babies. There were human beings that day that were happy to do some of the most horrific, barbaric things that a human being can do to another.

We need to realise what we are dealing with here. If you speak to soldiers who have been engaged in armed conflict, defending their country, they will almost universally talk about the horror for them when they have killed a fellow human being. They did it in defence of their country. They did it because there was an armed conflict going on. What makes this worse is that not only were these people not armed, not only were these people women, children, teenagers at a music festival and normal civilians going about their work, and not only was the way they were killed the most barbaric, inhumane way you can kill people—but their killers celebrated it. That's what makes this all the more horrific. How do we know they celebrated it? They filmed it. They were jumping around excited. They were dragging young women out, who had been raped and brutalised, and they were running around excited about that. They were taking hostages back to their communities, and there were euphoric scenes about that. That's what we're dealing with.

As a country, Israel has suffered something on a barbaric level that very few countries see very often. We can all agree with that. I'm sure there is no person in this chamber who does not agree that what happened that day, and the celebration around it, was horrific, barbaric, and not okay. So, good, we all agree with that—as we should and we speak very strongly about that. Now, what we're talking about is what do we do as a country, and what do we do as a government, in response to that? That's where the disagreement is. As my colleague the member for Berowra said—I thought very eloquently—we've got to remember that Hamas and Hizballah are terrorist organisations. If you say to Israel, 'You need to negotiate a ceasefire,' you're talking about negotiating a ceasefire with people who killed babies, celebrated raping people and did very barbaric acts—that's who you're negotiating with. For them to put that pressure on Israel, saying, 'What you're doing is not okay and you should be signing up to a ceasefire,' when these people still hold hostages and have celebrated their barbaric acts—Israel doing this in a state of self-defence to make sure it doesn't happen again but also to try to get those hostages returned to their country is very understandable, I think. It's why I'm very supportive of Israel's response to this, and the fact is that, unfortunately, this motion went places I thought it shouldn't.

The other thing I want to touch on is my horror at what has happened in Australia since then. Let's not forget that there was a celebration of this event—that barbarianism—at the opera house within 24 hours. That's what we also have to acknowledge in this chamber and acknowledge as legislators, given that we as ministers, and state ministers, look after the police forces and whatever. There are many people, unfortunately—thousands of people, I think, in Australia now—who celebrate that. Sure, there is a wider conflict; there is a wider story here about Palestine and about the Middle East. It is a very complex situation, and I respect differences of opinion on that. But at the moment we are dealing with two barbaric terrorist organisations who did barbaric things, and there are people celebrating that in Australia. I think, both as Australian police forces and Australian governments, we need to do more in communicating that that is not okay at any level, and we have to support Israel defending themselves against these barbaric acts.

Allegra Spender (Wentworth, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to mark the solemn one-year anniversary of Hamas's October 7 terrorist attack on Israel, a devastating attack that claimed more Jewish lives in a single day than any since the Holocaust. October 7 was not just an assault on Israel; it was an affront to humanity. Men, women and children were slaughtered without mercy—not just Israelis and not just Jews; they were from 30 countries and five religions. They were tortured, murdered, raped, taken as hostages. This was not a military intervention. These were not soldiers or military targets. They deliberately targeted civilians—men, women, children, grandchildren—to drive fear and horror and undermine any sense of safety. And people were frightened. This attack awakened family memories of antisemitic attacks at different times and in distant nations. But we cannot let the terrorists write this story. We have to write a new story after this.

And so last night I was part of a wonderful commemoration of October 7. Over 10,000 people came together in my community to mourn but also to stand together in strength. We heard it from young Israelis who survived October 7, and we saw it in the courage of the families and friends of hostages in those commemorations last night. These are the people who have stood with strength.

The events of October 7 have had a devastating impact not just on Israelis. They have created a horrifying loss of life on all sides, because Hamas didn't just kill Israelis; it led to a devastating loss of life of Palestinians. Hamas didn't protect the people it claimed to lead. It hid its weapons behind civilians and it used them as human shields. Over 40,000 Palestinians have died, many of them innocent civilians. This has now escalated into a broader conflict with Hezbollah, the Houthis and Iran—an axis of evil that seeks to plunge the region into deeper violence and instability, which I condemn.

Once again, I acknowledge what people have said about the antisemitism that people have seen in this place, and to be honest this is one of the biggest concerns of my community, which has the biggest Jewish community in the country. I have heard children talk about being abused on the street for being Jewish, and there are kids who are afraid to go into university because they are Jewish. This is unacceptable.

But I have to talk briefly to this motion. I was not part of the bickering of the major parties that has led to this divided House today, and I am so disappointed. I condemn October 7. I condemn the actions of Hamas. I mourn the Israelis that have died. But I also mourn the innocent Palestinian and Lebanese civilians that have died. These people are somebody's children.

I wish that we as a parliament could come together and lead in a united way. I would have supported this motion had it been separated into two motions—one on October 7 and one recognising the pain that the last year had brought—even on separate days. We could have found a way through this, and I am once again disappointed by this House and the politicisation of this issue, because the country is looking for us to come together. The country is hurting. There are people who have lost friends and family across our communities. They are hurting, and we are not helping these people. On the record—because I know this is politicised—I do support Israel's right to defend itself and its right to respond right now. I do not support a one-sided, imposed ceasefire on Israel. I'm entirely clear of this. But, of course, like so many other people, I pray for peace. I believe the only way we will get that, ultimately, is if we have two states living next to each other. This is a peace that I pray for, and I wish to God that this parliament could actually make a contribution towards it.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question before the House is that the motion moved by the Prime Minister be agreed to.