Sophie Scamps (Mackellar, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is for the Minister for Defence Industry and Capability Delivery. On 28 October, Israel's parliament voted to ban UNRWA from the country within 90 days. With aid trucks entering Gaza already at less than seven per cent of pre-war levels and with no viable alternative to UNRWA, the Secretary General of Medecins Sans Frontieres has said that this ban will have catastrophic implications for people in Gaza and the West Bank now and for generations to come. What is Australia doing to ensure that the people of Gaza do not die of starvation and preventable diseases such as polio?

Pat Conroy (Shortland, Australian Labor Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. Let me begin by condemning the attacks of October 7 and the resulting war and civilian deaths. We call for an immediate release of all hostages, for an immediate ceasefire and for the free and unfettered flow of humanitarian aid.

UNRWA does life-saving work, and that's why successive Australian governments have funded it since 1951. The humanitarian situation in Gaza is catastrophic, and only UNRWA has the mandate and the infrastructure to receive and distribute aid on the scale that's needed right now.

UNRWA has also been subject to several external investigations in light of the October 7 attacks, including by former French foreign minister Catherine Colonna and the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services, who concluded that UNRWA was the critical backbone of humanitarian services in Gaza and that there was no proof of systematic terrorism links. Importantly, UNRWA is implementing all recommended reforms.

As the foreign minister said in Senate estimates earlier today, the simple reason why we support UNRWA is that we don't want innocent Palestinian civilians to starve to death. It's as simple as that. We call on Israel to allow free, unfettered humanitarian access to Gaza in line with the International Court of Justice ruling.

The question asked what we are doing. Firstly, we joined with Canada, France, Germany, Japan, South Korea and the UK to urge Israel's Knesset to not proceed with the legislation to ban UNRWA. We've also made our opposition clearly known directly to Israeli authorities in Tel Aviv and Canberra following the legislation's passage. We continue to work through diplomatic channels in Tel Aviv, through the UN and here in Canberra to urge immediate and open access for aid workers and supplies.

We've provided a total of $94.5 million in humanitarian funding to the region since October 2023. This includes $6 million to UNRWA, which continues to flow, along with the other partner agencies we funded in Gaza, including UNICEF, the World Food Programme, the Red Cross, the UN operational services and the UN Population Fund. We've also provided our regular annual contribution of $20 million to UNRWA.

So, to the member's question, we'll continue to urge a reversal of this decision, we'll continue to support urgent humanitarian aid to the region and we'll continue to stand by and urge everyone for an immediate ceasefire and for urgent humanitarian assistance to the region.