Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion in relation to the response from the ACCC.

Leave granted.

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

The response of the chairman of the ACCC to the Senate motion concerning the anti-Israel BDS campaign against Max Brenner chocolate cafes is, to say the least, disappointing. I also note that this motion was opposed by Greens senators. Since Greens leader Senator Bob Brown took his alleged robust line against Senator Rhiannon's support for the boycott divestment and sanctions campaign, BDS, in the March New South Wales election, Senator Rhiannon has repeatedly needled him on this issue.

After the backlash against the Greens at the March New South Wales election, particularly in the seat of Marrickville, Senator Bob Brown lambasted Senator-elect Rhiannon. Senator-elect Rhiannon's first reaction had been to suggest that the Greens should have done more to explain this issue. She said:

Collectively, we didn't do enough to amplify support for BDS and show that this is part of an international movement.

Senator Bob Brown publicly accused the New South Wales Greens of having mistakenly taken to:

... having their own shade of foreign policy. I've had a good robust discussion with Lee. She and I, not for the first time, have engaged in a very frank discussion about the way the New South Wales election went.

Days later, Senator Bob Brown said:

It's the federal party that makes foreign policy—simple as that.

The New South Wales position was rejected at the National Council of Australian Greens. It was brought forward by New South Wales but rejected last year. On Lateline, Ali Moore asked Senator Brown:

Do you support the policy that New South Wales Greens have for a boycott?

Senator Brown replied:

No I don't and I've said this before publicly, Ali, that it was rejected by the Australian Greens Council last year.

Not long after, Senator-elect Rhiannon staked out her ground:

We have that position in New South Wales and I support the New South Wales position—

she told Sky's The Nation program, adding that it was:

... not something we're taking to the federal parliament.

Then a month later in her blog she threw down the gauntlet, declaring that:

Despite the intimidation, misinformation and abuse in recent months directed towards the Greens NSW, my colleagues in Marrickville and myself, I will not step away from speaking out for Palestinian human rights.

In the context of my work as a federal Senator, this will be just one of many issues I will work on.

Intimidation? To whom she could she have been referring? She then took issue with Senator Brown's assertion about the Greens National Council rejecting BDS:

It is not accurate to say that the Greens National Council rejected a BDS proposal.

… … …

… there was no vote to reject it. A less stringent boycott was supported.

… … …

… The argument that the NSW position is a contravention of the national policy does not stand up.

When the Australian put to Senator Brown Senator-elect Rhiannon's declaration that there had been no national Greens vote against the BDS, he then changed his story. He said:

There has been no vote in favour of the BDS proposal.

That, of course, is in stark conflict with what he previously said, namely that it had been rejected. But Senator Rhiannon repeated her assertion at a Politics in the Pub event in Sydney in July:

One of the pieces of information was that the New South Wales Greens were going against the national policy so the boycott was not in contravention of our national policy. There is a diversity of opinion only about how we take forward the Greens's position.

That begs the question: misinformation from whom? To whom could Senator Rhiannon be referring? In a motion in the Senate after Senator Rhiannon's arrival, Senator Brown squibbed the opportunity to vote against the BDS. In fact, Senator Brown has voted against anti-BDS resolutions in the Senate on numerous occasions now, notwithstanding his declaration on Lateline that he did not support the BDS policy. After their public spat following the New South Wales election, Senator Brown seems to have been at pains to appease his new senator on BDS, but to no avail.

Meanwhile, Senator Rhiannon keeps pushing the boundaries on BDS. Last week while supporting the boycotting of Israeli businesses like Max Brenner's, which do not acknowledge the Palestinian cause, Senator Rhiannon placed a use-by date on her commitment not to push the BDS campaign in the Senate:

I am quite aware that Bob Brown has a different approach on this, that within the federal parliament there isn't the support for this issue at the present time, but in the wider community there is growing understanding about the need to take a stand for Palestinian human rights, so I am not taking this into the Senate at the present time.

We will see how long that lasts.

Finally, I should not fail to congratulate brother David Cragg from the Victorian Trades Hall for finally telling the truth to BDS proponents in the union movement regarding flaws in the logic and integrity of the BDS strategy and the totally repugnant history of boycotting Jewish businesses. I would simply urge the Greens, yet again, and anybody out there who has concerns about the Palestinian cause not to go down this ugly path of boycotting Jewish businesses. The world has been there before, and surely we do not want to go down that path ever again.

With all the background that I have just provided, one wonders why the ACCC has failed to take decisive action given that the activities are clearly designed to hurt those businesses. I understand that Senator Boswell will be expanding on that aspect. I thank the Senate.