Anne Urquhart (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

(—) (): I seek leave to have the remainder of my speech on the matter of public importance incorporated into Hansard.

Leave granted.

The speech read as follows—

Given the written answer to the second question on notice that Ms Bishop received from the then Minister for Trade, representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs, it is clear that the Abbott government, in questioning the terminology and in questioning the illegality of settlements, was acting in a manner contrary to the accepted or expected standard or practice.

It is clear that the Abbott government has been acting in a perverse manner on the Middle East peace process, and yet what has now happened is that Senator Brandis has been gagged. In his capacity of representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs in the Senate, Senator Brandis, when asked about the response of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's Council of Foreign Ministers to his comments, took the question on notice. Here I would reiterate that the Council had blasted 'the orientation of the Australian government not to describe the city as occupied.'

On the same day as the foreign minister met with the delegation of ambassadors, Senator Brandis appeared on the ABC's 7:30 Report. In the interview, Senator Brandis was asked if he was being censored by the foreign minister. Senator Brandis's response was:

Well, that's not correct. I represent the foreign minister in the Senate.

Senator Brandis was then asked to clarify whether the eastern part of Jerusalem is occupied and, after a heated exchange where he was overly defensive, he stated:

I'm not going to indulge your desire for me to play word games.

As the interviewer reminded Senator Brandis, while he might call these word games, the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation met in Saudi Arabia later that evening, and the Senate is well aware of the Council's comments with regard to Australia's word games. Enough is enough—a clear statement is needed. Australia must hold a clear position on the Middle East peace process that highlights the wrongs of both sides, and does not seek to brush any inconveniences under the table for short-term appeasement of interest groups. For the sake of the peace process and for Palestinians and Israelis, I ask the government to abandon the hastily-announced decision of last week, and to issue an apology to the Palestinian people and their supporters.