Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I will seek further advice, but my recollection is that a call was requested after the attack. My recollection is that, when I last spoke to the Prime Minister's office about this, the call had not yet been scheduled. Obviously, there has been a lot of engagement with the Israeli government, in particular via the ambassador.

I would make this point, and I would encourage all in this place to heed the words of Mr Burgess about the importance of handling issues sensitively, particularly at this time and particularly given the events overnight. We know, as I said when this motion was being debated, this is an issue about which some in Australia's community feel very deeply. We know that there are strongly held different views in our community. We know it is important that all Australians, regardless of their views on this issue, do feel that they are not being excluded and that their perspective and their experience are something that those in leadership positions, those in this parliament, are aware of. I would continue to urge there to be a mature, measured, bipartisan approach to these issues, given the sensitivity of these matters within the Australian community.