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

The first thing that we all must do—the government is doing, but all of us must do—is to recognise that our words matter. This is a moment where feelings and attitudes in our country are affected obviously by the events we are seeing but also by the words of leaders, by the words of politicians. So the government is working to engage with members of the Jewish community and with members of the Palestinian community and the Muslim community more broadly. I think it was very important. I thank the opposition for their support of a bipartisan motion on this. We may have different political views, but there are times when it is very important that the parties of government speak together, because our multicultural community—our diverse community—which is hurting, really need politicians to be able to speak as one on the key issues that matter, and I thank you for that. (Time expired)