Simon Birmingham (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The tragic events across Israel and in Gaza are serious and complex issues. These serious and complex issues in Israel and in Gaza require a far more sombre and considered response than the childish stunts or university tactics that we see from the Australian Greens. The walkouts from this chamber, the waving around of props and the pathetic games that are played at the other end of the chamber on this issue do not reflect in any way the gravity and the seriousness of the circumstances and the issues that are being dealt with by countries and governments right around the world to try to ensure a situation where terrorism is not allowed to prevail but where innocent lives can, ultimately, be protected. They must be the two goals through this crisis: terrorism must not be allowed to prevail, but innocent lives must seek to be protected now and into the future.

The Australian Greens are coming in here again, calling for a ceasefire. A ceasefire under what terms? Because I can tell you the types of terms that a ceasefire should be enabled under. A ceasefire should be one in which Hamas surrenders. A ceasefire should be one in which Hamas surrenders its military infrastructure and its terrorist infrastructure—the types of rocket launchers and other things that they are hiding and have hidden in kindergartens, schools and medical facilities, and behind innocent Palestinian lives, who they use as a shelter and a shield so shamelessly and with such cowardice. Hamas should surrender its leaders, its military operatives and the terrorists who launched the barbaric assault against innocent children, babies, the elderly, young people enjoying a music festival and others on 7 October. Hamas should surrender and unconditionally release the 240 hostages still being held. That would be a ceasefire that helps to ensure terrorism does not win and that, ultimately, innocent lives are protected.

But this motion does not come with those types of expectations, because it comes from a party who could not even bring themselves to vote for a motion condemning Hamas in the first place. We should ask: what would the consequences be of the type of action the Australian Greens seek? The consequences would be an ability for Hamas to re-arm, an ability for Hamas to regroup and, ultimately, an ability from that for Hamas to undertake further terrorist actions, the likes of which occurred on 7 October. The Greens fool themselves if they think that a simple ceasefire today would stop more innocent lives being lost in the future, because it would not. We would see tragic repetition of the types of terrorist attacks that have been undertaken.

The Greens bring this motion to this place today on a day when Australian Holocaust survivors have made a brave, courageous and, indeed, unprecedented joint statement about the impact these events continue to have, with a rise in antisemitism which they see is analogous to the type of division and hatred that was occurring prior to the Second World War. Rather than the types of stunts we see from the Greens, we should be standing united in condemnation of terrorism and in acknowledging that every innocent life lost—a Palestinian life, an Israeli life, any other innocent life lost—is a tragedy and that we all wish to see the actions outlined, for example, in the G7 leader's statement achieved in terms of greater humanitarian access. We all wish, ultimately, to see a world in which Israelis and Palestinians are able to live side by side, free of the threat of terror and free of conflict. But this motion would not achieve that. It would just perpetuate the horrors that are currently being experienced.