Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

What I am trying to do today is get this chamber to acknowledge the thousands of Palestinians that have been massacred brutally over the last 35 days by the State of Israel. These are the names that you don't want to talk about here. These are the names that you don't want to acknowledge, because, for many, these people are not considered humans. But these are humans. These are children—children a few months old, babies, one-year-olds, two-year-olds, three-year-olds, four-year-olds, five-year-olds, six-year-olds, seven-year-olds, eight-year-olds, nine-year-olds, 10-year-olds. The list just keeps growing. These are hopes and dreams. These are lives completely snatched away from their loved ones. I met with someone yesterday who has had 42 members of their family murdered in Gaza. Yet the Labor government does not have the heart to call for a ceasefire. The Labor government is seeing a child being killed every 10 minutes but won't call for a ceasefire. It is happy to talk weasel words, but weasel words are not going to stop war crimes. You can't even bring yourselves to condemn Israel for the almost 11,000 killings that they have done.

How much cowardice are we going to see from this government? Truly, have a heart; have a head. Get some guts and stop this massacre. There is a chorus from the world and of world leaders who have joined this call for a ceasefire and who can see the inhumanity and the suffering of people being killed every single day. Can you not see that suffering? Can you not see that humanity? Can you not see that depravity by Israel in continuing to carpet-bomb Gaza and continuing to annihilate Gaza? People are asking me: what is wrong with the Labor government? Why can't they see this? Frankly, I don't have an answer for that. I do not have an answer for that, because I cannot comprehend that a government of this country would let this go on and still shield Israel from these war crimes. I cannot comprehend that, and people out there cannot comprehend it either.

I think shaking our heads in here, like the minister at the table, Senator Wong, is doing, and not actually taking the action that you have the power to take is not going to move us any steps towards a ceasefire. And we don't need steps towards a ceasefire. As we take those steps, people are being murdered every single day. So just do it; just call this for what it is—which is collective punishment, which is war crimes, which is apartheid. Just call it for what it is.

There are people out there who are telling us that they don't want to be used as props anymore when the Labor Party come and take photos with us at our religious events—at Eid, at Ramadan, during iftar. They're tired of it; they're tired of being taken for granted. You need to represent the people who elected you to this place. You need to make sure that you listen to their voices, because people are telling me that this government is not. While that is going on, babies, young children, teenagers, women, older people and men are being murdered every single day. Hospitals are under siege. There are babies in incubators who are now dying. Wake up, Labor! Wake up and call for a ceasefire now!