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

Well, that was quite an inflammatory contribution. It was a hurtful contribution to suggest that somehow the only person in this chamber who cares about lives lost—

I listened to you in silence, Senator Faruqi.

I listened to her in silence, Senator. It was hurtful to suggest the only person in this chamber who cares about the loss of life is Senator Faruqi. That is not the case. We all care about the loss of life. The motion you voted against talked about every innocent life.

This is possibly not the time for a policy discussion, but I noticed in that contribution there was not one mention of terrorism, of Hamas, of hostages. This is not a binary debate. This is a deeply difficult, tragic, complex debate which has a long history and the horrific events of 7 October, and your party declined to support the motion where the parliament condemned them. I would ask the Greens political party to reflect on how they are handling this debate. I would ask them to reflect on whether this is a time when you want to make political differences about political parties or whether this is a time when all of us, as political leaders, might actually need to ensure that we don't amplify the distress and grief that we all know is in our communities—in the Jewish community, too, after the single biggest loss of life since the Holocaust, on any day, as well as in our Palestinian, Arabic and Islamic communities. Maybe our job is not to amplify that distress. Maybe our job is not to foment division in the hope that there is some political advantage. Maybe our job as leaders is to try—