James McGrath (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Shadow Assistant Minister to the Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Hansard source

I am going to read out this matter of public urgency that has been lodged by the Greens:

Given the end of the truce in Gaza and the intensification of the State of Israel's bombing in Southern Gaza, the Australian Government must call for an immediate permanent ceasefire to end the humanitarian catastrophe occurring in Gaza, for the unconditional release of all hostages and political prisoners and for an urgent end to the siege and invasion of Gaza

This is where the Greens are at their absolute worst. The ceasefire came about because Israel sat down and tried to do a deal with Hamas for the release of hostages, over 240 hostages who were kidnapped by Hamas on 7 October, a date that will live in infamy for the State of Israel and for all of those who believe in free Liberal democracies, when terrorists pushed through the border and invaded Israel, a free country, and murdered over 1,200 free people living in Israel.

Not only was there murder and assaults; we saw sexualised violence being used against Israelis, where people were sexually assaulted and then murdered, where people were raped and then murdered. But you don't hear the Greens talking about the sexualised violence that was used against Israeli citizens.

The ceasefire ended because Hamas broke the terms of the ceasefire by failing to release the list of names of hostages, and then started bombing, again, innocent Israeli citizens. The only way to end this war is for Hamas, who are a terrorist organisation, to release the hostages. The release of some hostages is just a tiny reminder of the torture that Hamas has inflicted on hundreds of families, on millions of Israelis, on hundreds of millions of people around this world who believe in freedom and liberty and who are suffering because of the actions of a terrorist organisation.

It is so sad that, in Australia, we have supporters of Hamas, like those people who invaded the hotel in Melbourne last week, targeting the families of hostages—families who were in this building last week, families who were out the front of this Australian Parliament House, families who met with members and senators to talk about their stories such as the mum whose son was murdered. These Hamas supporters in Australia think it is perfectly acceptable to invade a hotel and attack people through that invasion.

We use this word 'antisemitism', and I'm going to call it out for what it is. Antisemitism does not get down to the nuts and bolts of what is ascribed to antisemitism. If you are antisemitic you are anti-Jew, and we've got to call that out. The actions of those protesters in Melbourne last week were anti-Jewish. The actions of Hamas are anti-Jewish. But we shouldn't be surprised that the Greens are like this. We should not forget that Senator Faruqi, the Deputy Leader of the Greens in this chamber, put on Instagram a photo of her standing beside someone holding a sign saying, 'Keep the world clean of Jews'. This is the Greens for you—a party who thinks it's acceptable to put signs like that on social media. Shame on the Greens!