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

The coalition in no way supports either the attempt to suspend standing orders or the motion being put forward by the Australian Greens, which once again is a demonstration of the Australian Greens' one-sided, unbalanced attitude towards these issues and a fixation that comes from the Greens that seems to wish to elevate this conflict above all others that tragically occur around the world and, in doing so, seemingly to ignore the many other challenges and, indeed, tragic loss of life that occur around the world.

There is no doubting the fact that there is a tragedy that has been occurring across Gaza, Palestinian territories, and Israel, elevated to new heights on 7 October. What I note is that nowhere in the motion that the Greens seek to have debated nor in the contribution made by Senator Steele-John was the word 'Hamas' mentioned once. Nowhere in the motion that the Greens seek to have debated nor in the contribution by Senator Steele-John were hostages still held by Hamas referenced once. Not once in the motion or in the contribution to the debate have the Greens even indicated any recognition of what triggered the conflict we see right now—of the horrors that occurred on 7 October. Not once were they mentioned.

But let's bring it from 7 October to more recent times because, just a couple of weeks ago, Israel managed to rescue a couple of those hostages who have been held since 7 October by Hamas. From where did they rescue these hostages? From the Rafah region. Why is this notable? Because it's a demonstration yet again of the way in which Hamas doesn't just target, kill and brutalise Israeli citizens—Jewish peoples—but is also shameless in its use of Palestinians and residents of Gaza as human shields. Why else would hostages have been found in the Rafah region?

Now, we all wish to see the loss of life come to an end. We all wish to see a pathway that can enable Israelis and Palestinians to live peacefully side by side. But the prerequisite to being able to live peacefully side by side is to have confidence in the security of that peace, to have confidence and certainty that it will be available so that all peoples can pursue their legitimate aspirations and ambitions in life. That is clearly not possible with Hamas. There is no role for Hamas in the future governance of Gaza or the future governance of Palestinian peoples. There can be no role for them. As I've said in this place before as we've faced these motions from the Greens, a sustainable ceasefire would be one where Hamas releases the hostages they continue to hold—releases those hostages unconditionally—and surrenders their terrorist operatives and their terrorist infrastructure. It is infrastructure has been demonstrated to be a highly sophisticated network of tunnels built throughout Gaza underneath hospitals, schools and other civilian and public infrastructure—again, a demonstration of Hamas's willingness to use the Palestinian people and Gaza residents as shields for those Hamas terrorists as they seek to wage their bloody, brutal and antisemitic war against Israel.

In the weeks since we last met, other things around the world have happened, too. We've just passed the second anniversary of Russia's bloody and brutal invasion of Ukraine. We've seen increasing insurgency by people in Myanmar against the military junta. But do we see the Greens seek to disrupt Senate proceedings with motions on those or any other conflicts? No, we don't, because they are fixated on this issue—because on this issue they seek to score political points rather than deal with the gravity of what is before us. We won't be a part of it. We continue to support the bipartisan motion this parliament passed following the horrors of 7 October.