Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

The proposition that is being advanced this morning by Senator Shoebridge so lacks honesty, so lacks seriousness and so lacks morality. It's the petard upon which Senator Shoebridge hoists himself every day. If you're going to be serious, if you're going to have morality and if you're going to have honesty, do you know what you have to do? You have to tell the truth. You have to have some regard for the facts. You have to have some moral seriousness about the position that you advance, and this political party has never been a serious partner for this government on the most serious international issues.

This proposition that has been advanced is so shallow and so dishonest, and it is designed to achieve only one thing: to dishonestly stoke division in the Australian community. That is what it is for. That is why there are thousands of antisemitic memes being circulated in the Australian community. It's because this show that purports to be a political party advances the kinds of propositions that they do. It's not much better on the other side of the chamber, on the other side of the argument—advancing propositions that are extremist, that use hyperbole and that use words that are designed to divide.

One of the reasons that we know that this is the case in terms of the proposition that has been advanced is that the situation has been explained to Senator Shoebridge so many times by the Minister for Foreign Affairs in estimates and in here. Evidence has been provided by defence officials over and over and over again. If you just choose to ignore the facts and promulgate a false narrative on this story, all you are about is promoting division—

A little bit of shoosh from you down there, son—a little bit of shoosh.