David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I seek leave to move a motion relating to military equipment trade with Israel, as circulated.

Leave not granted.

Pursuant to contingent notice of motion standing in the name of Senator Waters, I move:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent Senator Waters moving a motion to provide for the consideration of a matter, namely a motion to give precedence to a motion relating to military equipment trade with Israel.

This motion is asking the Senate to call on the government to immediately end all trade of military equipment with the State of Israel. If you want to know why this is urgent, it's because more than 30,000 Palestinians have already lost their lives, the majority being women and children, and this government is content for ongoing two-way trade, military trade, with the State of Israel. It is content to send weapons and weapons parts to Israel to literally fuel the genocide, and then, perhaps as offensively, it also welcomes signing new contracts with major Israeli arms manufacturers for equipment that is literally being tested on the Palestinian people as we speak.

The Albanese government has just signed a contract of $917 million of public money with Israeli arms manufacturer Elbit Systems for the Redback integrated turret, which, in the spin of the defence industry, is:

… based on the latest generation of Elbit's 30 mm manned turret with the COAPS gunner sight, additional electro-optical systems, Iron Fist active protection system, Elbit's Iron-Vision advanced situational awareness head mounted display system and Elbit's ELAWS laser warning system—

all weapon systems that Elbit is currently using to kill Palestinian people, to kill Palestinian kids and to kill Palestinian women. The Albanese government looked around the world and said, 'Yes, we want a bit of that,' and they've agreed to a $917 million contract with Elbit Systems for that. It is obscene that Australia is seeking to provide so much wealth to a company that is currently making record profits from the weapons it's literally testing on the Palestinian people—utterly obscene.

Where is it being used? We know it's being used, because the IDF posted images of it. It's used on the Eitan wheeled armoured personnel carrier, which literally went in on day 1 of the invasion of Gaza—the first time it was used by the Israeli military. The Israeli military celebrated how this Eitan eight-wheeled vehicle is going to be featuring for the first time, they said, this Elbit's Iron Fist active protection system—designed by Elbit, sold to Australia and bought by the Albanese Labor government—with target detection radar and launcher countermeasures. How are we possibly a part of this trade? How could the Albanese government possibly be thinking that the two-way military trade with Israel should ever be a part of the Australian public spend?

It's not just this one weapons system with Elbit. The Israeli defence industry—Rafael—has signed agreements with the Albanese government. You can see pictures of Albanese ministers going to the factories that they've got in Australia—for example, Varley Rafael at Tomago in the Hunter. You can see Albanese Labor ministers there celebrating the fact that the Albanese Labor government has signed contracts with Rafael to produce the spike missile here. The control systems for the spike missile used by the ADF are manufactured in New South Wales. Just to be clear: the spike missile is again being experimented with on Palestinian people, and it's an obscene weapon. It's designed to punch through the reinforced concrete walls of apartment buildings in Palestine and, when they punch through the wall, to release a cloud of lethal shrapnel to kill everything within a 20-metre radius. Not only is the Albanese government buying more of those missiles that have been experimented with on the Palestinian people but it has also entered into joint manufacturing contracts—again, with tens and tens and tens of millions of dollars of public money. We must stop the two-way military trade with Israel. We must not be complicit in the genocide. The Australian people deserve a far more ethical government than the Albanese Labor government.