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

by leave—I move:

Omit all words after "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency", substitute:

(a) that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is catastrophic and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are starving;

(b) that all parties to the conflict in Gaza comply with the United Nations Security Council's (UNSC) demand in relation to ceasefire;

(c) that immediate action must be taken by Israel to comply with the UNSC's demand that all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale are removed;

(d) that Hamas comply with the UNSC's demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs; and

(e) that all parties comply with their obligations under international law, including orders of the International Court of Justice which are binding.

Colleagues, today we have an opportunity to come together in the Australian Senate in our common humanity. I say to senators that, if even the United Nations Security Council, which has been so divided on this issue and on many issues, can come together on this issue, surely the Australian Senate can. The world has finally got to a point where not one of the permanent members of the Security Council exercised a veto on a resolution about the conflict in Gaza—not the United States, as they have on previous resolutions, nor Russia or China, who vetoed a US resolution last week. So I say to my Senate colleagues that there is an opportunity for the Australian Senate to acknowledge this as a rare moment of agreement in the international community. Indeed it would be churlish of us not to.

I know that this motion may not reflect every aspect of all our positions on these issues, but there is enough here to agree on. I ask senators to look for the points that are in front of them. Whether senators consider themselves a friend of Israelis or Palestinians or both, as I do, we should be able to come together in agreeing on the urgency of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. When hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are starving, we should be able to come together to underline the urgency of an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, leading to a sustainable ceasefire as per the UN Security Council resolution; we should be able to come together to demand Hamas comply with the Security Council's demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages; and we should be able to come together to demand that the Netanyahu government comply with the Security Council's demand that all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale are removed.

If the divided United Nations Security Council could come together on these issues then we ought to be able to do likewise. If countries as different as Algeria, Ecuador, France, the United Kingdom and others can agree on these points, then we ought to be able to do likewise. Not a single country voted against this resolution, and we should recognise what it means that not one of the permanent five members of the Security Council stood in the way.

Right now we are faced with reports from the United Nations that 650,000 Palestinians in Gaza are starving and well over a million are at risk of starvation. Right now more than 1.7 million people in Gaza are internally displaced. There are, as I have said, increasingly few safe spaces to go. Right now there are more than 130 hostages still being held by the terror group Hamas, and we condemn Hamas's actions as we have always done.

Colleagues, the Australian Senate has an opportunity to come together in support of the United Nations resolution and in support of international humanitarian law. This is a good thing. This has been a very difficult conflict in Australia. There have been too few moments when we have been able to come together. I respectfully submit to the Senate that this is a time when we can do so. If the UN Security Council can do it, surely this country can do it too. I move:

That the question be now put.

Question agreed to.