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

We should be unashamedly working for peace, not working for domestic political advantage or tactical advantage in the chamber or to put pressure on one or other side. There are 40,000 people who have lost their lives in this conflict. We have seen the greatest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust. And there are people in this chamber who want to play domestic politics with it. I think it is abominable—I really do—and I think Australians out there want us to work for peace.

Now, we may have different views about where moral weight lies. There are different views in this chamber, but what I would say to you is that we should all be advocating for peace, and that requires a two-state solution. That is what it requires. There is no peace without progress on two states. That is, I think, demonstrably true given what we have seen over decades and what we see now.

What I say here is the same message that I say to every party with whom I deal. I don't have one message for one group and another message for another group. So I would hope that this Senate could show some maturity. There are people who have different views. We have heard them in the chamber. We have seen them in the chamber. When I seek to speak, I speak on behalf of Australia, not on behalf of any country or group. That is what I seek to do, and that is what my colleagues seek to do.

We should be arguing for ceasefire and for the return of hostages. We should be arguing always for international law to be observed. We should be arguing for de-escalation. We should not be seeking to escalate the conflict overseas or here by our rhetoric and by our action, and too many in this place have been seeking to do that. So I foreshadow that I will move an amendment, and I indicate that the government will support the suspension to enable this matter to be voted on, and I now move:

That the question be now put.