Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and Fair Competition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate—

(a) condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip;

(b) supports Israel's right to defend itself against these unacceptable and indiscriminate attacks;

(c) calls on Hamas to immediately cease the rocket and mortar attacks on Israel;

(d) notes that Australia has listed the military arm of Hamas as a terrorist organisation; and

(e) expresses concern over pro Hamas rallies in Australia.

Mr Deputy President, I seek leave to make a short statement.

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Scott Ryan (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Small Business and Fair Competition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I appreciate the leave being granted given the statement by the Minister for Foreign Affairs during question time.

Mr Deputy President, we all go to bed in peace every night. The only fear we have is being woken up by an inopportune alarm clock or a mobile phone, rather than a code red siren that the people of southern Israel have had to deal with for over a decade. I had hoped this motion was not going to be contentious, except for certain extremists in this chamber who do not hold the view that Israel has the right to defend itself and live in peace without conditions. Indeed, in attempting to do this, the language of this motion is based on the Prime Minister's press release of 16 November.

Let us not forget that this violence that we are currently seeing in the Middle East is solely as a result of Hamas's rocket attacks: 12,000 rockets in 12 years. This is a terrorist organisation that is dedicated to the destruction of Israel, to pushing the Jews into the sea—to use its own words—and, as we have seen in the last few days, to the rampant murder and terror of its own people as well. We cannot ask another nation to do what we cannot ourselves do. (Time expired)

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Deputy President, I seek leave to make a short statement.

Alan Ferguson (SA, Deputy-President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Leave is granted for one minute.

Christine Milne (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Australian Greens support a ceasefire and will support the government in doing everything possible to work for Australia to do that. We do not intend to support what is a totally one-sided motion, nor the language that Senator Ryan is using in relation to this matter. We condemn violence on both sides of the conflict, and call for not only a ceasefire but also an end to the blockade on Gaza. It is quite clear that Israel is a major military force, and Gaza is a community with a broken economy and restrictions on freedom of movement and goods. The Secretary-General of the UN, Ban Ki-Moon, has called for an end to the blockade of Gaza. That should occur because that blockade hurts civilian populations. Australia should be supporting the two-state solution in the United Nations and the aspirations of both the Palestinian and Israeli people to live in peace and security in their own independent sovereign states.

John Hogg (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion moved by Senator Ryan be agreed to.