Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by Senator Wong to a question without notice I asked today relating to autonomous sanctions and Israel.

Once again, this government has refused to take meaningful action on the genocide and the humanitarian crisis that is occurring in Gaza. We know that the Albanese government has imposed a huge number of autonomous sanctions on people and entities connected to a whole range of countries. This includes 703 sanctions related to Iran, 568 sanctions related to Syria, 136 sanctions related to North Korea and over 1,300 sanctions placed upon Russia—and there are many other countries in addition. In fact, three-quarters of all autonomous sanctions on the books were placed there by the Albanese Labor government. Yet this government has continually failed to place any autonomous sanctions on any person or entity complicit in the genocide and war crimes committed by the State of Israel. This is an outrageous double standard.

The community see these numbers, and they are rightly furious. On behalf of the Australian Greens, I have lodged a motion today with the Senate that will be voted on when the parliament returns. This motion will urge the government to put sanctions on those complicit in genocide, including Prime Minister Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Gallant. I urge all members of this place to take the time over the break to reflect and to come back to this place and support this motion. This government has imposed autonomous sanctions, as I say, on Russia, North Korea and Iran—just to name a few. It is time for the government to place autonomous sanctions upon members of the Netanyahu government.

We heard during question time from the foreign minister that, in their view and in the view of the government, it is inappropriate for Australia to impose sanctions without instruction or determination from an international tribunal. This is not factually correct. When it comes to autonomous sanctions, it is the case that the government may apply them when the government determines it to be appropriate to do so. The position articulated by the foreign minister is inconsistent with their response to other conflicts.

Aid organisations such as Medecins Sans Frontieres and UN officials such as the UN special rapporteur for the Occupied Palestinian Territories have been calling for sanctions to be imposed on the State of Israel for quite some time now. They have been doing so because they understand that, in order to have any chance of Israel complying with international humanitarian law and the laws of war, there must be consequences for their noncompliance. The government must stop ignoring the calls of the community for action. Australia must immediately sanction those complicit in this genocide, including Prime Minister Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Gallant.

Question agreed to.