Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, another day, another racist dog-whistle. While the Israeli government continues to bomb schools and refugee shelters in Gaza, Peter Dutton is calling for those in Gaza to be blocked from seeking protection in Australia. By now, we know that Peter Dutton will always choose division, demonisation and discrimination over the truth, and this case is no different. Meanwhile, every day we watch different versions of the same horror: emaciated, limbless, orphaned children who are the innocent faces of an ongoing genocide. Every day we see families internally displaced and starved in their own homeland, unable to flee. Every day we see the death toll of innocent Palestinians rise beyond comprehension, and we ask ourselves: When will the bloodshed end? When will our leaders act? Well, it's not today, it seems.

At a time when we should be fulfilling our humanitarian responsibilities, we discover that the Labor government has refused more than 7,000 applications for refugee status from Palestinians fleeing Gaza. Where is its humanity? Meanwhile, the Israeli government has seized, blocked and closed the Rafah border crossing out of Gaza. The vast majority of Palestinians can't come to Australia, because they can't leave Gaza; they're trapped. We cannot pick and choose which people fleeing war, persecution and conflict are deserving of protection. What does it say about a country when we say yes to Ukrainians but no to Palestinians? Everyone has an equal right to seek safety.

The Albanese government must stop supplying weapons to Israel. It must sanction the Netanyahu government, and it must use every available means to end the ongoing genocide.