Mehreen Faruqi (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Wong) to a question without notice I asked today relating to Gaza.

It's been 366 days of mass destruction and death by Israel. For one year, we have wiped each other's tears as we have seen thousands of children obliterated and tens of thousands of Palestinians massacred. For one year, we have come out on the streets, demanding action from our government to stop the genocide, to end the decades of occupation and apartheid. And, for one year, the complicit Labor government has done nothing but give full impunity to Israel to commit a brutal genocide in Gaza, then kill in the West Bank and then invade Lebanon and bomb Syria.

Like many people in this country, my past year has been one of sleepless nights. Like many in this country, I have cried tears and I have been consumed by a roller-coaster of emotions: grief, anger, pain. We feel those emotions because we care about human suffering wherever it is. We care because that is what humanity is. I've also done everything I can to support the community, to push Labor to take action and to expose their hypocrisy, and I am proud that the Greens are the loudest voice in this place on justice for Palestine. As exhausting as it is, I will keep fighting for what is right.

Those in this building who think this started and ended on October 7—they pick and choose victims. They pick and choose international law. They pick and choose who deserves justice and who doesn't. Unsurprisingly, the victims they see are always white and the villains are always brown. You are hypocrites, you are gaslighters and you are cowards. If even now you can't bring yourself to show an ounce of compassion for the Palestinians and Lebanese slaughtered by the Israeli killing machine, if you still can't even condemn those committing these war crimes, then you have no humanity.

Instead of joining us on the streets, you call us the problem. You say we are the ones damaging social cohesion and lacking compassion for standing up against a genocide. It's the genocide that is the problem, not people who are protesting against it. You want us to shut up, sit down and sit back while Israel and the United States continue their destruction of the Middle East. Well, you are not only gutless and heartless; you are also on the wrong side of history. So guess what? We will keep showing up and we will keep speaking out until there is justice and peace.

To those in this country who think colonialism is a thing of the past, think again. Colonialism is very much alive. Violent racism is very much alive. White supremacy is very much alive. It doesn't just exist at Neo-Nazi rallies. It wears expensive suits in this very building and it sits on editorial boards. We will not let colonialism dominate us. We will not let colonialism crush us. We want a government that represents us, the people, not the corporations, not the money, not the powerful lobbies. But this will never happen so long as the two old parties dominate.

To those hurting in our community, let's keep turning our tears into action. Let's keep marching, disrupting and resisting until Palestine is free, because returning to the status quo is not an option. We will continue to fight every corporation, every politician and party, every media outlet, every weapons company—anyone who is complicit in a genocide. History will judge all of you in this building for the positions you took when Israel was committing a genocide. Those who stand by justice will always prevail. And we will prevail. Your legacies will crumble in the ruins of Gaza. Palestine will be free, inshallah.

Question agreed to.