I’m ashamed of the conduct of the people that voted against the motion in this chamber today. I never believed for a second, given the great pride and honour I have in serving in the House of Representatives of the Australian parliament, that I would ever feel a sense of shame because of the conduct of fellow members of this chamber—the position the Greens party took this morning.
Mr STEVENS (Sturt) (18:58): In the dying days of the Second World War, the senior leadership of the Schutzstaffel, or the SS, from Himmler down, attempted to conceal the evidence of the Holocaust—their crimes and the murders of six million Jewish people throughout the parts of Europe that they had conquered. They exhumed bodies to incinerate them so that the evidence of the bodies would not exist. They attempted to destroy the crematoriums and the gas chambers at certain sites of the concentration camps, because they knew that what they had done would bring upon them, and a war they were about to lose, enormous consequences.
We never thought that we could talk about a category of people that have a lower moral code than the Nazis, and yet that is what we’re dealing with with Hamas. Hamas would say to the Nazis, ‘Why aren’t you proud of the six million Jews that you killed?’
The attitude of Hamas would be to celebrate the killing and the attempt to exterminate an entire race of people. So we have a situation where an awful terrorist attack has been committed against innocent people, and, regrettably, it is couched in the circumstance of ongoing antisemitism on a scale that I had hoped—and believed—was no longer present in the modern world.
As a teenager I visited the Dachau concentration camp with my father. I think I was about 17 or 18 years old. If you have ever visited a concentration camp, you will know that it is a life-changing experience. It was probably the most significant and important as well as the most poignant part of my education and awakening and awareness of the world—what the world was and what humanity could be at its worst. One of the takeaways of that experience was that at least that happened so long ago and at least the lesson of the Holocaust was so significant that humanity would never even countenance the concept of anything similar to that ever again. Then, in 2023, in my own country that I love, I see Australians protesting and chanting things like, ‘Gas the Jews.’ I hear Australians calling for another Holocaust, Australians calling for a genocide and Australians celebrating the death of people because of their faith and religion, particularly celebrating the fact that Jews have been killed in a terrorist attack undertaken by one of the most vile and disgraceful organisations on the planet—as I say, one with a lower moral code than that of the Schutzstaffel, which at least tried to conceal its murder of the Jews. We have Hamas talking about promoting, publishing and filming the execution of Jews—people who have been kidnapped who are currently alive. They plan to take their lives, and promote it, publicise it, celebrate it and cheer for it.
Chanting ‘Gas the Jews’ was one of the lowest things I’ve ever seen in this country until, regrettably, this morning when I saw the behaviour of the Australian Greens in response to a motion related to the condemnation of a terrorist attack against innocent civilians. I’ve served in this parliament for a little over four years and, to be honest, I could be convinced of a lot of things that it would surprise me could happen in this chamber. That we in this chamber would come together as a parliament to condemn terrorism and that someone elected to serve in the House of Representatives would seek to amend that condemnation in any way—to qualify it—and then proceed to vote against that motion of condemnation of a terrorist atrocity that has killed already more than 1,200 people is absolutely shameful.
Let’s just note that there was an attempt by the Greens to remove this statement from that motion: ‘That this House stands with Israel and recognises its inherent right to defend itself.’ According to the Australian Greens, they don’t support that. Let’s reflect on that as a principle. What the Greens are saying is that, if this country were the victim of a terrorist attack and 1,200 Australians were killed in that terrorist attack, it would be the position of the Australian Greens that this country, this government and the defence forces of this nation should have no response to that. Holding that view is absolutely treasonous.
For people to think that they can serve in the House of Representatives and take a position in this parliament effectively condoning terrorist activity, condoning murder, and refusing to support a motion that should, beyond question, have had the complete unanimity of this chamber, on a question of complete moral clarity—the murder of innocent people, and the right for a sovereign nation to defend itself from its citizens being murdered—is utterly appalling.
I’m ashamed of the conduct of the people that voted against the motion in this chamber today. I never believed for a second, given the great pride and honour I have in serving in the House of Representatives of the Australian parliament, that I would ever feel a sense of shame because of the conduct of fellow members of this chamber—the position the Greens party took this morning.
My heart goes out to my Jewish constituents and all Jewish Australians who are touched personally and directly by this. There are so many Australians who have relatives, family members and loved ones that have been victims, either murdered or kidnapped, and countless others who have family in Israel, some of whom are serving in the Israeli defence force. Anyone in Israel right now is living in fear of potentially falling victim to further terrorist atrocities. I equally feel for my constituents of Palestinian heritage who have innocent family members that may be at risk of or have already succumbed to something that is entirely the responsibility of the Hamas terrorist organisation. The perverseness of these people is that, as it stands, the actions of Hamas have currently resulted so far in the death of more Palestinian people than Israeli people. That is the moral code of these butchers and their bloodlust.
We as a nation have to be united, strident and utterly uncompromising when it comes to condemning what has happened. We all want peace. I despair for what the future holds, as other speakers have pointed out. But this conflict is only going to escalate, and it all started with the actions of one of the most evil organisations to ever exist on the face of the planet. I lament the setback for peace. But Hamas do not want peace. They want the complete destruction of every Jewish person, as they chant, from the river to the sea.
I express my deepest condolences to everyone that has been touched by this. Any of us that have families and loved ones think in horror about what happened to those poor, innocent victims and imagine if that had happened to our own families and loved ones.