Today my colleague Senator Faruqi asked the current highest-ranking member of the government in this place whether they would finally join the community in calling for a ceasefire of all of the parties currently engaged in the gristmill of violence which is Gaza. And what was the response? Well, there was none. There was mumbling in the face of war crimes, obfuscation in the face of crimes against humanity, and a barefaced refusal to acknowledge that thousands of children now lie dead in shallow graves because of the actions of the State of Israel and the policies that they have enacted in response to the horrendous terror attacks of 7 October.
Senator STEELE-JOHN (Western Australia) (15:54): I move:
That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Trade and Tourism (Senator Farrell) to a question without notice asked by Senator Faruqi today relating to Israel.
All across the world, all across our national community, people are gathering together. Across the length and breadth of this ancient continent, people are gathering together, protesting and engaging in acts of nonviolent direct action. They gather united by a single call: ‘Ceasefire now.’ And, in so doing, they join millions across the world. In London, they cry, ‘Ceasefire now.’ In Washington, they cry, ‘Ceasefire now.’ Across South America, they cry, ‘Ceasefire now.’ They call upon their governments and the world to shake off the inhumanity which has so gripped so many in positions of power over this last month. They call on them to shake it off and to reconnect with the shared human reality that children should never be slain in the course of war and that water, food and medicine must always be provided, particularly to those over whom a state has power. They call, they protest, they put their bodies on the line, and we here in the Australian Greens heed that call. We have proudly joined those actions, addressed those rallies and used our places in these spaces, gifted by the movement that we so proudly serve and that is so grounded in peace and in nonviolence, to make sure that these words are heard in this legislature and that this government, including its Prime Minister and its foreign minister, cannot hide from the demands of the Australian community.
Today my colleague Senator Faruqi asked the current highest-ranking member of the government in this place whether they would finally join the community in calling for a ceasefire of all of the parties currently engaged in the gristmill of violence which is Gaza. And what was the response? Well, there was none. There was mumbling in the face of war crimes, obfuscation in the face of crimes against humanity, and a barefaced refusal to acknowledge that thousands of children now lie dead in shallow graves because of the actions of the State of Israel and the policies that they have enacted in response to the horrendous terror attacks of 7 October.
I ask this government: when is enough enough? How many children must die, how many must be wounded, how many refugee camps bombed, how many ambulance convoys bombed and how many apartment blocks reduced to rubble before you people act, before you take the very first step on the road to something like peace and lasting justice in Palestine for Palestinians and Israelis, which is to stop the killing, the mechanised murder which has become the response of the Netanyahu government? Every moment that we delay costs lives, as does every press statement calling for pauses, as though the human reaction to a war and invasion should be to call to just take a moment and take a breath in the killing. How can you say these things and not hear how wrong they are at a deeply human level and how much you are failing the people of Australia in this moment of profound crisis? We will continue to call in this place for a ceasefire now and for a lasting and just peace.
Question agreed to.