Senator Wong, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, has recently called for steps towards a ceasefire in Gaza. These comments are emblematic of a broader problem: the Australian government’s lack of moral clarity and resultant failure to take decisive action. Advocating for steps towards a ceasefire is just another way of saying that you don’t currently support a ceasefire. While the bombs are raining down, while Gaza is being obliterated, along with thousands of people who live there, that is simply unacceptable.
Senator McKIM (Tasmania—Australian Greens Whip) (13:51): Senator Wong, the Minister for Foreign Affairs, has recently called for steps towards a ceasefire in Gaza. These comments are emblematic of a broader problem: the Australian government’s lack of moral clarity and resultant failure to take decisive action. Advocating for steps towards a ceasefire is just another way of saying that you don’t currently support a ceasefire. While the bombs are raining down, while Gaza is being obliterated, along with thousands of people who live there, that is simply unacceptable. The semantic subtlety used by Senator Wong serves not to advance peace but to avoid the urgent need for action from, and accountability for, the State of Israel.
While the Australian government was quick to condemn the atrocities committed by Hamas, and rightly so, it’s been disturbingly reticent to address the disproportionate, aggressive actions of the State of Israel in Gaza. The weasel words and failure to call for a ceasefire are excusing and enabling the suffering that is being inflicted on Palestinian people right now in Gaza, as we speak. Failing to call for a ceasefire while Gaza and thousands of people, including thousands of children and hundreds of babies, are being obliterated from the face of the earth is a moral failure of such magnitude it is barely comprehensible. We need a ceasefire now. We need to end the slaughter in Gaza now. If we are not capable of calling for those things, what use are we?