QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE: TAKE NOTE OF ANSWERS
Senator FARUQI (New South Wales—Deputy Leader of the Australian Greens) (15:28): 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. This is what it's come to. Not only do Senator Wong and the Labor government not respond to the questions asked but now they want to shut me up in even asking the question.
They are more offended by me holding them to account for their complicity in a genocide than by the genocide itself. What a farce question time has become. Labor's hypocrisy and double standards are on full display, when they have a two-way arms trade with Israel and then they gaslight and silence those speaking out and holding them to account.
Well, they can give it their best shot. I'm not going to stop. Israel's bombs and bullets have not stopped.
Israel continues to murder whole families as they seek to return home. Israel continues to block aid from reaching starving children. Since the beginning of the so-called ceasefire, on average more than 20 Palestinians have been killed each day.
Israel's starvation of Gaza continues as aid is blocked and families are prevented from returning to their homes, which already lie in rubble. The hunger crisis is at catastrophic levels. Even now, the Albanese government wants to forget.
It wants to put Israel's genocide and apartheid in the past and let bygones be bygones. But the truth is this: there can be no peace without accountability, there can be no peace without justice, there can be no justice while the perpetrators of war crimes walk free, and there can be no rebuilding while an entire people remains under siege. For the past two years, the Albanese government hid behind words and diplomatic niceties while Israel burned Gaza to the ground.
It watched from the sidelines as Israel targeted and slaughtered civilians, aid workers, journalists, children and doctors, and it has done nothing to hold Israel to account. The Albanese government has proved, time and time again, that its statements mean nothing and that it is comfortable to shirk in the shadows in the face of injustice, violence and genocide.
It has shown us all that it values so-called diplomacy and pandering to the US and Israel over morality, international law and human life. In September, Minister Wong attended the UN and signed Australia up to the Declaration for the Protection of Humanitarian Personnel. She said that Australia is proud to lead this global effort.
When Australian humanitarians onboard the Global Sumud Flotilla, trying to deliver life-saving food, medicine and baby formula to Gaza, were illegally kidnapped, detained and abused by Israel, there was no accountability for Israel. And now, mere weeks after signing the humanitarian workers pledge, the government refuse to take any concrete, meaningful action, as aid and health workers continue to be shot, shot at, bombed and starved by their friend Israel.
The most basic of demands—the unimpeded, uninterrupted flow of humanitarian aid so that people do not have to starve to death—has been refused by Israel, so we must reject the dangerous farce of the Trump-Netanyahu-Blair peace plan, which only entrenches apartheid, legitimises illegal settlements and denies Palestinians self-determination. A ceasefire without justice is not peace; it is a pause before the next massacre.
It is too late for the Albanese government to say it stood against genocide. It is too late for the Albanese government to claim it stood against manufactured starvation. It is too late for the government to even say that it put the safety of its own citizens above pandering to the US and Israel.
But it is not too late for the Albanese government to hold Israel to account. It is not too late for the government to back international law. It is not too late to end the two-way arms trade.
It is not too late for the Albanese government to accept its own complicity and to work to rebuild a just and free Palestine, where its future is determined by Palestinians and Palestinians alone. What will it take? How many aid workers must be killed?
How many journalists shot dead? How many babies starved? When will the Albanese government sanction Israel?
When will the government hold Israel to account? Question agreed to.