STATEMENTS BY SENATORS

Senator SHOEBRIDGE (New South Wales) (12:35): Settlements are illegal under international law. Canada, France, and the UK will therefore take steps to ban the importation of goods from settlements and enforce targeted measures against settlements and those who facilitate them or profit from them. That was the statement made by Canada, France and the UK yesterday about illegal Israeli settlements on Palestinian land.

That was the clear-eyed position put forward by those countries, and it was a genuine step ahead. Without doing that, without making that statement about the fundamental illegality of Israeli settlements on Palestinian land, we're accepting that we live in a world with no rules where violence is permitted and where ethnic cleansing is ignored. Now compare that statement from Canada, France and the UK yesterday with what Minister Wong said in this chamber yesterday.

This is what Minister Wong said on behalf of the Albanese Labor government: Australia is not, at this time, pursuing a blanket-style import ban. We have concerns about the implementation of a blanket ban and unintended consequences for Australian businesses, for Palestinians and for Israelis … That's what Minister Wong said. What world are we living in?

Israel is allowed to break international law to continue the occupation, and the reason why the Labor government, joined by the coalition and One Nation, are not taking action is apparently to help Palestinians. This is unbelievable gaslighting from Labor. They want us to believe the reason for the ongoing complicity of the Albanese Labor government in its unwillingness to take actions against illegal settlements that even the US ambassador in Israel has said is the equivalent of terrorism, in some cases, is that they're concerned about unintended consequences for Palestinians.

Does this government really think the Australian public is just stupid? Do you think we can't see what's going on here? International law is clear: Israel's settlements in the West Bank are illegal, and trade with businesses that operate in those areas entrench that illegal occupation.

Many countries have introduced bans against trade with Israeli settlements. It's not just those countries I named earlier; it's also Spain, Ireland and South Africa. We've previously heard from this government that the Albanese government is working with like-minded partners.

Here is another repeated comment from Minister Wong: … we will continue to work with partners to protect the prospects of a two-state solution. Well, when it comes to countries that are refusing to take action, which partners is the Labor Party now working with? Name them!

The only partners I can see for the Albanese Labor government are One Nation, the coalition, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. They're the only partners Labor's working with when they refuse to even join Canada, France and the UK to put a ban on trade with illegal Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Your partners are One Nation, the coalition, Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu.

You've abandoned any pretence of working with Canada, France, the UK, Spain, Ireland. Trump and Netanyahu are your partners. The world is moving, and this government, backed in on this issue by the uniparty here, is refusing to act.

The UK government has rightfully realised that they need to reset the relationship. But the Albanese government, tied to the US—refusing to act until they're given permission by Donald Trump—is refusing to even acknowledge the ongoing brutal illegality of the Israeli settlements in Palestine and the appalling statement, the gaslighting statement, from Minister Wong that the reason Labor is refusing to bring sanctions against illegal Israeli settlements is that Labor cares about Palestinians.

I didn't think you could sink this low, but you have. Shame on you. I also want to focus on the fact that, when Minister Wong came in and said one of the reasons Labor is refusing to take action is that you're concerned about the impact on Australian businesses, it was such an obscene reason for not acting on international law.

But why don't we look at one issue that's been running in the public for years now. Two years ago I raised concerns about military equipment and paramilitary equipment going to Israel to support the genocide in Gaza, to support the illegal occupation. In this document Bisalloy, an Australian company down in Port Kembla—in the Illawarra, in my home sate of New South Wales—talks proudly about its partnership with an Israeli company, Plasan.

Reading from that 2023 document, Bisalloy says that Israeli manufacturer Plasan Re'em uses Bisalloy's steel to make 'high-performance civilian armoured vehicles that offer maximum ballistic protection as well as high performance, speed, manoeuvrability, comfort and control'. Who is Plasan Re'em? Well, they provide vehicles to Shin Bet, the Israeli military in the West Bank—police.

A 2022 report from Israel defence also found that they provide vehicles to security coordinators in the settlements. And what are we doing? Labor lets the steel go in, lets the occupation continue—deep, deep complicity, businesses like Bisalloy making profits from the occupation.

That's whom Labor's protecting. To come in here and say the reason you're letting the armoured steel go from Port Kembla to Israel is that you're worried about Palestinians—shame on you. Some of the most heartbreaking emails my office receives are from people who are waiting to be united with their loved ones who are overseas.

And the race to the bottom on migration between Labor and One Nation is really having consequences now. Amongst all the scapegoating we hear about migrants in this place—the whipping up of fears over mass migration—what Labor and their mates in One Nation won't say is that there are fewer family visas now than in the 1980s. The population has increased substantially, but the number of people being allowed to unite with their loved ones has gone down since the 1980s.

This is what happens when you have a migration system under Labor and the coalition that seems to serve only economic interests. It means that those ties connecting to loved ones, to families, to partners are put on the backburner. Someone who put their partner visa in last year had to wait 20 months for it to be processed.

That is nearly two years, waiting to be reunited with their loved one, their wife or their husband. Think about that. For some, that means two years without seeing them at all, without a hug, without the connection.

Since then, in the last year, Labor has made it even harder to get a partner visa, and the wait time has now doubled again, to some 40 months. Think about doing that to families—more than three years waiting till your loved one can come, till you can have the hug and complete the family. That delay in processing has also seen a doubling of the number of people waiting for their partner visa to be processed.

Under Labor the number has gone up from 56,000 to nearly 100,000. And in response to all of this we get this direction 117, which seeks to further deprioritize people applying offshore. If that had been done in an effort to get through the backlog of people here onshore to give them stability, permanency and an ability to rebuild their life, maybe we could understand that, but that's not what we're seeing.

What Labor's done with direction 117 is slow it down for everyone, and we know this because the minister is out there bragging about it. One person who wrote to me said: For an Australian citizen whose spouse is overseas, the consequence of being placed in a lower priority group is not simply an administrative delay. It means potentially years of lost married life.

My wife and I have already experienced this. We have missed birthdays, important occasions and our first wedding anniversary because we cannot live together. That's what the race to the bottom between Labor and One Nation delivers: breaking up families and keeping loved ones apart.