DOCUMENTS

Senator THORPE (Victoria—Independent VIC Whip) (15:33): I seek leave to table a document. Leave not granted. Senator THORPE: Pursuant to contingent notice standing in my name, I move: That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent me tabling the document.

I sought leave here today to table a document that lists the names of 21,637 children killed in Gaza between October 2023 and May 2026. The coalition does not want me to table this, and now the government don't want me to table— Senator Wong: We gave leave! Senator THORPE: Okay, I'll take that back.

Thank you. These children have had their— Senator Wong: Seriously. Senator THORPE: Calm down—lives taken through a cruel genocide.

The PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe, I'm going to remind you, as I do for all senators—you've sought to suspend because leave was denied for you to table a document. What you really need to focus on is the suspension not the substantive matter of the document you're seeking to table. You can refer to the document, but the substantive part of your five minutes needs to focus on the suspension.

Senator THORPE: These children have had their lives taken through a cruel genocide. They cannot have their identity taken away as well. They deserve to have their names heard.

Their families deserve to have them remembered. This is why I'm bringing their names to the Senate today. Just last week, I was handed this box with 21,000 children's names.

The PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe, I am going to again remind you that this is a suspension debate. Your comments need to substantially relate to the suspension. Senator THORPE: The 21,000 names I was given in those bits of paper are in this document that I'm trying to table into the Senate.

Each one contains the name of a child that was killed. I would have liked to present every single one here individually, but this place cannot deal with that. Here I am, presenting 451 densely filled pages containing the names of 21,637 children killed in Gaza.

These were lives taken prematurely. These children had their— The PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe, I'm again going to draw you back to your suspension motion. It's not about the substantive nature of that document.

It is about why you are seeking to suspend. Senator THORPE: I'm seeking to suspend because we are complicit in a genocide in this country of these children who've been massacred, murdered, and their parents can't bury them because they can't find all the limbs to their bodies. They can't grieve.

The PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe, I'm going to again draw you back to the suspension. Senator THORPE: I'm suspending standing orders because these children were loved and will be missed forever. Their families are living through unimaginable grief.

I'm tabling this document because the sad reality is that thousands more children were killed in Gaza during that same time, as well as many more since. I'm tabling this document for so many reasons. Their deaths are— The PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe, if you just hear me out, please.

I'm trying to assist you. You sought leave to table the document. Leave was denied.

You then moved your suspension motion. It is really the suspension motion that we are now debating in the chamber, not what you were seeking to present. Senator THORPE: Sorry, President.

I'm actually giving you reasons why I'm suspending, and it's because this country's complicit in the deaths of these children, and I'm trying to table it so that we have a record in this country of all of the children that we're complicit in killing. It's an important document. The PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe, I'll draw you to—we are now beyond the tabling of the document.

You were not granted leave to table the document. You were not granted leave. You sought to suspend.

What the Senate is debating right now is your suspension. That's what you need to keep coming back to—the suspension. Senator Faruqi: The suspension is to table the documents.

The PRESIDENT: Senator Faruqi, you are being disorderly. I'm trying to ensure that this is an orderly debate. Senator THORPE: I'm suspending standing orders because 15-year-old Suhail Walid Suhail Abu Shaaban was murdered.

Yousef Sharif Salah Abu Al-Shaar, 16, was murdered, as was Mohammed Taha Mohammed Farah Reihan, 14; Nevin Mohammed Raed Al-Saati, two; Yahya— The PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe, I'm going to advise you once again it is about the suspension motion, not about the document that you are seeking to table. Senator THORPE: I'm suspending standing orders to read the names of dead children who have been massacred on our watch in Palestine, in Gaza.

I'm reading out the names as part of my suspension—Kanari Mutasim Mahmoud Aqel,0; Zina— The PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe, you need to confine your remarks to the suspension order. Senator THORPE: I am suspending standing orders to deliver a document with over 20,000 dead children. We are complicit in the genocide against Palestinians.

I have over 400 pages of dead children's names that I am suspending to ensure a part of Hansard in this country—Hour Al-Ein Osama Suleiman Abu Sneima,0; Razan Jihad Yousef Asaliya,0— The PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe, I have asked you to confine your remarks to the suspension order. Senator THORPE: I'm suspending because of the cruel, inhumane actions of this government that is complicit in the genocide in Palestine, who continues to sell parts that kill these children.

We're selling parts— The PRESIDENT: Senator Thorpe, I have really tried very hard to get you to focus on the suspension order. It's about the need to suspend, not what's in the document. Senator THORPE: The need to suspend is because we cannot be complicit as a country in an ongoing genocide of 21,000 Palestinian children.

These are the names that I want all of you to read. I want all of you to think about your own children. As a grandmother, as a mother, I think about these children.

I think about my own children. If I was in this situation then I'd want a country to stand up for me, and this country is not doing that for Palestine right now. It is complicit.

It is actually selling arms to Israel to kill 21,000 children. The PRESIDENT: Senator Cash.