Middle East conflict
Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (14:39): My question is to the Premier. The Victorian Labor government is the principal sponsor for Land Forces, a weapons expo set to happen at the Melbourne Convention Centre this September. The expo will feature and promote Israeli drone maker Elbit Systems, which, as you would remember, killed an Australian aid worker, along with other weapons manufacturers that are active and complicit in Israel’s atrocities in Gaza, which the Premier has herself said are horrific, such as Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Thales and more. In light of these companies’ atrocities in Gaza, will Labor cancel its sponsorship of the weapons expo?
Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:40): Again I am going to perhaps repeat some of the comments I made in my answer to the earlier question from the member for Melbourne. Now is not the time to be driving further division and looking for opportunities for that division. Now is not the time for that. Yes, Melbourne is hosting in September the Land Forces conference. It is an international conference which delegates from around the globe will be attending. Yes, the Victorian government is a principal sponsor of this event, along with the Australian Army, in terms of the jurisdictional responsibilities of the army. This is an event that should not be used by the Greens to continue to drive division. That is not going to end the conflict in the Middle East.
I am deeply alarmed, like I am sure so many in our community are, at the recent escalation in just the last couple of days and how the unrest is spreading into Lebanon and into Iran. It is fragile. There is a fragility and a tinderbox environment in the Middle East. In no way should we be trying to replicate that here in Victoria. We should be focused on supporting those Victorians who are grieving, supporting those Victorians, yes, with the offer of humanitarian assistance where we can and as the government has done, not continuing to use these opportunities to drive a political wedge. It deeply disappoints me and saddens me that this is the path that the Greens political party in this Parliament and in the federal Parliament have chosen to take repeatedly, time and time again.
The real enemy here is hate and war. It is not the Labor Party. The real enemy here is war and conflict and hate. The antidote to that is not the grandstanding that we continue to see from the Greens. The complete disrespect that we saw shown by members of the Greens political party at the Australian Labor Party’s Victorian branch conference a few months ago was disgraceful. It was evidence that they are not focused on fostering a culture of love and respect. They want to drive this culture of hate and division that is at the root of the conflict in the Middle East, which we should all be standing as one to reject.
Ellen SANDELL (Melbourne) (14:43): The Premier says that the enemy here is war. I am sure it is no news to her that war is only made possible by weapons, and we would argue that now is not the time to be actively supporting weapons manufacturers that are engaged in and make possible these atrocities in Gaza. My supplementary question is: how much is the Victorian Labor government spending on its sponsorship of this weapons expo happening here in Melbourne?
Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:43): I strongly disagree with the member for Melbourne in her characterisation that war is made possible by weapons. War is made possible by the wrong decisions that leaders take to take their armies, their forces, into conflict with another. It is people – it is humans – who make these decisions, not the weapons. Let us be absolutely clear. It is frankly a little bit childish to say otherwise. But weaponising conflict, like the member for Melbourne and the Greens political party do, is what drives that ongoing conflict. This ongoing weaponising of conflict is something I reject in the strongest possible terms.
Sam Hibbins: On a point of order, Speaker, questions are not a time to attack those asking the question. It was a very clear question on how much the government is spending on sponsoring this weapons expo, and in the 8 seconds the Premier has left, I would ask you to direct her to answer the actual question.
The SPEAKER: The Premier will come back to answering the question.
Jacinta ALLAN: The characterisation by the member for Prahran of this conference demonstrates that they intend to weaponise this event, and we just will not stand for it.