Wednesday, 15 May 2024

Middle East conflict

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (10:33): I move:

That this house requires the Leader of the Government, in accordance with standing order 10.01, to table in the Council, within four weeks of the house agreeing to this resolution, all documents which comprise agreements that the government has signed with:

(1) Elbit Systems and its subsidiaries; and

(2) the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

I rise to speak on this motion calling for the release of documents that relate to agreements the Victorian government has signed with Elbit Systems or its subsidiaries and the Israeli Ministry of Defense.

Seven months ago 1200 Israelis were killed by Hamas in a horrific attack that was condemned by this government. Since then the world has witnessed a relentless and indiscriminate siege on Gaza as the Palestinian people have been collectively punished. More than 34,000 people have been killed and over 77,000 injured, mostly women and children. One child is injured or dies every 10 minutes in Gaza. More than 10,000 women have been killed, and over 19,000 children have been orphaned. Critical infrastructure has been reduced to rubble, including homes, electricity systems, water, sewerage and hospitals, leaving hundreds of thousands starving, homeless and facing growing rates of infectious diseases. There has been the deliberate targeting of aid workers and journalists; hundreds have been killed. Right now Israel is ordering the evacuation of Rafah, where 1.2 million Palestinians are sheltering. After being told to go there those in Rafah are now being subjected to bombardments.

According to Médecins Sans Frontières more than 85 per cent of the population of Gaza, almost 2 million people, have been forcibly displaced and are existing in unhealthy conditions. To quote MSF:

No place is safe from the bombing.

The suffering of Palestinians trapped Gaza can no longer be put into words.

Or according to Oxfam:

No-one and nowhere is safe.

People who survive the relentless airstrikes are living in overcrowded shelters, in tents, on the streets. With little food or clean water. If bombs don’t kill them, disease or starvation are round the corner.

These are amongst many peak humanitarian agencies begging the world to act. They are crying out for governments to stop enabling the destruction of a people and cease arms deals with Israel.

The weapons being used by Israel are supported by deals with governments around the world, including Australia – including the Victorian Labor government. They made an agreement with Elbit industries to provide funding for their centre of excellence in 2021, and in 2022 they signed an MOU with the Israeli defence ministry. Since these agreements were entered into, the world has witnessed the Israeli state, aided by weapons developed and supplied by Elbit, kill and injure over 100,000 Palestinians. This has prompted many governments to reconsider their support for Israel. Even the Biden administration is talking about delaying weapons exports to Israel due to Israel’s wilful failure to protect citizens. As Human Rights Watch have said:

Governments that continue to provide arms to the Israeli government risk complicity in war crimes.

Yet despite the horror the world is witnessing, Victorian Labor is refusing to end their agreements and, what is more, has refused to reveal how much money it gave to Israel’s largest defence manufacturer and the terms of their MOU with the Israeli defence ministry.

Thousands upon thousands of people have been on our streets for seven months expressing their distress at the indiscriminate decimation of life and imploring our governments to act. Labor in Victoria cannot claim that they have no role in a conflict overseas when they are actively providing taxpayer funding to a company that is contributing directly to the bombing of Palestinians. This is complicity. When a government makes agreements like these and keeps them secret, despite all that has happened and continues to happen in Gaza, it is providing cover to the Israeli state to continue its actions. If the government stands by the deals, then be transparent. The Victorian public have a right to know.

Ryan BATCHELOR (Southern Metropolitan) (10:37): I rise to speak on Dr Mansfield’s motion requesting the production of two documents in relation to the Israeli Ministry of Defense and Elbit Systems. I will say at the outset the government is not going to be opposing this motion.

I do want to start this contribution, particularly given some of the referencing and language used by Dr Mansfield, with the contribution I made on a motion on 17 October, when I said that in the maelstrom of conflict we cannot lose our shared humanity, and I ended that contribution with a call for peace. I want to reiterate that call today, and I think everybody in those communities wants peace.

But I also want to reiterate that the conduct of our debate has an impact on everyone, and it has an impact on those in our communities who have strong views, who are clearly affected by the horror that was experienced on 7 October and the horrors that have been experienced since. While we must and should express our despair at violence and the lives of innocents that it takes across the community, we should do so without spreading lies. The extent to which this debate and these documents can help elucidate facts on matters that are being wilfully misrepresented in the public debate I think is welcome.

Some do not like to let facts get in the way of a good story, and we know that there is a political strategy because we read about it in the newspapers – well-briefed stories in the newspapers with quotes from elected members of the Greens that they are seeking to take advantage of political division in parts of Melbourne’s community to seek electoral gain.

Samantha Ratnam interjected.

Ryan BATCHELOR: Well, it was in the Age on 4 April, Dr Ratnam. I do not think that we should seek political gain by exploiting division in our communities, particularly when it rests on campaigns of misinformation.

I will come very briefly to talk about these two documents, starting with the MOU with the Israeli government. The Victorian government has signed a non-binding MOU with the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The purpose of that is to support collaboration around manufacturing in Victoria. The MOU that has been signed with the Israeli Ministry of Defense is one of many – one of 8000 – that exist for Australian states with overseas entities. I think, importantly, under that MOU no projects have been identified. There are no joint projects currently underway under the scope of that MOU, and any campaign, any information in the public domain, that suggests that the Victorian government under this MOU has any projects with the Israeli defence ministry is a lie.

In relation to Elbit Systems, the agreements that the Victorian government has are with the Australian organisation, the Australian company Elbit Systems of Australia, to set up a centre of excellence in Melbourne, not elsewhere around the world, looking at the use of technology and innovation here in Victoria. It is the sort of thing that we do with many organisations around the world. It is about delivering development in Victoria with the Australian subsidiary of Elbit Systems, not with anyone overseas. We do not have a lot of time in this debate to go through that in a lot of detail.

I hope this brief contribution and the processes we might go through with the production of these documents help to bring some facts into the public debate to help stop the misinformation that is being wilfully distributed in our community, because it is doing people damage.

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (10:42): I rise to speak to Dr Mansfield’s motion in relation to wanting documents to be released by the government regarding Elbit Systems and the Israeli Ministry of Defense. We know this is an incendiary motion given the actions of the Greens and their activist supporters over many months and, as Mr Batchelor has just said, the political strategy that is being used in relation to the terrible events that are occurring in the Middle East. I note that Dr Mansfield did not mention the events of 7 October and what occurred on that day. She talked about the indiscriminate deaths of innocent lives, and we know that there are still 130 Israelis held hostage. Nevertheless this documents motion –

Samantha Ratnam: On a point of order, Acting President, I seek your guidance. If a member is misconstruing what another member said – if we can go back to Hansard – I seek your guidance on how that can be corrected or what guidance should be given to the member, who might be misconstruing what another member said, which will be clear on the record, just a short while ago.

The ACTING PRESIDENT (Michael Galea): I believe Dr Mansfield may have referenced the 7 October attack, but I am happy for us to refer to Hansard.

Georgie CROZIER: I am happy for that to be corrected, and I am happy that Dr Mansfield did, given it was such an atrocity that occurred on that day. But it does not take away from this incendiary motion that is really designed to further stoke division and hate within the community. Nobody in Victoria wants that. We have seen some very unfortunate and ugly events that have occurred, and I think that all of us do not want that to be pursued. This motion is designed for exactly those reasons. In relation to what is happening in the Parliament today around the Greens and what they are bringing into the Parliament and what they are doing, I say again this is not designed for what the vast majority of Victorians want. Obviously they want an ability to understand these matters, but what the Greens continue to do is use this as a way of fuelling those issues.

I know that this is a diversion from usual practice in this place around documents motions. I understand that, and I understand that there are members of the chamber who are concerned about that. It is not the first time that this has been undertaken, where the house has not agreed or there have been members of the house that have not agreed to documents being released. It does not happen often; it happens very rarely. But in this instance we think this motion, as I said, is not there for the motives that the Greens are actually stating. They know that there are issues around national security or issues around, as I say, the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Any issues around national security cannot be released; government cannot release that, understandably.

In response to this I say again that whilst we are diverging from usual practices in this, this is something that the Liberals and Nationals believe is being used by the Greens and their activist supporters to further inflame the divisive argument out in the community. We do not think that is appropriate whatsoever, and in this instance we will not be supporting the documents motion.

Jeff BOURMAN (Eastern Victoria) (10:46): I too will be opposing this motion. I do not normally do it, but I will pick up what Ms Crozier said before: I believe this is nothing more than a stunt. They know quite well that executive privilege or national security will be called as a reason for getting nothing. If the government for once gave us a blank sheet of paper, they would be justified. What else are we doing this for?

Let us have a look at what happened. We all know on 7 October there was a massacre. It just seems to me that is a prelude to everything else that has happened, which is true. Let us have a look at the difference. A motion by leave this morning mentioned that 1 million Palestinians were advised to move. That does not sound like what happened on 7 October, when 1200 to 1400 Israeli civilians, which included other nationals and included Arab Israelis, were given no warning whatsoever. They were gunned down in their homes, they were murdered, they were raped. Babies were decapitated. Babies were burnt alive deliberately, not as an act of war, not as an unfortunate thing of war. Let us be honest, what is happening in Gaza is disgusting. The death of civilians is disgusting. What is happening to the men, women and children that are non-combatants is disgusting. But it just seems to be by the by, what happened to the 1200 or 1400 civilians in Israel. It just seems to be, ‘We’ll mention that at the beginning, and then we’ll move on.’

There are also some other facts. In 2006 Hamas were elected with Fatah to run, I think, the Legislative Council in Gaza. Fatah lost the toss and have gone nowhere, so what we are left with is Hamas with its ministry of health, which releases all the stuff that everyone parrots. They treat it like it is a government, and then they say, ‘No, Hamas is not the government.’ If anyone wants peace in Gaza, call for Hamas to surrender. Call for Hamas to give back the hostages. I can pretty well guarantee the second that happens it will all stop. To call for a ceasefire means Hamas will live on; it means Hamas will reorganise, as they have done since 2006, and Hamas will do this again.

I myself may not be Jewish. My daughter is. Hamas and the people that actively physically support them would kill my daughter – I will not stand for that – just because she is Jewish. I will oppose this, and I am appalled at this stunt and appalled at the wearing of the keffiyehs in here. The Greens knew full well that they would be told not to. I mean, the disgusting things that were said about Mr Puglielli before – we cannot support that sort of thing. Hamas throw gays off buildings for being gay. I do not get it – I really do not get it. I oppose this.

Tom McINTOSH (Eastern Victoria) (10:49): I have got a short time to make a contribution on this. In my first speech I outlined the fact that in Victoria a part of what I love so much is our diversity and that the people who come from the many nations on earth bring their art, their food, their sport and that culture that makes Victoria everything that it is and makes us an example to the world, both the communities that we build and the economic success we build together. However, we often see risk to this in politics. We have seen it in politics in recent elections, and it has been rejected, whether it is race, whether it is economic situation, whether it is postcode, whether it is gender or whether it is sexual orientation. We have seen these sorts of items used for politics, and we are seeing this resurgent around the world. We must stand against this. We have heard contributions this morning similarly. We have got IDAHOBIT coming up on Friday. We absolutely must stand united in an inclusive and a respectful society here in Victoria.

I will come to this short-form docs motion and the politics that has gone on around it. I have just been looking at a Greens social media post, one of many posters, communications and whatnot: ‘Vic Labor, stop arming Israel!’ This is in no way appropriate for people who want to stand in this place, for people who want to form political parties, to lead our communities. This is not the way to do this. We have a horrible conflict in the Middle East, and we have big Jewish and Muslim communities in Victoria. We need to be doing everything we can to work towards peace, and peace needs leadership. So telling Victorians that this government, the state they live in, is arming Israel is really, really beyond the pale, and it is really setting up some potentially bad outcomes. It is just adding to what we do not need, absolutely what we do not need in this state.

There are a lot of good people in the Greens with very good intentions. However, there are some within the party that are ruthless careerists. I saw this four or five years ago in Darebin. The biggest branch of the Victorian Greens ripped themselves to shreds, and it was not the majority of the membership. They were shocked by what they saw by a small number of careerists at the top who did not care about the outcomes, whether it was for the party or the broader community; they cared about where they wanted to get to. I think this language that we have seen in their communications is an example of that. So I think you need to have a very good look within your organisation. We can have respectful debate, as the President has talked about today, in the way that we communicate what we bring to this place and what we discuss, but when absolute, blatant mistruths are being put out into the community, that is absolutely wrong.

I will stand here and support this short-form docs motion. Let us absolutely bring it to the community. With these MOUs, there are 8000 MOUs set up with national and subnational organisations around this world. This MOU is an envelope; there is nothing within it. My understanding is –

Samantha Ratnam: Show it to us, then.

Tom McINTOSH: That is exactly why I will stand here and support this motion, because any claim that this MOU is supporting the Israeli military is false and is a lie, and the lies have to stop. Victorians need to hear the truth.

Council divided on motion:

Ayes (22): Ryan Batchelor, John Berger, Lizzie Blandthorn, Katherine Copsey, Enver Erdogan, Jacinta Ermacora, David Ettershank, Michael Galea, Shaun Leane, David Limbrick, Sarah Mansfield, Tom McIntosh, Rachel Payne, Aiv Puglielli, Georgie Purcell, Samantha Ratnam, Harriet Shing, Ingrid Stitt, Jaclyn Symes, Lee Tarlamis, Gayle Tierney, Sheena Watt

Noes (15): Melina Bath, Jeff Bourman, Gaelle Broad, Georgie Crozier, David Davis, Moira Deeming, Renee Heath, Wendy Lovell, Trung Luu, Bev McArthur, Joe McCracken, Nick McGowan, Evan Mulholland, Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell, Richard Welch

Motion agreed to.