Wednesday, 15 May 2024

Petitions

Middle East conflict

Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (17:51): I move:

That the petition be taken into consideration.

Today is Nakba Day, a day that recognises the mass displacement of the Palestinian people in 1948. It is also seven months since Israel invaded Gaza, leading to another mass displacement of Palestinian people. In that time over 100,000 Palestinian people have been killed or injured by Israeli military forces. Seventy per cent of the victims of Israel’s war have been women and children. Children are starving to death as Israel blockades aid and is creating a famine. As we speak, the 1.2 million Palestinians sheltering in Rafah are being told to evacuate as Israel starts bombing the city, despite there being nowhere safe to go. The world is witnessing a genocide.

Seven months ago this place passed a motion saying it stood with Israel after the horrendous attacks by Hamas, but neither this place nor the other place nor the Premier have rescinded or offered another motion in its place recognising the atrocities committed by Israel in its invasion of Gaza. Since then the Premier has called for calm in the community but has not condemned the actions of Israel. Moreover, she has defended her government’s agreements with Elbit Systems and the Israeli Ministry of Defense. Elbit Systems is Israel’s largest weapons manufacturer. Its weapons have been killing and injuring Palestinians and destroying their homes, their workplaces, their hospitals, their universities, their water supplies, the very things of life the rest of us take for granted. By defending and continuing these agreements Victorian Labor is providing cover to Israel. Agreements such as these provide a legitimacy to the parties involved – in this case, Elbit Systems and the Israeli government. Labor is giving Elbit the seal of approval and offering support to the Israeli government with these agreements.

Atrocities happen when those responsible think there will be no consequences. Benjamin Netanyahu and his government are defying the world community, and we must all do what we can to send the message that having zero regard for civilian lives and international law has consequences. With even Joe Biden considering suspending weapons shipments, Labor’s continued refusal to take any actions against Benjamin Netanyahu’s extreme war cabinet is inexcusable cowardice. Enough is enough. It is time for Labor to move beyond words and take action. The federal Labor government should be imposing sanctions and expelling the Israeli ambassador.

Here in Victoria the very least that should happen – the very least – is for Labor to end its agreements with Elbit Systems and the Israeli Ministry of Defense. That is what the petitioners are asking for today with this petition brought before this house. Labor, you really seem not to be willing to understand what is being asked of you in this moment. You keep telling us to stop talking about Gaza, stop talking about the conflict, stop causing conflict, stop wearing our keffiyehs, stop making you feel uncomfortable, and you accuse us of making up facts, all in an attempt to deflect and avoid taking responsibility and showing moral courage.

In contrast to the Premier and Labor, the community here in Victoria have been showing up week after week to demonstrate their horror at Israel’s actions and call for peace, and hundreds of them are joined right now outside this Parliament once again calling for peace and calling for this government to act. We have seen week after week, for months on end, thousands of Victorians joining with millions across the world in this moment for peace.

The Greens have been accused by Labor and the Liberals of stoking division and undermining social cohesion in the community when we talk about what is happening in Palestine. There is a power dynamic in these calls for social cohesion that most in this place are oblivious to. It seems that it is governments and politicians who get to decide what is or is not social cohesion. The communities affected get no say. In fact when they do ask for something from the government, like to end its relationship with a defence company whose weapons are being used to kill people like them, they are accused of division. Professor Andrew Jakubowicz puts it this way:

If people are creating problems for me, there’s an issue with social cohesion. If the minorities are making me feel uncomfortable, then there’s a problem of social cohesion. If the government …are making the minorities community uncomfortable, it is their problem.

What I can say with absolute clarity is that ignoring communities when they are distressed and ignoring communities calling for action in the face of the atrocities the world is witnessing in Gaza will not help build social cohesion. You know what will help build social cohesion? Stopping the onslaught and the slaughter of the people in Gaza. You know what will help build social cohesion? Stopping the genocide. You know what will help build social cohesion? Peace, doing everything we possibly can – and we can do things in this place – to achieve peace and liberate the Palestinian people. Free, free Palestine!

Georgie CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (17:56): I rise to speak to the petition that has been outlined by Dr Ratnam. I know that she and certain others are passionate about this issue. We understand that there is this terrible conflict that is occurring in the Middle East, which sadly could have been avoided if 7 October did not take place. I think it is also very concerning that over 100 or 130 hostages still remain captured by Hamas, those terrorists that conducted the most appalling atrocity on 7 October – the murdering, the torture, the rape of innocent men, women and children. That cannot be forgotten. It must not be forgotten.

There are many people that are absolutely despairing about the situation, and nobody wants this conflict to continue – nobody. But this petition is calling on the government’s partnership with Elbit Systems, which is an Israeli company. I just want to put some comments on the record in relation to that. I have heard from government members earlier today who spoke about the misinformation around this particular company and what is being conducted here in Victoria. This really is a global company, and Australia gets far more benefit from our defence relationship with Israel than Israel does from us in relation to this technology that Elbit is doing. It is not what I think the Greens and others are saying, as was highlighted by the government MPs this morning.

When the Parliament did make that statement about 7 October, the Parliament did stand as one because of the horrific nature of what went on. I realise that there is a huge issue that has gone on, and we know that since then antisemitism has increased by more than 700 per cent. What we have seen is a very divisive debate that has gone on in our community. There is hate-filled speech. It is divisive, and it is unnecessary. Nobody wants this in our state or in our country. We do not need this. You see the scenes at so many institutions that would undertake peaceful protest, but there is an anxiety there and there is the fact that Jewish students do not feel safe. I know that from personal experience in terms of dealing with some of these young people who are very concerned about what is going on. They just want to get on and live their lives and be safe. They have got no control over what is happening in the Middle East, but many of them do, sadly, know many people that were caught up in the horrific atrocities of 7 October.

Hamas is a terrorist organisation. It has absolutely no regard for what is occurring, and I think we have to recognise that. Unfortunately their actions have gone on and on and on, and we still have hostages that have not been returned home to their loved ones in Israel after those horrific atrocities, as I said, on 7 October.

There are many reports about what has been taking place at an international level. Nobody in this chamber has the details of what is going on. We have to rely on news reports, and I do think there are issues around some of the information that is getting out and some of the emails and the ridiculous statements that I am receiving from people who are not taking into account the true state of what occurred on 7 October. I find it insulting that there is that lack of regard.

I know there are people out there who want this conflict to end. We all do. But this petition, which is I think inflaming those tensions within our community, is unfortunate, and that is a consideration that I think everybody needs to take in. When we are talking about this we do not want to put fuel on the fire and inflame this any more than it is. There is too much at stake. We were out there today talking about respectful hate speech, and we were being howled down – (Time expired)

Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (18:02): I rise to speak in support of this petition tabled by my friends in the Greens today. I stood in this place in March calling for this government to finally end its partnership with Israeli weapons companies in light of the planned invasion of Rafah, but today bombs are being dropped on 1.4 million people, nearly half of them children. They are currently sheltering in Rafah after being told to evacuate to there for safety.

While using the very weapons this government supports, Israeli military spokespeople have made claims such as ‘the emphasis is on damage and not on accuracy’, ‘the only thing that needs to enter Gaza are hundreds of tons of explosives not an ounce of aid’ and ‘there will be no electricity, no food, no fuel’. Throughout this same period I have been in communication with two Palestinian families after supporting their visa applications to Australia. Muhannad, Razan, Millar Mohammad, Mai and Maha put everything they had put everything that they had into subclass 600 visa applications as they attempted to flee to Australia. Due to Israel’s ongoing bombardment, baby Millar, who was born on 5 October, was unable to even obtain a birth certificate, only a hospital discharge paper. I learned last week that they had their applications rejected because they do not have stable employment. How can the government expect Gazans to have stable employment in a city where over 72 per cent of schools and 100 per cent of universities are gone, where hospitals do not operate and where homes are tents?

Muhannad was surprised that I was willing to even share his story in this place. He did not believe that anyone here was committed to helping him and his family. That is something that we should all be deeply ashamed of. He said in a message to me:

Unfortunately I don’t know what to say, because there were hopes and in a moment all hopes collapsed in a row.

With no way out of Gaza, the only hope for Muhannad and his family is a ceasefire. His only hope is compassion, and we should be offering it.

I share this story because at the very same time that the Australian government sends aid to Palestinians it is shipping weapons to their killers. In this place we are told there is little that we can do as state MPs, and that is just not true. What we do have is a platform, and with that comes a responsibility to use it. When this is taught in history books in years to come, we will be known as the decision-makers of this time, and I am proud to stand with many of my crossbench colleagues and the thousands who signed this petition on the right side of history this evening. Free Palestine!

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (18:06): I am saddened to have to get up and make a commentary on this particular petition. The petition is to end a partnership with Elbit Systems. It has been signed by a significant number of people. But this is part of an attack on the Jewish community and is part of a racist approach, in my humble view. It is an appalling and unbalanced petition that has not understood that legitimate connections between the Victorian community, the Victorian government and the Israeli community, the Israeli government and Israeli firms are entirely reasonable and entirely in the spirit in which things should be conducted.

Actually, the truth of the matter is that this is part of a broader, nasty campaign to attack Israel, to attack Jewish people and to make it as difficult as possible for them. We see this with our campuses on fire tonight, with the occupation of buildings, and we saw it out on the front steps today: a number of MPs of all political backgrounds were out there talking to the media, and yet the pro-Palestinian groups out there moved over in a menacing way. They were quite clear, they were shouting out and making an attempt to drown out the MPs speaking to the TV cameras. It was a clear attempt at bullying; let us call it for what it was. That is what occurred on the steps of Parliament or just off the steps of Parliament in the period after 1 o’clock. It was an aggressive demonstration, in fact, and showed their true colours.

This calling out loudly ‘From the river to the sea,’ that is a clear attempt to look at the end of Israel, to push Israel out, and I see that Israel is under an existential threat. They are entitled to arm themselves; they are entitled to protect their people. What could be more significant than what we saw on 7 October with 1200 people killed, mass rapes, true terror unleashed by the Hamas group just over the border into Israel. It is clear that this was an attempt to intimidate the Israeli community, it is clear, old-fashioned terrorism in the sense of trying to use the power of threats, the power of attack, the power of making people fearful and uncertain. The idea that you would hurt babies, the idea that you would rape women on the scale that we saw – and there are still hundreds of hostages held by Hamas today. Why are we not calling for the release of those Hamas hostages? Why is not every one of those hostages being released? I cannot understand why people have not understood that Hamas is a terrorist organisation. Associating with Hamas is a shocking outcome.

Look, I make the point here that nobody can misunderstand that there are so many people being caught up in this in Gaza. People who, through no fault of their own, are actually being caught up in what is a terrible war that is occurring – let us call it for what it is. I do not blame Israel, though, for wanting to deal with, degrade, diminish and ultimately destroy Hamas. I think that is entirely reasonable. If another country came to Australia, killed 1200 people in Victoria and kidnapped hundreds of people in Victoria, raped people, attacked babies, dragged corpses around in the way that we saw on that shocking footage – if that happened in Victoria – Victorians would demand that the government, Australians would demand that the government actually respond and deal with the group that had delivered that terrible and unjustified outcome. That is the truth of the matter. Victorians would demand that, Australians would demand that, and that is what the Israeli government is trying to do at the moment. Hamas has embedded itself right across Gaza, and I make the point that Gazans and Palestinians are not the same as Hamas. I do make that point very strongly. But they have allowed this to occur. It is true that the Gazans did vote for Hamas in 2006 or thereabouts – (Time expired)

David ETTERSHANK (Western Metropolitan) (18:11): Unlike Mr Davis and Ms Crozier, I would actually like to talk about Elbit Systems and its relationship with the government. I know it is a wild and crazy notion to talk to the subject of the petition, but what the hell. People are doubtless aware of the words of Shakespeare:

Cry ‘havoc!’ and let slip the dogs of war …

It was Mark Antony’s bloodthirsty rally. It is fair to say that the dogs of war are having their day, roaming unconstrained and causing havoc across the planet. But who gives those dogs of war their fangs? Who quietly feeds the hundreds of dirty wars being waged around the world? Who profits from the horrific carnage we see daily? It is the merchants of war, and Elbit Systems is one of them. Elbit are the makers of such hideous and prohibited weapons as artillery shells and bombs containing white phosphorus, designed to burn human flesh off the bone; fléchette projectiles, designed not simply to penetrate the body but to pass through it; and cluster munitions, small bomblets that litter the ground and kill civilians sometimes years after hostilities have ceased – horrific weapons that cause unspeakable damage to civilian populations. So horrific are they that the board of Australia’s Future Fund, our sovereign wealth fund, chaired by that notorious peacenik and former Liberal Treasurer Peter Costello, deemed Elbit to be an excluded investment. Elbit were placed on an exclusion list by Future Fund because of their unethical behaviour, and that occurred only months after the then Andrews Labor government revealed that it had formed a partnership with Elbit Systems.

Elbit has long been involved in the Israeli suppression of Palestinians, even before the current conflict. Its surveillance systems and drones are used to block the movement of Palestinians between Jerusalem and the West Bank, and now we see Elbit-manufactured drones and smart bombs used to massacre the Palestinians trapped in Gaza. As this petition notes, their drones were used in the murder of Australian Zomi Frankcom and the six other World Central Kitchen aid workers. The death toll in Gaza has reached 33,000 Palestinians, and over 72,000 have been injured. This is the work of the Israel Defense Forces. The UN Human Rights Council – another Bolshevik organisation – reporting on the unrelenting assault on Gaza, found that there were grounds to indicate that the crime of genocide was being perpetrated by the IDF on the people of Gaza. That genocide is being realised through the handiwork of firms such as Elbit Systems.

Ms Crozier says we get more from Elbit. Well, can I say the major acquisition from Elbit was their defence system, which our federal government cancelled this year. They are one of the companies responsible for the burnt, mutilated Palestinian civilians we see nightly on our TV screens. The Victorian government’s partnership with Elbit Systems –

Georgie Crozier: What about those poor Israelis that are still hostages?

David ETTERSHANK: This is not about the – anyway, we will come back to that one. The Victorian government’s partnership with Elbit Systems, investments –

Members interjecting.

David ETTERSHANK: Yes, thank you for that. The Victorian government’s partnership with Elbit Systems, investments made on behalf of the Victorian people, implicates us all in these war crimes. So we simply ask: what is the Victorian government doing on our behalf? Why is Victoria in partnership with a company like Elbit? We have no idea what this partnership entails. Where is the transparency? Why must the details of this partnership be kept secret from the people of Victoria? Is this the sort of company Victoria wants to invest in? As signatories to the UN genocide convention, we have a responsibility to prevent genocide, and we as parliamentarians have an obligation to speak about that. And let us be clear: this is not an attack on the people of Israel. This is not an attack based on antisemitism. We support a peaceful resolution between Israel and Palestine and a sustainable two-party solution.

Legalise Cannabis Victoria wholeheartedly supports this petition. We call on the Victorian government to end its partnership with Elbit Systems and to publish its memorandum of understanding with the Israeli Ministry of Defense. The Victorian government should not be a party to nurturing the insatiable dogs of war and enriching their merchants.

Aiv PUGLIELLI (North-Eastern Metropolitan) (18:16): We are here to talk about Elbit Systems. For those that do not know or perhaps have not gathered already from this debate here today, Elbit Systems is a weapons manufacturer, and it is a huge part of the war machine that is being used by the Israeli government to destroy Gaza and kill tens of thousands of Palestinian people. Their weapons are reducing family homes and businesses to rubble and killing children in ways so cruel I cannot even speak them out loud, and this Victorian Labor government has a partnership with Elbit, which they signed in 2021, as well as a memorandum of understanding with the Israeli defence ministry – that same military that are currently rolling through Rafah, murdering Palestinians and decimating Gaza from top to bottom and back again. Yet we see in this debate today no government speakers, no speakers from the Labor Party. To that I say: own up to your actions. Own up to the work that you do. Own up to your policy. You are in government. At least field a speaker here today to answer up to this. Own up to it. We do not know as a chamber here yet the exact details of Labor’s relationship with Elbit or of the memorandum of understanding. They have so far been kept as secret deals under this Labor government, and frankly, the fact that these exist at all is a problem.

But I am standing here on behalf of the community, the more than 2000 people who signed this petition to demand that Labor end its relationship with this abhorrent company that is complicit in the genocide in Gaza that is occurring right now and that they cut ties with the Israeli defence ministry, who are committing these acts. Out on the steps right now people are voicing their disgust at Labor’s failure to step up in this time of genocide. People have been showing up on the streets of Melbourne and in cities around the world every weekend for months and months now, calling for a ceasefire, calling for peace, for an end to the slaughter of Palestinians. Students from our universities have formed encampments. I visited Monash just the other day. I actually spent quite a lovely few hours sharing a meal – peaceful – painting signs and chatting to students who have been facing some frankly very scary attacks on their camp and, to put it mildly, bureaucratic challenges from the university leadership. Teachers and parents have formed coalitions to ensure that Palestinian history and culture can be taught and to stop weapons manufacturers making their way into our schools through STEM program sponsorship. School students have left class to protest. So many in the community are saying enough – enough.

It is Nakba Day today, 76 years since Israel was created on Palestinian land, and all around our state people are taking action today. They are using their voices to call for an end to this second Nakba, an end to the horror and the bloodshed in Gaza, and freedom for Palestinian people. Labor, being in government, needs to do everything that it can to be on the right side of history with this unfolding tragedy in Gaza. They need to sever ties immediately with Elbit Systems and the Israeli defence ministry. They need to speak up to their federal counterparts, to the international community, to whoever they can, with the power that they have and call for an end to the Israeli government’s devastation of Gaza. Every day of silence is another day of being complicit in genocide. Free Palestine! Free Palestine! Free Palestine!

Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (18:20): I want to thank my colleagues on the progressive crossbench for their contributions to this discussion and debate today. Mostly I want to thank the over 2000 Victorians – and there would have been more if the petition had been open for longer – for signing this petition asking the Victorian Labor government to do the bare minimum and end its relationships with the companies that are manufacturing weapons that are killing women and children, thousands upon thousands of Palestinians, in Gaza right now.

For those who have been watching, because the public are not allowed in the gallery at this moment, I need to tell you what has been happening in this chamber, and that is that the Labor government refused to put up a speaker for this discussion and refused to take any accountability or responsibility or defend the indefensible. In fact they have tried their best to minimise the number of people from their side of the chamber who are in the chamber. One or two people were barely here for the entirety of this discussion. It demonstrates their absolute cowardice and the moral vacuum that is the modern-day Labor Party.

These are the same MPs that turn up to events in the community with our multicultural community pretending to understand the struggles of our culturally diverse population in Victoria. But you do not, because if you did, you would do everything you possibly could, and there are things you can do, to end this assault on the Palestinian people and to find and create peace. Please do not come to our events anymore. Do not come to us and ask for photo opportunities. Do not tell us you understand our history, because for anyone who has experienced war – when the bombs dropped and the attackers came and no-one came to our rescue, we wondered what the world was doing. Do you know what the world was doing? They were running away, like we have seen in this chamber today, and that is what the Palestinian people and millions across the world are seeing right now.

In parliaments like this across the world people are burying their heads in the sand, pretending that they cannot take responsibility and there is nothing they can do. Well, your silence matters, and our culturally diverse populations – our Palestinian communities, our Muslim communities right across this country – see you for what you are, Labor. Cowards! You have abandoned them at their time of greatest need, and they will never forgive you. This is a betrayal of everything that they had hoped for. Never again will they ever trust you.

Council divided on motion:

Ayes (7): Katherine Copsey, David Ettershank, Sarah Mansfield, Rachel Payne, Aiv Puglielli, Georgie Purcell, Samantha Ratnam

Noes (29): Ryan Batchelor, John Berger, Lizzie Blandthorn, Jeff Bourman, Gaelle Broad, Georgie Crozier, David Davis, Moira Deeming, Enver Erdogan, Jacinta Ermacora, Michael Galea, Renee Heath, Shaun Leane, Wendy Lovell, Trung Luu, Bev McArthur, Joe McCracken, Nick McGowan, Tom McIntosh, Evan Mulholland, Harriet Shing, Ingrid Stitt, Jaclyn Symes, Lee Tarlamis, Sonja Terpstra, Gayle Tierney, Rikkie-Lee Tyrrell, Sheena Watt, Richard Welch

Motion negatived.

David Davis: On a point of order, President, I wonder if you might be able to inform me and the house as to whether a member is able to call a division when their party has not had a speaker in the debate.

The PRESIDENT: I do not think it is compulsory to have a contribution in a debate for someone to call a division.

Before I do the messages, I owe Mr Mulholland an apology. I had been alerted that your statement on reports was on a paper that had not been tabled. I was wrong. You were actually speaking on a Legislative Council report, so I apologise. I am happy to correct the record, and that particular report was very relevant to the contribution.