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senate vote 2024-03-26#17
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2024-07-20 06:47:14
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Title
Matters of Urgency — Middle East- Matters of Urgency - Middle East - Put the question
Description
<p class="speaker">Matt O'Sullivan</p><p>I inform the Senate that the President has received the following letter, dated 26 March, from Senator McKim:</p><p class="italic">Pursuant to standing order 75, I give notice that today the Australian Greens propose to move "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:</p><p class="italic">The State of Israel's non-compliance with the International Court of Justice is evident in the blocking of aid into Gaza and the Australian government must take action to compel the State of Israel to comply with orders of the ICJ and allow aid into all parts of Gaza at the scale needed."</p><p>Is the proposal supported?</p><p class="italic"> <i>More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—</i></p><p>With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with informal arrangements made by the whips.</p> <p class="speaker">Jordon Steele-John</p><p>I move:</p><p class="italic">That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:</p><p class="italic">The State of Israel's non-compliance with the International Court of Justice is evident in the blocking of aid into Gaza and the Australian government must take action to compel the State of Israel to comply with orders of the ICJ and allow aid into all parts of Gaza at the scale needed.</p><p>The matter of urgency put forward by the Australian Greens calls on the Senate to acknowledge the State of Israel's noncompliance with the orders of the International Court of Justice as evidenced in the continued blocking of aid provision to Gaza. Human Rights Watch has told the world, clearly, as have so many international aid organisations—and it's clear from the lived experience of Gazans on the ground—that the State of Israel continues to use starvation as a weapon of war. If we want more evidence of this we need look no further than the reality of the horror of children literally wasting before our eyes right now in Gaza.</p><p>On the issue of the State of Israel's noncompliance with the orders of the International Court of Justice, who said clearly that the State of Israel must allow aid to reach the innocent civilians of Gaza—the children of Gaza who need food now. We need look no further than the reality that in the three weeks after the order of the court, less aid was delivered to the north of Gaza than in the three weeks leading up to the order of the court.</p><p>As we sit here today, as a direct result of the policies of the State of Israel over 30,000 Palestinians are dead, millions have been displaced and starvation, disease and dehydration continue not only to be the everyday reality of the people of Gaza but the explicit policy of the State of Israel, wielded as a weapon of war. It is vital that Australia takes action to compel the State of Israel to comply with the orders of the ICJ and allow aid into all parts of Gaza at the scale it is desperately needed.</p><p>Overnight, the United Nations Security Council passed a motion that reiterated a demand that all parties comply with their obligations under international law. The motion, uniting much of the world, expressed deep concerns about the catastrophic humanitarian situation in Gaza and emphasised the urgent need to expand the flow of humanitarian assistance and to reinforce the protection of civilians in the Gaza Strip.</p><p>The Greens are calling on the Senate today and we urge all members of this place to vote to implore the Australian government to do all it can to promote a permanent, ongoing ceasefire in Gaza and to get urgent humanitarian aid to all who need it in Gaza.</p><p>Australia needs to play an active, engaged and constructive role in the creation of a lasting and just peace for Palestinians and Israelis. The Australian government must stop exporting arms to Israel. The Australian government must sanction the Prime Minister of the State of Israel and his war cabinet for the war crimes, crimes against humanity and, arguably, crimes of genocide which are the explicit policies of his cabinet and his government. And Australia must join with South Africa in supporting their genocide case against the State of Israel at the ICJ. The time is now for the Australian government to join with the Australian community, to discover the courage that lives within the Australian community, and to bring that courage into being, to champion it and its humanity in the spaces that we occupy on the global stage.</p> <p class="speaker">Penny Wong</p><p>by leave—I move:</p><p class="italic">Omit all words after "That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency", substitute:</p><p class="italic">(a) that the humanitarian crisis in Gaza is catastrophic and hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are starving;</p><p class="italic">(b) that all parties to the conflict in Gaza comply with the United Nations Security Council's (UNSC) demand in relation to ceasefire;</p><p class="italic">(c) that immediate action must be taken by Israel to comply with the UNSC's demand that all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale are removed;</p><p class="italic">(d) that Hamas comply with the UNSC's demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages, as well as ensuring humanitarian access to address their medical and other humanitarian needs; and</p><p class="italic">(e) that all parties comply with their obligations under international law, including orders of the International Court of Justice which are binding.</p><p>Colleagues, today we have an opportunity to come together in the Australian Senate in our common humanity. I say to senators that, if even the United Nations Security Council, which has been so divided on this issue and on many issues, can come together on this issue, surely the Australian Senate can. The world has finally got to a point where not one of the permanent members of the Security Council exercised a veto on a resolution about the conflict in Gaza—not the United States, as they have on previous resolutions, nor Russia or China, who vetoed a US resolution last week. So I say to my Senate colleagues that there is an opportunity for the Australian Senate to acknowledge this as a rare moment of agreement in the international community. Indeed it would be churlish of us not to.</p><p>I know that this motion may not reflect every aspect of all our positions on these issues, but there is enough here to agree on. I ask senators to look for the points that are in front of them. Whether senators consider themselves a friend of Israelis or Palestinians or both, as I do, we should be able to come together in agreeing on the urgency of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. When hundreds of thousands of Palestinians in Gaza are starving, we should be able to come together to underline the urgency of an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, leading to a sustainable ceasefire as per the UN Security Council resolution; we should be able to come together to demand Hamas comply with the Security Council's demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages; and we should be able to come together to demand that the Netanyahu government comply with the Security Council's demand that all barriers to the provision of humanitarian assistance at scale are removed.</p><p>If the divided United Nations Security Council could come together on these issues then we ought to be able to do likewise. If countries as different as Algeria, Ecuador, France, the United Kingdom and others can agree on these points, then we ought to be able to do likewise. Not a single country voted against this resolution, and we should recognise what it means that not one of the permanent five members of the Security Council stood in the way.</p><p>Right now we are faced with reports from the United Nations that 650,000 Palestinians in Gaza are starving and well over a million are at risk of starvation. Right now more than 1.7 million people in Gaza are internally displaced. There are, as I have said, increasingly few safe spaces to go. Right now there are more than 130 hostages still being held by the terror group Hamas, and we condemn Hamas's actions as we have always done.</p><p>Colleagues, the Australian Senate has an opportunity to come together in support of the United Nations resolution and in support of international humanitarian law. This is a good thing. This has been a very difficult conflict in Australia. There have been too few moments when we have been able to come together. I respectfully submit to the Senate that this is a time when we can do so. If the UN Security Council can do it, surely this country can do it too. I move:</p><p class="italic">That the question be now put.</p><p>Question agreed to.</p> <p class="speaker">Matt O'Sullivan</p><p>The question now is that Senator Wong's amendment to the motion be agreed to.</p><p>Question agreed to.</p> <p class="speaker">Simon Birmingham</p><p>I seek leave to move an opposition amendment to the amended urgency motion.</p> <p class="speaker">Matt O'Sullivan</p><p>Is leave granted?</p> <p class="speaker">Sarah Hanson-Young</p><p>My question is whether the question of Senator Birmingham's amendments will be put at the end of the 30 minutes?</p> <p class="speaker">Matt O'Sullivan</p><p>Anything before the chair will be put at the conclusion of the debate. Is leave granted?</p> <p class="speaker">Sarah Hanson-Young</p><p>If Senator Birmingham doesn't put the question straightaway, we don't have to move to suspend.</p> <p class="speaker">Matt O'Sullivan</p><p>I am in the hands of the Senate.</p><p>Leave not granted.</p> <p class="speaker">Simon Birmingham</p><p>Pursuant to contingent notice standing in my name, I seek leave to suspend so much of standing orders as is necessary to allow me to move an amendment to the amended urgency motion. I do note the significance of the passage overnight of a UN Security Council resolution given the lengthy period of debate and number of failed resolutions during that time.</p><p>I also note that, fairly swiftly following the passage of that UN Security Council resolution, the instigators of the 7 October terrorist attacks that precipitated the conflict we have seen in Gaza since that time—namely, Hamas—were quick not only to welcome that resolution but also to ignore key aspects of that resolution, a resolution that calls for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. The response of Hamas was to not accept the call for the unconditional and immediate release of all hostages but, instead, to suggest they would entertain that in some type of prisoner swap arrangement, such was the contempt with which Hamas greeted the resolution from the United Nations.</p><p>We acknowledge the government in putting forward a resolution seeking to reflect much of the UN Security Council resolution; however, it is the opposition's view that that does not say enough. It does not say enough to reflect the totality of the UN Security Council resolution nor does it say enough about the totality of what should be Australia's clear, unequivocal moral conviction in this conflict. That is why I present and seek leave to move amendments in this chamber, amendments which would better reflect the UN Security Council resolution—namely, that the call for a ceasefire was for an immediate ceasefire for the month of Ramadan, a ceasefire that would secure the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages and that that can then lead to a sustainable ceasefire.</p><p>We also seek to ensure that it is appropriately reflected that access for humanitarian assistance, which we wish to see flow to those who are suffering immensely in Gaza, requires the cooperation of all parties. Hamas has been filmed and recorded looting and stealing humanitarian assistance for their own purposes, so to place a moral judgement on one party in this conflict rather than reflecting that all parties must play a role in the provision of humanitarian assistance would be improper. We also seek to give this Senate the opportunity to restate critically the expectation that Hamas must lay down its arms and can have no role in the future governance of Gaza. These are points that the government has made previously, these are points that Australia should stand by and these are points that the coalition unreservedly stands by.</p><p>We also, in acknowledging the horrific terrorist attacks of 7 October, believe it is critical that, when discussing these matters, the Senate again reinforces its unconditional condemnation of Hamas for its heinous terrorist attacks and recognises Israel's inherent right to defend itself. The suffering and the loss of life have been immense. It has been well and truly a result of Hamas's terrorist attacks and of Hamas using the Palestinian people and people across Gaza as human shields behind which they hide their terrorist operatives, their terrorist infrastructure and their terrorist capabilities. Hamas's actions have compounded that loss of innocent life in Gaza, as they affected the loss of innocent life in Israel and as they continue to immorally hold hostages from those 7 October attacks. I urge the Senate to give us the right to move these amendments and to have them incorporated into this motion.</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>-
- The majority voted against a [motion](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2024-03-26.148.1) "*That the question be now put.*" This means that debate on the question can continue. However, it seems that - in the time in which this question was voted on - the time for debate [expired anyway](https://www.openaustralia.org.au/senate/?gid=2024-03-26.150.1) and so the question [was voted on](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/divisions/senate/2024-03-26/18).
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