Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

President Herzog is visiting Australia at the invitation of the Governor-General, as her equivalent head of state. The Australian government supports the invitation. I'll be meeting with him later today and with families of the 15 innocent victims whose lives were tragically cut short on 14 December. That is what this visit is about. I would say to everyone in this chamber and outside, as I have said repeatedly, that we need to turn the temperature down in this country. We need to turn it right down, including in the rhetoric that just took place in that exchange in this chamber.

President Herzog is here in Australia to offer sympathy and solidarity to people who are mourning, and to offer his support to members of Australia's Jewish community. He has said, to quote him, that his visit is in the spirit of 'solidarity, friendship and love'. There's not enough of that anywhere in the world, not the least here in the past couple of months.

I know people have different views and very strong views about the Middle East, and they're entitled to express those, and they're entitled to do that in a peaceful way. The Australian government does that as well. We have recognised Palestine. We support two states. We have spoken out about the devastation and humanitarian crisis in Gaza, in addition to our unequivocal condemnation of Hamas's atrocities on October 7. We will continue to understand that there is a need in this country, as well as globally, for some nuance in this debate, and that the debate is not advanced by people thinking it's like a football team where you have to support 100 per cent one side or the other. That does not advance peace.

There are two roads in the Middle East. One is for Israelis and Palestinians to walk the path towards a settlement which does require, in the Australian government's view, very strongly, a two-state solution. In order to do that, you need to engage constructively with Israelis and Palestinians. That is one path. The other path is that a powerful state, the state of Israel, is in a position which we have seen for seven decades, and the Palestinians remain an oppressed people. Now, I believe very strongly that we need to engage with both Israelis and Palestinians as we go forward. I've consistently said that every life matters, whether Israeli or Palestinian.

The violence that we saw last night was devastating. I know all Australians would have found those scenes very confronting. I note that NSW Police have said they will examine the footage of what took place last night, including, I note, particularly of the people who were praying, and then action was taken. Many people who saw the footage will want to know all of the circumstances around that, and I'll allow the police to do their job. But I also note that there were systems put in place—which is pretty sensible, frankly—to separate where President Herzog was and where the demonstrations were, and that people sought to break that separation and, therefore, to create a circumstance which was not going to be peaceful and which saw what occurred there.

Now, in Australia, we can disagree peacefully and with respect. I will treat President Herzog with respect. I've known him for a long period of time. He is someone you can have a respectful discussion with whilst examining differences which are there. But he is here primarily to provide comfort for people who not only need it but deserve it at this time. I will not, as a number of the crossbenchers have suggested, walk away from my support for his presence here, because it is appropriate that he be here at this time, and it's appropriate that people understand the context which is there—a community that is hurting, a community that is reaching out and asking for some understanding.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again to conclude: we need to turn the temperature down, and the Greens political party need to be a part of turning that temperature down rather than up. Australians want the killing to stop. They want innocent lives to be protected, whether they be Israeli or Palestinian. The other thing that they want is for conflict to not be brought here. That is overwhelmingly what they want. That's the government's position, and we'll continue to advocate for it.

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