Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to talk about the situation in Israel and Gaza. Since I spoke about this issue in the previous sitting week, the violence has escalated dramatically. We have rightfully condemned the actions of Hamas, unequivocally. They have targeted innocent civilian Israelis, including children, who continue to be held hostage. While Israel has a right to defend itself, as our Foreign Minister has said: the way that they defend themselves matters. We have called for the protection of civilian lives. The scale of the death and destruction in Gaza at the moment is unfathomable. Babies in neonatal intensive care are dying due to a lack of fuel to power hospital generators. Families are being wiped out in their entirety.

I have met with many from the Palestinian community in Canberra, including this afternoon, when I met with a group of women who wanted to tell me about what their community is going through. One woman said that 30 members of her family had been killed. I met with another Palestinian woman yesterday who said that 42 members of her family had been killed, but because many were under the rubble, and people are removing the rubble by hand because there is no other way, that number is actually far greater. I have heard horrific stories of amputations and operations going on without anaesthetics, and that the situations in the hospitals are absolutely dire. Medicins Sans Frontieres have reported that dozens of doctors, nurses, staff and patients continue to be killed in the al-Shifa Hospital which is under siege by the Israeli military and has already been bombed several times. It is reported that when people have attempted to leave the hospital they have been killed on the spot. Today, the UN observed a moment of silence for the 100 UNRWA staff who lost their lives in Gaza since 7 October. This marks the highest number of UN aid workers killed in a conflict in such a short period.

Hospitals, schools, universities and refugee camps have been bombed. Palestinians have the right to live in peace in their homeland, as do Israelis. When I talked to members of the community this afternoon, they told me that they feel frustrated, hopeless and unable to do anything to help. To members of my community here in Canberra, whether they are Palestinian or Israeli, or have links to those communities: I have the deepest concern for your suffering at the moment, which I cannot fathom. Our government is concerned about every innocent person that is being killed, regardless of which side they are on.

I thank the hundreds and hundreds of Canberrans who have written to me, calling for a ceasefire. I thank you for your concern about this situation and for writing to me about this, and I want you to know that I hear you. As our Foreign Minister has said, we all want to see the next steps towards a ceasefire and a political process for a just and enduring peace. We have reiterated our commitment to a two-state solution. Without an end to violence, that can never be achieved. Of course, this cannot be one-sided. Hamas is still attacking Israel, using human shields and holding more than 200 hostages.

Our communities here in Australia and in Canberra are feeling deep hurt at the moment, and what we need to remember at this really challenging time is our humanity. There's no place for antisemitism or Islamophobia here in Australia. It's important at this time that we call for peace. That is what we all want to see. The indiscriminate nature of the bloodshed in Gaza is unacceptable. Over 13,000 Gazans, including at least 4½ thousand children, have been killed. This must stop. We've also started to see settler violence in the West Bank against Palestinians. Australia maintains that Israeli settlements in the West Bank are illegal. The unlawful taking of Palestinian homes is wrong and inflammatory. It makes the goal of a two-state solution harder, and it is a significant obstacle to peace.

I was really concerned to hear from people in my local Palestinian community that they believed that Australia was sending weapons to Israel. We are not. We are not sending troops; we are sending only personnel to help people to get out. We've also committed $25 million of aid, which we are doing our best to see delivered. I just want to reiterate that everyone in our government is absolutely devastated by the killing of innocent people in this situation. The deepest hope of everyone in our government is for enduring peace in the Middle East and a two-state solution, where both Palestinians and Israelis can live in peace and security.

I also want to speak about a recent opportunity I had to attend the OECD Southeast Asia Ministerial Forum, which was held in Hanoi, Vietnam, over 26 and 27 October. It was my great honour to represent the trade minister, Senator Don Farrell, in Hanoi for this important forum which Australia co-hosted with Vietnam. The forum was an important chance for nations in our region to meet and discuss ways to increase our economic ties. The theme of the event was Sustainable and Quality Investment. For the OECD, it was an important opportunity to engage with a region which historically has been ignored. Of the 38 OECD member countries, only two—Japan and South Korea—are geographically located in Asia. For a long time, we've seen the inclusion of South-East Asian nations in the OECD as a key objective. It's an important way for us to build economic ties with our neighbours and increase stability in the region. That's why we strongly support the decision of Indonesia to seek to accede to the OECD. Accession is not an easy process, but Australia will be behind Indonesia every step of the way.

The visit also came at an important time in the Australia-Vietnam relationship. In 2023 we marked 50 years of diplomatic relations with Vietnam, and today that relationship has never been stronger. Our bilateral ties with Vietnam continue to go from strength to strength as we move towards the finalisation of a comprehensive strategic partnership. It was a privilege to meet with the Vice Minister for Foreign Affairs, Nguyen Minh Hang, to talk about what comes next for our relationship, and it was an honour to open the session alongside Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang, Minister for Foreign Affairs Bui Thanh Son, and OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann. I was also pleased to be able to meet with the UK Minister for the Indo-Pacific, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, for a bilateral meeting. I give special thanks to the Australian officials from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, who put in so much work to make the forum a success, to the embassy in Vietnam, and to our Ambassador to Vietnam, Andrew Goledzinowski, who went to so much work to make our visit run smoothly and to brief us. It was really an incredible experience to be there, to visit Hanoi and to able to engage in so many important meetings at an important time for the OECD and our region.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think Queenslanders across the great state of Queensland today, tonight, are waking up to this federal Labor government. They're waking up to the absolute hypocrisy of this Labor government. When the current Prime Minister was trying to get the top job, he told Australians that he would be a prime minister for infrastructure. He said: 'Trust me, I've been the infrastructure minister before. I was a great infrastructure minister. I'll be a great prime minister for infrastructure.' Well, that promise rings hollow today, because, earlier today, his infrastructure minister stood up and effectively redesigned the boundaries of how things are going to be funded across this country.

Traditionally—in fact, certainly—while we, the coalition, were in government, we provided funding for projects, particularly on the Bruce Highway, on an 80-20 split. Now this government is saying, 'It's out with the bathwater, and now it's going to be a 50-50 split.' It's really interesting because this 90-day review was announced by the federal government almost 200 days ago and we still don't have an answer as to which projects are going to be cut and which are not. But they are softening Australians up. They're leaking a little bit of information each day. We saw the Treasurer trying to soften the blow on the weekend, on Insiders, talking about the fact that they can't provide funding for all projects. This Labor government is trying to soften the blow of the cuts that are about to come to infrastructure across this country.

I want to concentrate on a couple of these projects on the Sunshine Coast, in my neck of the woods, the electorate of Fisher. The first one, of course, is the heavy passenger rail into Maroochydore from Beerwah station. About 85 per cent of the population of the Sunshine Coast lives on the coast—very different to how it was over a hundred years ago when people lived in the hinterland. Over those more than 100 years, people have moved to the coast. We don't have a railway line on the coast. It beggars belief that we don't, but when we were in government, Ted O'Brien, the member for Fairfax, and I secured federal funding from our government to the tune of $1.6 billion, half the cost we estimated it would cost to build that railway. We didn't get boo from the state Labor government, other than them saying, 'We'll do a review.'

That $1.6 billion, which the state Labor government refused to match, is now potentially facing cuts by this federal Labor government. Whilst we offered to pay 50-50—it was a $3.2 billion project; we got $1.6 billion committed by the former coalition government—the state government refused to accept that $1.6 billion. They refused to enter into an arrangement, to start the work, to start the design and to even commit to it.

The same applies to the $160 million that we got for the Mooloolah River Interchange. For both of those projects, the former federal government didn't need to put a cent towards it, but the state Queensland Labor government are so hopeless that we were having to put in a lot of money to help fund their infrastructure projects. When you come to the great state of Queensland and you look at the front or the side of a Queensland rail train, you'll see QR—you don't see CR—for Queensland Rail. We didn't need to put a penny to either of those projects, including the Mooloolah River Interchange, but we offered to pay half. Now what we find is that the federal government is not only looking to cut billions of dollars of infrastructure projects around this country; they are now saying: 'We're going to change the rules. The former government was prepared to pay 80 per cent for a lot of these projects, particularly on the Bruce Highway, on Highway 1, and we're going to cut that back to 50 per cent.' You know what's going to happen, don't you? The state government, because they are so broke and they are so inept, will scale down—

Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

They're in surplus!

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Well, if they're in surplus, how about they spend some of the money on infrastructure? Why don't they spend money on infrastructure? They don't, because they are totally inept. What we will find is that they will scale back the infrastructure projects, just like they did on the duplication of the North Coast railway line, another project where the former federal government offered to pay a contribution. Even though we didn't have to pay a cent, we thought a fifty-fifty contribution was a good idea, so we invested money into that project. But, in the true style of the state Labor government, they scaled back the project, so in effect the federal government was paying seventy-thirty—

Andrew Wilkie (Clark, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Moreton will restrain himself.

Andrew Wallace (Fisher, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The state Labor government will continue to change the scope of works, because, if they have money in the bank, they are certainly not spending it on the Sunshine Coast. How about they spend money in all areas of regional Queensland, rather than just Brisbane?

I reckon that Australians across this country have got a very serious case of buyer's remorse today because they have been sold a pup. They've been sold a pup because they were told by this Prime Minister that he would be a prime minister that builds things and that he would be a prime minister for infrastructure, just like he said he was when he was the infrastructure minister in the former Labor government. But Australians are now waking up to this lot, because they know that this lot are just not prepared to spend money in regional Queensland or regional Australia. But it'll go much further than that, because this federal Labor government, at the same time as it's doing this so-called 90-day review, excluded from this 90-day review the $200 billion road project in Melbourne. How can it be that the federal Labor government can say, 'Nothing to see here. We'll just park that job aside and look after our Victorian mates,' and then crucify other states but particularly Queensland?

The good people of Queensland will have a lot to say about this in October 2024, just as they will again at the next federal election. It is absolutely unsatisfactory for this federal Labor government to have held itself out to the Australian people as being a future government for building infrastructure but then, once it got in, to announce this sham of a 90-day review. We're now at 200 days, and we're getting drip fed this little bit of disappointing information on a daily basis, like they think we're stupid. Well, I've got something to say and I reckon most of Queensland will have something to say about the cuts to infrastructure that this Labor government is meting out on Queenslanders. Queenslanders are not stupid. They will not put up with these cuts that this Labor government falsely portrayed that they would build. In the last budget they kept that $160 billion for the North Coast rail and now it looks like they are going to cut it. (Time expired)