Sue Lines (WA, Deputy-President) Share this | Hansard source

If the senator had been concerned about facts, rather than engaging in a smear campaign, he might have ascertained that the precise incident has indeed been reported in the Haaretz newspaper in Israel and here in Australia in The Age newspaper on 23 June 2003 under the headline 'Soldier "made woman drink cleaning fluid"'.

This is not the first time Melissa has been attacked for highlighting human rights abuses experienced by the Palestinian people. Indeed, Senator Scarr quoted a disgraceful column penned by Herald Sun journalist James Campbell. Facing potential defamation proceedings, rather than assert the truth of their defamatory imputations, on 26 March 2020, the Herald apologised to Melissa for that article and published a response from her titled 'Criticism not same as racism'. Melissa has stated publicly, as anyone who has spent time in the occupied Palestinian territories can attest: 'There is no need to invent atrocities. They are occurring on an almost daily basis.' This was confirmed by respected Israeli human rights NGO Yesh Din late last year, when it stated:

… the crime against humanity of apartheid is being committed in the West Bank. The perpetrators are Israelis, and the victims are Palestinians.

Evidently Senator Scarr has never met and does not know Melissa Parke personally. But many others in this place do, from all sides of the political spectrum. Melissa has spent—

Senator Scarr interjecting—