James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Cyber Security) | Hansard source

I thank Senator Lambie for bringing forward this very important motion today. I suspect it has turned out to be more revealing than you intended it to be when you moved it, and what should have been a moment of unity in this chamber has not turned out to be, but I'll reflect on that in a moment.

Our war memorials, whether they're the grand ones here in Canberra or the much more humble ones dotted around our suburbs, towns and cities, are the most revered monuments in Australia. In a country that is not as united as it once was, they are a point that Australians can rally around, can agree upon and can commemorate. You see that on ANZAC Day and on Remembrance Day when, in their millions, Australians get up early, go to their local war memorial and together—regardless of their background, race, ethnicity, religion or policies—solemnly pay tribute and commemorate the service and sacrifice of those who've fought and died in war to defend our country and the wonderful liberal democracy that we enjoy today as a result.

Whatever our views on foreign conflicts or other matters, we are able to unite as Australians on those solemn occasions at our war memorials to pay respect to them. What we've seen over the weekend in Canberra and in other incidents prior to now is a fundamental desecration of those sacred venues—a fundamental disrespect for the service and sacrifice of the more than 100,000 Australians who served and died in war and the many more than that who served, sacrificed and came back home. It is not too much to expect the elected representatives of the people in this place to reflect the sentiments of our community in standing up for that.

What is particularly egregious about this vandalism is the content of it. Let's be very clear and let's call this out directly: it was antisemitic. It's bad enough to vandalise a war memorial. It's even worse to put an antisemitic slogan on it. It's a slogan which the Prime Minister said is 'a very violent statement which has no place' in this country. It's a slogan which this Senate has voted overwhelmingly to condemn and say that it has no place in this country. On behalf of the opposition, I offer the government all bipartisan support for any measures necessary to protect our war memorials, whether that is additional resources to make sure they're not vandalised or additional legislation to make sure very severe criminal penalties flow for these acts of criminal vandalism, because the Parliament of Australia and the government of Australia need to send a clear signal that this conduct is unacceptable.

Senator Lambie, in her remarks, alluded to the way in which some people in this place have sought to profit politically from these foreign conflicts and sought to weaponise them for their partisan political advantage here in Australia. Recently, the Greens leader, Mr Bandt, was caught and recorded on a hot mic while addressing his national conference. It was reported in the Daily Mail. What he said at the conference was extremely revealing about the Greens. He said, 'I want you to think about what the narrative will be if we don't win these seats. Labor will say, "Ah, we can get away with bombing Gaza",' and then he goes on to talk about other matters. That's a disgraceful thing that Adam Bandt said, but it was very revealing in two respects. For the Greens, this is all about politics. For the Greens, this is about winning seats from the Labor Party in inner cities. Also, for the Greens, there's nothing they're unwilling to say in the pursuit of that objective. They're even willing to accuse the Australian Labor Party of being involved in bombing Gaza. On what planet is the Australian Labor Party bombing Gaza, and yet Adam Bandt is happy to weaponise this for political gain?

We just saw in this chamber from Senator Steele-John a 15-minute apology for the vandalism of our most sacred places. Senator Steele-John, the War Memorial is not a blank canvas for your extreme politics. The War Memorial is something that deserves respect and reverence and—