Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, rise to address what is meant to be a debate in relation to whether or not the Senate should suspend standing orders, but I have to say, despite Senator Shoebridge not quite addressing the actual question before the chair, I'm glad he gave the speech that he did. You see, this is the reason that the Liberal Party will not be supporting the suspension of standard orders. Unfortunately, what we've seen on, technically, the first day back for the sitting year—as we know, there are three certainties in life. The first is, unfortunately, death. The second is taxes. The third, as we just saw, is the Greens' hatred of Israel. As far as the Liberal Party is concerned, this is just another day, another stunt, in the lives of the Australian Greens, at the expense of us being able to move on to legislation that does need to be debated and passed in this place, and, as I said, we've barely commenced the parliamentary sitting year for 2026.

Unfortunately, this motion is entirely consistent with the Greens' approach to Israel. This is just another opportunity—and this was articulated in the speech—for the Australian Greens to grandstand, but it's more than that, and this is why we will not be supporting the suspension motion. This is merely an opportunity for the Australian Greens to import—or should I say 'attempt to import', because I do hope that the suspension motion does not get up—protest politics into the Senate chamber. It is just another effort by the Australian Greens to turn the Senate's procedures into a platform for performance—it wasn't a great performance, to be honest; I've seen you do better—rather than for serious debate.

Another reason that the suspension should not be supported is in relation to the hypocrisy of the motion that we currently have before the chamber and the actions less than two months after the Islamic terrorist attack in Bondi, in which, as we know, 15 Australians were brutally murdered. The Australian Greens are asking us to suspend standing orders to debate a motion that would stop the president of the only Jewish majority country in the world coming to Australia. This is of vital importance to the Jewish community, given the murder of 15 Jewish people.