David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Again, we now see Labor and the coalition, but with their new friends in One Nation, coming in to support another US forever war. Labor, the coalition and One Nation are now the three war parties in this parliament. They've never seen an attack by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu that they haven't wanted to back in and support.

We have seen the Albanese Labor government rush to be the first country in the world to back in Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu's latest illegal war—literally rushing to back in a war that Labor knows is in gross breach of international law. There's a reason that the Foreign minister has refused to even discuss whether or not this war is illegal, and it's that Labor knows it's illegal. Labor know that the argument put forward by their friend Donald Trump and his running mate Benjamin Netanyahu—that this is about stopping some imminent nuclear threat in Iran—is a lie, just like they knew that the so-called weapons of mass destruction that were used to justify a previous Labor war were a lie. Labor are going in to bat for Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu in this illegal, widespread attack against the Iranian people, and they know they're doing it on a lie.

It is extraordinary that neither Foreign minister Wong nor Prime Minister Albanese is willing to come out and tell the Australian people the truth: US military bases here at Pine Gap and the North West Cape are being used to target and support Donald Trump's illegal attacks on Iran. They know that that's the purpose of Pine Gap. They know it's used to target military attacks in the Middle East. It's been used to target military attacks in Gaza, and now it's being used to target military attacks in Iran, and what do Labor say? They say, 'We won't even mention it; we won't talk about it,' because it's bloody awkward for Labor to back in a war which has already killed more than 100 schoolkids in the first 24 hours. Schoolgirls are being pulled out of rubble in a war that Labor supports. Multiple schools are being hit, targeted and destroyed in a war that Labor supports. A hospital was blown apart by Israeli missiles in a war that Labor support with their new friends in One Nation and the coalition.

Is there no line in the sand that Labor are willing to draw to say they won't take this step with Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu? It seems there is no line in the sand. They come here and say that this bombing and killing in Iran is for the Iranian people, as though their friend Donald Trump cares the slightest about the interests of the Iranian people. Trump—Labor, the coalition and One Nation's partner in AUKUS—doesn't care about peace and human rights in the United States, let alone in Iran. And you come here and you peddle this nonsense that somehow this is about some positive regime change, just like how the US's endless forever war in Iraq was meant to be about positive regime change or how the US's endless war in Afghanistan was meant to be about positive regime change—so-called for the people of Afghanistan or the people of Iraq.

Labor's support for this war is ignorant of history. The US are engaging in this war, not because they support Women, Life, Freedom. The Greens have been on the record for years supporting Women, Life, Freedom, working with the Iranian people who are showing brave resistance to a brutal regime. We know that foreign bombing, foreign attacks, blowing up schools and blowing up hospitals isn't about the Iranian people. The Iranian people have been killed by the brutal regime in Iran, and now they are being killed by bombs and missiles from Israel and the United States, and Labor backs that war in.

Then you have the nerve to stand up and say that you want it to de-escalate. You oppose the escalation of violence in the regime—the missiles and bombs that are now falling around the region as Iran responds to the attack. The Greens oppose that bombing and killing too. We hate seeing the missiles and the bombs landing in Dubai and around the region. Of course that's appalling. But it was an inevitable response to the latest US illegal war that Labor has backed in. It wasn't an accident. The chaos and the killing that is now spreading to the region was always going to be a response to this illegal war by Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, and you pretend that you care. You back in the original crime, and then you pretend you care about the response.

People see through Labor. They see you joining with the coalition and joining with One Nation in your rush to support Donald Trump and his latest illegal war. They see the foreign minister hiding from basic accountability about whether or not this is consistent with international law. They see Prime Minister Albanese refusing to do a press conference and talk about the scores and scores of Iranian kids who have been killed in just the first 24 hours of the war that he's supporting. They see you hiding from this. They see you hiding from it when you didn't even want a debate in the Senate this morning about it. Apparently, you were too busy. You had other things to do. You didn't want to talk about the kids that are being killed, about the hospitals that are being blown up or about the chaos that you are supporting in the region.

Think about what happened the last time the United States did a war of choice in this region. They went in under another lie about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. We know that was a lie, just like this war is based on a lie. They went in, and we had statements from the US leadership at the time as chaos enveloped Iraq, as systems were destroyed and as hunger and killings spread. We had the United States saying: 'Oh well, freedom is untidy, isn't it?' The people of Iraq had to suffer through two decades of bombings and killings and chaos to satisfy the US war machine and the US illegal war on Iraq. Now you want that on Iran, and you tell us you care about the Iranian people.

I can tell you that the mums who are pulling their kids out of the rubble don't see freedom. They're not talking about regime change. They're grieving about the loss of their kids, their daughters. They see through you. They see through your endless support for war. They see through your toadying to Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu, and they see their country potentially being thrown into chaos. Think about it. If Iran falls into chaos, like Iraq fell into chaos and like Syria fell into chaos, think about what that means for the world and the instability that spreads across all the neighbouring countries that are already so fragile. Yet you back it in. You don't have a plan B. There is no plan B. You bomb and you kill, and you support Donald Trump's bombing and killing, and you are reckless about the consequences for the Iranian people or the region as a whole.

We hear Donald Trump saying, 'Now it's up to the Iranian people, after the bombing and killing, to somehow, through some unspecified path, overthrow the brutal dictatorship.' We support the Iranian people's calls for freedom. We support those brave Iranian men, women and students who have been out there calling for freedom, but their freedom is further from being achieved than ever, because the regime will use the foreign attack and its monopoly of state sanctioned violence like it has before. Only now, the killings will be from the regime, Israel and the United States all at the same time.

The Greens stand for peace here. We oppose those troops embedded in the United States military, which Labor doesn't want to talk about, being part of this bombing. We oppose Pine Gap being used in the bombing. We oppose North West Cape being used in the bombing. We oppose our toadying relationship with the United States. We support an independent defence and foreign policy for Australia so we don't keep getting involved in the United States's forever wars and so that we don't rain death and destruction down on the next country in the Middle East that Labor decides it wants to target with Donald Trump.

I say this: we are the only party in this parliament who stands on the side of international law, who stands genuinely on the side of the Iranian people, who stands genuinely on the side of peace. We now see you for what you are: the three war parties, One Nation, the coalition and Labor, who have never seen a US war they don't want to back in. Millions of Australians disagree with you. They want a government of principle, they want a government of peace, they want the best for the Iranian people and they say no to Trump's and Netanyahu's war, and we stand with them.

I move an amendment to Labor's amendment:

Omit all words after "That the Senate", substitute: "(a) notes:

(i) the Albanese Labor Government was the first in the world to support Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu's illegal attacks on Iran, backed in by One Nation and the Liberal party;

(ii) already, the Iranian people are the victims of Trump and Netanyahu's war, with hundreds killed in Israeli and US bombings of primary schools and hospitals;

(iii) these attacks have seen the very people oppressed by the Iranian regime face more violence, more hardship, more bloodshed and more fear; and

(b) calls on the Albanese Government to:

(i) immediately withdraw all support to Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu's war with Iran and work with like-minded countries to promote peace in the region and for the people of Iran;

(ii) stop all intelligence and resources from Pine Gap, North West Cape and other US military assets in Australia assisting this illegal war and recalling all Australian troops seconded in the US military;

(iii) as an act of immediate solidarity, provide permanent protection to people who sought asylum by sea in Australia and are denied safety, hundreds of whom are from Iran; and

(iv) acknowledge that the world cannot bomb its way to peace and that US-led foreign wars in the Middle East have never helped the people of the countries they have attacked and have always seen devastating bloodshed."