Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the government's responses to Greens questions today in relation to the latest bloody and illegal war in the Middle East.

Many Australians are aghast and shocked and extremely worried about the Albanese government's support for Donald Trump's latest war in the Middle East, the deadly blasts and bombs that have already cost the lives of hundreds of innocent civilians; schoolchildren with schools being bombed and hospitals struck; and the young, the vulnerable and the sick, carrying the burden of this bloody war only two days in. Military action is irresponsible and dangerous at best, when its consequences cannot be controlled in such a volatile region—one of the most volatile in the world. While our thoughts are with the innocent civilians and the people of Iran, we, too, are thinking about the innocent civilians and people throughout the Middle East in other countries around the region who, too, are now hiding from the shelling and the bombs. This is wrong. There's a reason that the United Nations secretary-general, Antonio Guterres, has called it wrong, has condemned it and has asked for it to stop.

Evil thrives and innocent people suffer when good people stay silent, when moral courage crumbles and when governments who should know better, who do know better, capitulate to the bullies and the tyrants. Donald Trump should not have the support of the Australian government for this illegal war. It is not our war. It is not in our name. And we should not be allowing it to occur without condemnation. Australians here and overseas are already impacted, and it's time the Australian government, the Labor Party, the Liberal Party and One Nation stopped cowering to the bullies in the US.