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

():  I rise to contribute to this discussion and debate today on behalf of the millions of Australians who are extremely concerned about the war that this government has dragged our country into.

Let's have a think about some facts. What do we know? We know that this illegal war, of the United States and Israel, has already seen bombing of schools and the killing of innocent civilians. We know that it is chaotic. We know that this war is killing the most vulnerable. We know that wars create refugees. We know that the death toll is already well over 1,300. Tens of thousands of civilians have been displaced, with the destruction of homes, schools and hospitals. We know that the war has already spread beyond the borders of Iran into other parts of the Middle East, and we know that Australia is now at war. Australia has sent a warplane with missiles and dozens of personnel. It doesn't matter how the Albanese government tries to spin this, to sugar-coat this. Australia is now at war, dragged there by Donald Trump.

Let me be clear. The Iranian regime is brutal. It has inflicted harm and suffering on its own people for decades, and I do not mourn the horror that has come on their tyrant leaders. But I do mourn for the innocent civilians, the people of Iran, who have the right not just to be free from their brutal regime but free from bombs, further chaos and violence. Australians do not want us in this war. And we shouldn't be.

In 2003 Anthony Albanese, before he was prime minister, criticised Australia joining the war in Iraq, an illegal war that breached international rules and was seeing terror, horror and violence rain down on innocent civilians. The Prime Minister, at that time, was clear that there was something perverse about arguing that the cause of democracy is advanced through weapons of mass destruction. Now Anthony Albanese is the country's prime minister, and he is doing exactly the same thing. So the question I have is was the Prime Minister fudging it in 2003, or is he fudging it now?

War is serious. This is about life and death, democracy, the rule of law and the world we want to live in. If Australia is going to follow Donald Trump into this bloody, chaotic, dangerous conflict—as this Labor government is now making us do—then the least the Prime Minister and the government could do is be honest with the Australian people about what is going on. Yes, we are at war. And we shouldn't be. Australians don't want to be. If you're going to take our troops, if you're going to send warplanes, if you're going to give words of condolence to those who are suffering and if you're going to slam the door shut on refugees, at least have the guts to tell the Australian people the truth. And the truth is Donald Trump has asked us to jump, and the Prime Minister has asked, 'How high?'