Lidia Thorpe (Victoria, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

The Albanese government has taken this country to war. They deny this fact, but legal experts have clearly said that the military assets and personnel Albanese has sent to the Middle East mean we're at war. This government is now an active perpetrator in the tragedy unfolding before our eyes in the Middle East and Persia. Albanese did not hesitate to join this aggressive, illegal war being waged by the US and Israel where families, children and innocent civilians are paying the price.

Once again the US, Israel and the Albanese government are showing that they have no regard for international law, basic human rights or the lives of innocent people. The fact that strikes were intentionally initiated during Ramadan is a further violation. This military aggression is pushing the region toward a point of no return, likely destabilising it for many years to come.

Within the first hours of these strikes, hundreds of schoolchildren were reportedly killed when their school was bombed. Now an entire population is living under constant fear as they dodge bombs and rocket fire. History will remember that this escalation did not begin with an intention to defend civilians from the regime. That is just an excuse used to mask the imperialist intentions of the attackers. It began with decisions made in war rooms and government offices, far away from the homes that now burn. The people of Iran and of the many Arab nations in the region are now being subjected to the brutal violence and colonial logic of the US, Israel and this very Labor government.

This violence and logic is something First Peoples of this land know well. Dispossession, the destruction of country and culture, and the uprooting of kin are painful realities for us. When we watch other peoples struggle for their land, identity and self-determination under overwhelming military power, we do not see a distant geopolitical dispute; we see echoes of the history that shaped this country. We share that pain. Today, the Middle East stands on the edge of something impossibly frightening: a widening war that could consume nations and generations. There is still a choice before humanity. Either we continue down this road of aggression and violence or we finally recognise that every bomb dropped today is a seed for tomorrow's suffering. The victims deserve truth, and they deserve peace.