Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answers given by the Minister representing the Minister for Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Senator McAllister) and the Minister representing the Prime Minister (Senator Wong) to questions without notice asked today.

July is Disability Pride Month, a time to celebrate who we are as a community, both as individuals and collectively. It's about tackling head-on the stereotypes that seek to limit us. It's a call on the broader community to unlearn ableism, and it is a time to join together as a community and demand not just recognition but justice. Disability Pride Month isn't about pretending it's easy; it's a statement, saying, 'We are here; we deserve respect and equity,' and it's a call for action, for our allies to fight alongside us. Disability Pride Month is a time when disabled people across the globe, including right here in Australia, are facing cuts, erosion of rights and exclusion at the hands of politicians. Disability pride month marks the anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Australia needs its own disability rights act. The royal commission into disability abuse called for one, yet, years on, this government has failed to introduce one. We need a disability rights act to enshrine our rights in law—our right to be at the centre of the decisions that affect our lives—because, when disabled people are not at the table, the consequences are severe. Cuts to the NDIS, reducing access to income support, as in the United Kingdom, and decisions being made by governments, agencies and bureaucrats that have never lived our reality—that is systemic discrimination. Disabled people will not be shut out, locked up or hidden away for the convenience of others. We continue to be excluded in our workspaces and our workplaces, including in this parliament. But we will persevere and we will win through to justice for all disabled people in Australia. (Time expired)

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

For clarity, I seek to take note of the answer from the Foreign minister, Senator Wong. Those were extraordinary responses from the Foreign minister. First, we saw the Labor Party finally acknowledge that they are sending F-35 fighter parts into Israel. Of course, they deny that F-35 fighter parts have anything to do with weapons. I think the term used was 'the nonlethal parts' of a fighter jet—that is what Australia supplies to Israel. If it weren't about genocide, and if it weren't about Australia arming a military to conduct a genocide, those kinds of answers would be mocked, those kinds of answers would be pilloried and they would be seen as something close to comic relief. But this is not a comedy; this is about the Albanese government sending weapons parts into a genocide, and it's obscene that they continue to deny the reality of what they're doing.

We also saw the truth about where Labor has moved to in terms of taking action to stop the appalling breaches of international law by the Israeli government. We had the Prime Minister finally acknowledge—people would say 18 months too late—the gross breaches of international law, using mass starvation as a weapon of war, by Israel. He finally admitted that. But then when they're asked the following day in parliament, 'What will you do to stop Israel breaching international law?' the answer we got was nudder, nothing, zero, zilch. Maybe there'll be another stern tweet, maybe there'll be another stern letter, maybe they'll escalate the language. What we know is that the extremist Netanyahu security cabinet will not care about cranky words or rising rhetoric from the likes of the Prime Minister or the foreign minister of Australia. What will matter is ending all defence cooperation with Israel and cancelling almost $2 billion of weapons contracts that Australia has with Israeli weapons manufacturers.

I will finish with this. When it comes to questions on Pine Gap, the embarrassment and the avoidance was clear for all to see. (Time expired)

Question agreed to.

(Quorum formed)