Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the answer given by the Minister for Foreign Affairs (Senator Wong) to the question without notice asked by Senator Faruqi today about the man-made famine in Gaza.

I'm disappointed by the minister's response to these important questions asked by my colleague. Yet again, we are hearing more empty words about condemning, and issuing statements with no meaningful action. Every day we learn more about the horrific crisis in Gaza and how it's worsening. The minister claims that the government has imposed sanctions, yet these target only two individual Israeli ministers. They fall far short of the Magnitsky-style targeted sanctions on the entire Israeli security cabinet that the Greens have been calling for and that are surely warranted, with half a million people at risk of starvation and more than 2,000 already killed in death traps while trying to access food.

The minister also diminishes the Israeli government's refutation of man-made famine in Gaza as a diplomatic difference of opinion. Come on! If this genocide and this famine don't meet the threshold to expel the Israeli ambassador, then what on earth will? For a growing number of Australians, the hollow words from the minister are drowned out by the cries of hungry children. Words are not enough. While this government deals in words, thousands of Palestinian children are facing starvation. Their parents are holding their dying bodies as the world looks away. Last week's double-tap air strike on Nasser Hospital killed at least 20 people, including five journalists, striking both the wounded and those who rushed to save them. Among the dead was Mariam Dagga, a 33-year-old freelance journalist who dedicated her life to documenting the suffering of displaced children. Her camera was her only weapon. Her death and the deaths of so many health workers and reporters are brutal reminders that words mean little without action.

This morning I heard from Scarlet Wong, a former psychologist working in Gaza and now a board member of Medecins Sans Frontieres. Scarlet spoke of what she had seen during her time in the West Bank in Gaza—collective punishment, settler violence and communities stripped of rights and dignity. Scarlett told us:

The cruelty and impunity of the Israeli Defence Force against Palestinians shocked me

I will never see the world the same again.

Unprovoked, and yet protected by the Israeli Defence Force, settlers terrorised and tortured Palestinian children in their villages.

If children defended themselves, they were incarcerated or shot.

We have no other option but to tell the world the truth.

As a mother, as a human being, how could anyone hear these words and not feel compelled to do more? I just cannot comprehend how you cannot do more.

We also heard from Mohamed Duar, Amnesty International Australia's spokesperson for the Occupied Palestinian Territories. He described the deliberate targeting of journalists and medical workers. He said:

Israel isn't just assassinating journalists; it is assassinating journalism itself.

Mohamed reminded us of what should shake every conscience in this chamber—starvation being used as a weapon of war. He said:

Palestinians are facing an impossible choice, to either die of starvation, or die of courage while trying to access food.

These testimonies are an unbearable weight on humanitarian workers, left to pick up the pieces of a genocide. How can they heal? How can they protect when bombs fall and violence surrounds them—violence that this country can and must do more to stop?

The Prime Minister speaks of stability while doubling down on AUKUS—a surrender to militarism and to Washington—at the very moment Israel tightens its siege of Gaza and blocks aid. Australian-made parts for F-35 fighter jets—the planes levelling Gaza schools, hospitals and refugee camps—are exported from Australian shores. Without those parts, over time, those bombers would be grounded. Every day those exports continue, Australia is complicit.

As we remember Mariam Dagga and all the journalists, doctors and aid workers killed in Gaza—murdered in Gaza—we must remember them not only as victims but as witnesses. Their cameras and stethoscopes were tools of humanity, destroyed by weapons that Australia still helps to supply. Their testimony demands more than empty words; it demands action.

Question agreed to.