ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: October 7 will always be a day of pain.
Let us stand together as a nation and as a parliament in our shared determination to preserve the harmony that makes this the greatest country in the world, and in our shared commitment to a just and lasting peace knowing that the truest act of strength is to protect the innocent.
We know that it is only through diplomat efforts that this cycle of conflict and bloodshed can be broken. Escalation denies diplomacy any chance of working.
LAURA TINGLE, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: A motion marking a particular Australian or international tragedy or anniversary is a usual part of the parliamentary calendar. They are, usually, a rare moment of bipartisanship and sombre mourning.
But there isn’t much that is usual about politics these days.
PETER DUTTON, OPPOSITION LEADER: The Coalition cannot support this motion before the house at the moment. As has been remarked by many commentators over the course of recent weeks, this Government has sought to walk both sides of the street in relation to what has been a very divisive debate for our country.
Now is not the time to call for, as the Prime Minister does in his motion to deescalate, for a ceasefire in Gaza and in Lebanon, and for lasting peace and security for Israel, Palestine, Palestinian, Lebanese and all people in the region.
We have put to this Prime Minister a more than reasonable position. The Prime Minister should be condemned.
LAURA TINGLE: The motion put forward by the PM was a long one: noting 15 different points condemning the brutal events of October 7, mourning its victims and calling out antisemitism.
But the inclusion of three points and a failure to include a condemnation of Australians who support organisations like Hezbollah was unacceptable to the Opposition.
These were:
A call for Iran to cease its destabilising actions and attacks on Israel.
A call to break the cycle of violence, to deescalate and move to a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon; and
An affirmation of support for a two-state solution.
But today’s events in the House of Representatives revealed for all to see the fracturing of our political debate on the complex and awful conflict now consuming the Middle East.
JULIAN LEESER, LIBERAL MP: We wanted to see a bipartisan resolution but there’s too much difference in what this motion suggests in relation to the foreign policy of both sides of this house.
We can’t have a cease fire at the moment that would allow terrorist organisations, that we list as terrorist organisations in our own country, to regroup and reform and continue to attack innocent civilians.
We can’t have a ceasefire in this country when Iran continues to lob missiles into Israel.
In this side of the house, we continue to stand with Israel, because Israel is a Western liberal democratic nation that believes in the rule of law, that respects human rights.
MEHREEN FARUQI, GREENS SENATOR: In what world do you think blowing up 20,000 children is self-defence? Palestinians have a right, have a right to fight back when they have been, when they have been oppressed, persecuted, violently killed, occupied, dehumanised, dispossessed for 75 years before this year of brutal genocide started.
PETER DUTTON: Will the Prime Minister take a principled stance and rule out giving preferences to the racist and antisemitic Greens political party at the next election?
ANTHONY ALBANESE: If they’re worried about preferences to the Greens and the Greens being elected to Parliament, the only reason why there are Greens in the Queensland Parliament, the only reason, is because the Queensland LNP put them there with their preferences.
JOSH BURNS, LABOR MP: How do you move forward from that, how do you bring people with you, and how do you reach from that moment of darkness towards a moment of a better future?
Here in Australia, we can do more to reach out to each other and I say this as a proud Jewish Australian, the Palestinian people and the Lebanese people are not my enemy. We are all people. We all must think about the future that we need to build together.
LAURA TINGLE: The vote on the motion in the House of Representatives was eventually passed 85 to 54: opposed by the Coalition while the Greens abstained though the anger spilled over into the Senate.
PENNY WONG, FOREIGN MINISTER: That is the sum total of the Greens’ capacity to change politics, is to hold up a poster in Question Time.
You think the end point of politics is to hold up a sign after you’ve told the photographers to come? Really? That is the most progressive politics, is it? You hold up a sign after you’ve told the photographers to come.
LAURA TINGLE: The politics of the Middle East as it plays out in Australia is not just about the very bitter divisions between those caught up in it.
The Opposition Leader has been using the issue as part of a broader attack on the Prime Minister which portrays him as weak in acting against those supporting Hezbollah and at the mercy of the Greens, and the unions, amongst others.
The PM, and his government now find themselves perpetually hemmed in from all directions on their legislative agenda.
CLARE O’NEIL, HOUSING MINISTER: Our Help to Buy legislation will back 40,000 childcare workers, teachers and apprentices into homeownership who otherwise have no chance of getting into housing market.
There is genuinely literally no sound policy reason not to support this bill but that’s never stopped the Noalition. The Liberals, the Nationals and the Greens who are today standing in the path of this reform.
LAURA TINGLE: Minister O’Neil introduced the legislation for the Government’s Help to Buy housing scheme into the house today.
But it already seems doomed with the Opposition and Greens firmly opposed and no-one showing any sign of budging.
The same is true of Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek’s environment reforms, though there is some hope the Government’s industry policy plans – the Future Made in Australia legislation – may pass.
Proposals to reform gambling advertising also seem to be going nowhere.
It’s all a reflection of all parties digging in as we get ever closer to the next federal election to be held before May next year.
The PM told the Labor Caucus today that he was planning a big second term agenda though he didn’t elaborate on what that might be.
For now, his bigger problem is getting the things on his agenda for this term through the parliament and finding enough air space to tell the Australian public what he is doing about what remains the major concern of voters – the cost of living.
