Fury in Parliament over PM’s October 7 motion

Peter Dutton says Anthony Albanese should “stand condemned” in a dramatic bipartisan breakdown over Israel.

Peter Dutton says the Prime Minister should “stand condemned” after he moved a motion on Hamas’ October 7 terrorist attacks on Israel.

In his motion on Tuesday, Anthony Albanese condemned Hamas’ attacks last year, which represent the largest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust.

He told the House of Representatives the “past year must have felt like a cruel eternity” for Jewish Australians.

“October 7 will always be a day of pain,” Mr Albanese said.

“As we mourn and reflect, we also reaffirm a fundamental principle of our shared humanity that every innocent life matters, every Israeli, every Palestinian, every Lebanese, every single innocent life.”

But Peter Dutton accused the Prime Minister of “trying to speak out of both sides of his mouth”, saying he had written to Mr Albanese to form a “bipartisan position” on a motion marking the anniversary of the October 7 attacks.

“I proposed to the Prime Minister a motion which was balanced and objective, and I appreciated the engagement with the Prime Minister when I met with him this morning,” the Opposition Leader said.

“Regrettably, we’ve not been able to arrive at a position of bipartisanship in relation to this matter.”

Mr Dutton said there were elements of Mr Albanese’s motion that he supported, but that it went “well beyond the intent of what should be a motion to mark the loss of life of 1200 people on the first anniversary was to be about”.

“None of us support the loss of civilian life,” Mr Dutton said.

“And everybody in this place, I’m sure, condemned the actions of ... Hamas, when they put tunnels under schools and under hospitals, when they bury bombs and they store their ammunitions in residential buildings, knowing that they’re using people as human shields.

“But today is the day where this parliament was meant to mark what should be a solemn moment, a solemn moment where 1200 people lost their lives.”

The motion was explicit in the Albanese government’s position on the rapidly expanding conflict in the Middle East.

It laid out the government’s support for Israel’s right to defend itself against Iran, while stressing the “need to break the cycle of violence” and reiterating Australia’s longheld support for a two state solution between Israel and the Palestinian territories.

The motion also said that “symbols of terror and discord are unwelcome in Australia and undermine our nation’s peace and security,” addressing recent pro-Palestine protests where flags of Lebanese terrorist group Hamas appeared.