Parliament’s day of shame after October 7 solemnity

A day after Health Minister Mark Butler, belatedly, lent much-needed credibility to the Albanese government’s response to Hamas terrorists’ slaughter of 1200 Israelis and capture of another 250, federal Labor, regrettably, reverted to type in parliament on Tuesday. In front of 12,000 people at a harbourside vigil in Sydney’s east on Monday night, Mr Butler showed moral clarity and insight. He condemned the growing scourge of anti-Semitism in Australia and affirmed “no self-respecting nation would fail to defend itself if attacked the way Israel has been’’. But on Tuesday, Labor teamed with the despicable, anti-Semitic Greens – who regularly and falsely accuse Israel of “genocide’’ – in denying Peter Dutton the opportunity to improve what should have been a joint motion condemning the October 7 attacks, the most deadly against Jewish people since the Holocaust. Labor Friends of Israel co-convener Mike Kelly says it would have been better if the government’s condolence had focused solely on the victims and their families. Elected members’ failure to put partisan politics aside on one issue, on such a historic day, reflects badly on both sides.

The Opposition Leader, who received a well-deserved standing ovation when he arrived for Monday night’s vigil, accused the Prime Minister of playing domestic politics and trying “to be all things to all people’’ as the unedifying row unfolded on Tuesday. Mr Dutton was justified in taking issue with the government’s motion calling for a de-escalation and ceasefire in the Middle East. Neither option is feasible at present. Jewish Liberal MP Julian Leeser, who has been an effective voice for his people over the past year, argued Labor’s insistence on including calls for a ceasefire supported the party’s call for a timetable for a Palestinian state without the necessary involvement of Israel. The political split over a commemorative motion was ugly, deepening “divisions that have grown so terribly in Australia in the past year”, as Dennis Shanahan wrote.

The Greens, whose senators wore Palestinian keffiyehs into the chamber on Tuesday, have been at the extreme end of those divisions, which terrorist organisation Hezbollah has praised. For good reason, two leaders of peak Jewish groups have written to Mr Albanese and Mr Dutton, urging them to preference each other above the Greens at the next election. The Executive Council of Australian Jewry and the Zionist Federation of Australia also want a public commitment from both leaders that they will not allow the Greens any role in a potential minority government or make concessions to them in return for support on confidence and supply. From an economic and social perspective, as well as a foreign affairs and strategic policy, power-sharing with the Greens would be unconscionable by the major parties, undermining the national interest.

In its wishy-washy approach to the Middle East crisis, the Albanese government is not alone in failing to understand the dire implications of the barbaric October 7 slaughter of Jews and subsequent events. Norwegian parliamentarians, shamefully, have nominated the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. Some UNRWA staff participated in Hamas’s massacre. UN secretary-general Antonio Guterres, who has been barred from the Jewish state because of his extreme anti-Israel bias, is also among nominees. Jewish people across the world deserve better, just as Australian Jews and the public deserve better than the failure of our MPs to rise above partisan politics on such a momentous day. Their failure is yet another sign that Australia has become a different country.