Bitterness set in motion: House of Representatives fails on bipartisanship

Australia’s longstanding bipartisan support for Israel has been stretched to breaking point after Anthony Albanese used a parliamentary tribute to October 7 victims to decry the conflict’s broader toll in Gaza and Lebanon, triggering a bitter split with the Coalition.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese on Tuesday.

Australia’s longstanding bipartisan support for Israel has been stretched to breaking point after Anthony Albanese used a parliamentary tribute to the victims of Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack to decry the conflict’s broader toll in Gaza and Lebanon, triggering a bitter split with the Coalition.

Negotiations on the wording of the motion broke down before it was put before the parliament on Tuesday, sparking a fierce backlash from Peter Dutton who ­accused the Prime Minister of speaking “out of both sides of his mouth” on the terrorist attack in a bid for political advantage.

The failure of the major parties to agree to a condolence motion is without precedent and comes months out from the federal election when Labor will battle to ­defend inner-city seats targeted by the Greens and western Sydney electorates contested by pro-­Palestinian activists.

Jewish groups said Labor’s “moral clarity” on Israel lasted just a day, after factional heavyweight Mark Butler used the October 7 anniversary on Monday to voice the government’s strongest support for the Jewish state, endorsing its right to strike back at its ­enemies and condemning unprecedented anti-Semitism.

Labor Friends of Israel co-­convener Mike Kelly was also critical of the government’s ­motion, saying it would have been more appropriate to “focus solely” on the October 7 victims and their families.

Labor’s parliamentary motion expressed “unequivocal condemnation” of the Hamas attack and anti-Semitism “in all its forms” – points shared by the Coalition in an alternative statement proposed by the Opposition Leader.

But it went well beyond the attack that killed 1200 Israelis, ­calling for an end to the region’s “cycle of violence” in language condemned by the Coalition and Jewish groups as a statement of “moral equivalence” between the actions of terrorists and those of the Israeli state.

The Coalition was also furious that the motion called for a two-state solution without underscoring the need for one to be negotiated rather than imposed on the Jewish state.

Mr Dutton sent a suggested motion to Mr Albanese on Sunday morning and the leaders met twice on Tuesday for talks on the proposed text.

Labor said it was prepared to split the tribute into two statements – one on Israeli victims and the other on the broader conflict — if both were delivered on Tuesday, but Mr Dutton rejected the proposed compromise.

Mr Albanese went ahead with Labor’s version, telling parliament: “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.”

Citing the Hamas-controlled Gaza health authority’s figures of more than 40,000 people killed in the territory, Mr Albanese said that the loss of civilian lives in the year-long conflict was “a tragedy of horrific proportions”.

He insisted his government’s calls for ceasefires in Gaza and Lebanon were aligned with those of Australia’s key partners including the US, Britain, France, Germany and Japan.

“In line with the global community, we are pressing the urgent need for de-escalation,” Mr Albanese said. “We repeat our call for all sides to observe international law. Further hostilities put civilians at risk. We cannot accept the callous arithmetic of so-called ­acceptable casualties.”

In a comment directed at his political opponents, he added: “Each and every one of us has a responsibility to prevent ­conflict in the Middle East from being used as a platform for prejudice at home.”

The motion passed the House of Representatives with the support of teal independents and crossbenchers Dai Le and Andrew Wilkie. The Greens abstained.

Mr Dutton said the Coalition could not support the statement, which went “well beyond the ­intent of what should be a motion to mark the loss of life of 1200 people on the first anniversary”.

“That’s what this motion was to be about, but of course, the Prime Minister is trying to speak out of both sides of his mouth and that is not something that we will support in relation to this debate,” the Opposition Leader said.

He said the opposition had proposed a “balanced and objective” motion but the Prime Minister went ahead with his own statement “trying to please all people in this debate”.

Mr Dutton said the government’s efforts to “walk both sides of the street” on the issue had fuelled anti-Semitism, leaving Jewish Australians feeling unsafe.

He said no one supported the loss of civilian lives, and there was broad agreement across the parliament condemning the actions of Hamas. But he said the motion should have been framed to reflect the “solemn moment” of Monday’s October 7 anniversary.

“We have put to this Prime Minister a more than reasonable position, and the Prime Minister has rejected that position for his own political domestic advancement,” Mr Dutton said. “What it says to Australians is that on this day, the 8th of October, the first sitting day after the 7th of October anniversary, that this Prime Minister wasn’t able to lead a moment of bipartisanship in his parliament, which, in my memory, is without precedent. Your predecessors would have had the decency to respect the Jewish community in a way that you have not done today. And for that, Prime Minister, you should stand condemned.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt said the party could not vote on a motion that did not condemn the Israeli government. “The Greens can’t support a motion about a year of ongoing slaughter that fails to condemn the war crimes of the extremist Netanyahu government, acknowledge the unfolding genocide in Gaza, or put any pressure on Netanyahu’s government to stop the invasions of Palestine and Lebanon,” he said.

In a rowdy Senate question time interrupted by Greens protesters brandishing signs demanding sanctions against Israel, the party’s deputy leader, Mehreen Faruqi, accused Labor of “hiding behind empty words and platitudes” to avoid sanctioning Israel.

The parliamentary brawl followed signs on Monday that Labor was softening its stance against Israel as Mr Butler – the Health Minister and Left-faction boss – declared “no self-­respecting nation would fail to defend itself if attacked the way Israel has been”.

Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Daniel Aghion said the “moral clarity” expressed by Mr Butler “seems to have evaporated” in just 24 hours.

He said the parliamentary ­motion “should have been a straightforward condemnation of a heinous act of terrorism”, but had been transformed into “weasel words about solving the conflicts of the Middle East”.

The Australia/Israel and Jewish Affairs Council’s Colin Rubenstein said the government had weakened the parliamentary tribute “by adding inappropriate passages calling for ceasefires” and “hinting at moral equivalence”.

Labor’s prominent Jewish MP, Josh Burns, defended the government’s tribute, saying it recognised the “pain of October 7 and the fact that “we are all human”, while calling on Australians to do “more to reach out to each other”.