The Australian parliament has erupted over tensions sparked by the war in Gaza, with Anthony Albanese accusing the Greens of spreading misinformation and Peter Dutton contending that the minor party stood “properly and rightly condemned”.
The leader of the Greens, Adam Bandt, hit back at the prime minister and the opposition leader, accusing them of “attempting to distract from their complicity” and adding: “I will not be lectured to about peace and non-violence by people who back the invasion of Gaza.”
Tensions continued after parliamentary question time, when Labor’s leader of the house, Tony Burke, said he could not see “why misinformation coming from the left is somehow noble when misinformation coming from the right is so wrong”.
“The harm that is being done is beyond belief,” Burke said. “To be telling people when there is a government calling for ceasefire that somehow it is calling for conflict is deliberate misinformation.”
The debate about social cohesion was sparked by a parliamentary question from the independent MP Sophie Scamps, who said the people of her Sydney electorate of Mackellar were “utterly appalled by the atrocities committed by Hamas” on 7 October and “deeply distressed also by the immense human suffering in Gaza”.
Albanese replied that Australia had been calling for a ceasefire since December and believed “every single innocent life matters – every Israeli, every Palestinian”.
The prime minister said all political leaders must “prevent conflict in the Middle East from being used as a platform for prejudice here” and there was “no place for antisemitism, prejudice of any sort, Islamophobia, in our communities, at our universities or outside electorate offices”.
Albanese alleged misinformation was “consciously and deliberately spread by some Greens senators and MPs”, including by “misrepresenting motions that are moved in this parliament”.
Bandt tweeted last week: “Labor just voted against recognising the State of Palestine ... None of us will forget Labor’s complicity and cowardice in the face of genocide.”
The major parties had united to defeat Bandt’s attempt to suspend the normal business of parliament to bring on debate about recognising Palestine.
However, the Labor government has shifted on this issue in recent months, by voting at the United Nations to grant the Palestinian mission more rights and by saying Australia is prepared to recognise Palestine sooner than at the very end of a peace process.
Burke said it was time to end “wedge motions” from the Greens.
“The question of recognition [of Palestine] was never before this parliament and yet the Greens chose to message something to Australia and to the world that was inaccurate,” Burke told the parliament on Wednesday.
“And they got headlines around the world that hurt the Palestinian cause but helped the Greens harvest votes.”
Albanese reiterated his concerns about protests outside some MPs’ electorate offices if they disrupted constituents accessing help or led to vandalism.
“I’ve supported justice for Palestinians my whole life and still do, and it is tragic that the legitimate aspirations of the Palestinian people are undermined by some people engaging in activity that completely alienates the Australian public,” he said.
After Albanese’s answer, Dutton rose to say that the major parties spoke “with one voice when we condemn acts of violence wherever they take place”.
“We see now the offices of elected members of parliament have been targeted with red paint with vile messages of hate and discrimination and antisemitism and it should be condemned, and the Greens should condemn it instead of condoning it,” Dutton told parliament.
The opposition leader went on to make a generic accusation that unnamed pro-Palestine protesters were engaged in Holocaust denial, without providing further detail for his assertion. He did not make this accusation against the Greens.
While Albanese condemned both antisemitism and Islamophobia – both of which have risen sharply in Australia since October – Dutton did not mention Islamophobia.
After Dutton finished speaking, Bandt said the major party leaders had launched “an attack on the Greens”.
“This house is united in condemning antisemitism and condemning Islamophobia – and we also condemned the invasion of Gaza,” Bandt told parliament.
“Children are dying because the Israeli army has engineered a famine and instead of talking about the victims, the prime minister wants to make it about himself.”
After question time, Bandt rose again in parliament to complain that the major parties would do “anything to distract from their complicity in the unfolding genocide”.
Bandt said the Greens had been “crystal clear” in supporting peaceful protest, but the earlier speeches had contained “direct misrepresentations”.
Bandt then attempted to suspend standing orders to debate a motion calling on the government “to immediately end all direct and indirect trade of military equipment with the state of Israel, including the provision of critical components of the F-35 fighter jet supply chain”.
The government has said no weapons have been supplied to Israel for at least the past five years, although Australian businesses are part of the F-35 supply chain and it has continued to face criticism about a lack of transparency over defence-related or dual-use exports.
The Australia Palestine Advocacy Network’s president, Nasser Mashni, said on Tuesday it was “disturbing that more effort is being put into discrediting protesters [and] silencing dissent … than into addressing the root causes of public discontent”.
“The overwhelming majority of Palestine solidarity protests in Australia have been peaceful in both reality and intent,” Mashni said.
Australia’s foreign affairs minister, Penny Wong, said on Tuesday that “this war must end” as she called on Israel and Hamas to immediately agree to the latest US-backed ceasefire proposal.
