Ed Husic has conceded many Muslim and Arab Australians do not feel the Albanese government has listened to their concerns about the war in Gaza, while saying he is speaking out despite his role as a cabinet minister to amplify their views.
Husic told Guardian Australia he had felt driven to make several public interventions against the scale of Israel’s military operations in Gaza, in part so that people believed “that their concerns have somewhere to go to be vented and aired”.
“I know and have for many years moved among people, particularly from an Islamic and [Arab] background [and] Palestinians … who feel like their voice isn’t heard,” Husic said.
“It’s important that people feel like they’re heard and that their viewpoints are being taken into account.”
Asked directly whether people from such backgrounds had felt their voices had not been heard by the government, Husic said: “It would be inconceivable for me to give you any other answer than yes, they have felt that.
“They felt that politics – modern Australian politics, if I can put it this way – hasn’t heard those different viewpoints. And it is important to address that.”
Husic said the Albanese government had “moved quite a bit”, including by voting at the UN general assembly in December for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire along with the release of hostages held by Hamas.
But Husic acknowledged that some people thought the government should have moved more quickly to that ceasefire call “and I understand why they might have those views”.
The comments – made in an interview with Guardian Australia’s Australian Politics podcast, to be released on Saturday – are his most expansive to date on why he has chosen to raise his own voice in alarm.
The minister for industry and science is bound by cabinet solidarity obligations to publicly uphold the Australian government’s collective position.
While he has tended to criticise Israel’s military operations rather than dissenting from explicit Australian government positions, Husic has sometimes used more forthright language than his cabinet colleagues.
That included when Husic said in October that Palestinians were “being collectively punished here for Hamas’s barbarism”, and in December when he said children were bearing the brunt of Israel’s “very disproportionate” response.
In the new podcast, Husic went even further by saying he was worried some Palestinians could be permanently displaced from parts of Gaza.
“I’m very concerned about the fact that people who’ve been making their way back to see their homes [have been] completely destroyed, to see everything that sustains community life gone – schools, hospitals, infrastructure, roads, market places,” Husic said.
“I’m genuinely concerned, too, that we’re at a point where people would be understandably thinking: are we seeing permanent displacement before our eyes. And that’s a very serious issue under international humanitarian law.”
Husic said any move to re-establish Israeli settlements in Gaza – an idea backed by at least two Israeli ministers – “would be a terrible outcome and an unacceptable one at that”. Israel unilaterally withdrew its settlements from Gaza in 2005.
According to the International Committee of the Red Cross, parties to an armed conflict must not forcibly displace civilians “unless the security of the civilians involved or imperative military reasons so demand”.
It says international humanitarian law also gives internally displaced persons “a right to voluntary return in safety”.
The Israeli government has denied claims of collective punishment, arguing that the “temporary” evacuation orders were issued to protect Palestinian civilians and that Hamas embeds its fighters in civilian infrastructure.
A new United Nations report estimates that Israel has destroyed more than 3,000 buildings within a 1km security “buffer zone” that it is creating inside the Gaza Strip along the territory’s border.
Husic, who made history in 2022 as the first Muslim to serve in Australia’s cabinet, declined to reveal whether he had considered quitting at any point in the past six months.
“It took me a while to get there [into cabinet], and I’d like to be able to take full advantage of that at the moments that matter,” he said.
Husic praised the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, for running “a cabinet government where people can speak their minds”.
The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, accused Husic in December of making “comments that are offensive to the Jewish community here in Australia”.
But Husic said his record showed he had “spoken up strongly, not just on Islamophobia, but antisemitism as well”. He has also repeatedly called for Hamas to release the hostages it still holds in Gaza.
Husic said all politicians must ensure “that we are not dividing and creating a sense of deep division and tearing at social cohesion”.
“As much as I have very sharp criticisms about the way that the Israeli government has conducted itself in this, there is a big role for parliamentarians of all political colours, to make sure that Jewish Australians, Islamic Australians, all Australians, feel a degree of safety and surety and confidence,” he said.
The podcast interview was recorded on Monday, before a stabbing incident at Christ The Good Shepherd church in Wakeley in western Sydney.
After the incident, Husic posted on Facebook: “We all stand as one against violence, hatred and extremism.”
