Senator RYAN (Victoria) (15:45): I move:
That the Senate—
(a) condemns the repeated rocket and mortar attacks on Israel from the Gaza Strip;
(b) supports Israel’s right to defend itself against these unacceptable and indiscriminate attacks;
(c) calls on Hamas to immediately cease the rocket and mortar attacks on Israel;
(d) notes that Australia has listed the military arm of Hamas as a terrorist organisation; and
(e) expresses concern over pro Hamas rallies in Australia.
Senator RYAN: Mr Deputy President, I seek leave to make a short statement.
The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Leave is granted for one minute.
Senator RYAN: I appreciate the leave being granted given the statement by the Minister for Foreign Affairs during question time.
Mr Deputy President, we all go to bed in peace every night. The only fear we have is being woken up by an inopportune alarm clock or a mobile phone, rather than a code red siren that the people of southern Israel have had to deal with for over a decade.
I had hoped this motion was not going to be contentious, except for certain extremists in this chamber who do not hold the view that Israel has the right to defend itself and live in peace without conditions. Indeed, in attempting to do this, the language of this motion is based on the Prime Minister’s press release of 16 November.
Let us not forget that this violence that we are currently seeing in the Middle East is solely as a result of Hamas’s rocket attacks: 12,000 rockets in 12 years. This is a terrorist organisation that is dedicated to the destruction of Israel, to pushing the Jews into the sea —to use its own words—and, as we have seen in the last few days, to the rampant murder and terror of its own people as well. We cannot ask another nation to do what we cannot ourselves do. (Time expired)