On Tuesday 7th October 2025, I made a speech about the October 7th attacks

Transcript:

Ms WATSON-BROWN (Ryan) (19:18): I want to acknowledge that we're here today on the second anniversary of the October 7 attacks, an atrocity and a war crime that the Greens and I roundly condemn. We continue to call for peace and for an end to the cycle of violence that both predates and has intensified since October 7.

I have some questions I'd like to ask today of the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs and the Minister representing the Minister for Trade and Tourism. Surya McEwen, Abubakir Rafiq, Hamish Paterson, Juliet Lamont, Bianca Webb-Pullman and Cameron Tribe are heroic Australians kidnapped and abused by Israel. Their crime? Delivering food and medical supplies to Gazans who are being deliberately starved and murdered by Israel. These Australians have been subjected to horrific abuse by the Israeli authorities. Reports are that Surya McEwen has been left with a dislocated arm and an injured head, was subjected to sleep deprivation and had his passport destroyed; that Juliet Lamont has had her medication confiscated, putting her at serious risk of a stroke, and was sprayed with a water cannon and left for seven hours in an unventilated area in soaking clothes with hands tied; and that detainees have had clean water withheld. The government should be doing everything in its power to protect and support these Australian citizens. I ask the minister to urgently provide an update on the wellbeing of these Australians. Minister, how can you justify continuing to regard Israel as a friend and an ally when this is how they treat innocent Australian citizens? How can you continue to approve export permits of weapons parts sent directly to Israel, directly contributing to the genocide in Gaza?

Australia is a party to the genocide convention. That means that we've agreed that we will act to prevent genocide. A definitive ICJ ruling that a genocide is taking place in Gaza could take until 2027, but what we do have is a ruling that it is plausible that genocide is occurring. It's been called a genocide by an absolute wealth of international organisations, including the organisation of genocide scholars, Amnesty International, Israeli human rights group B'Tselem and an independent UN commission of inquiry, just to name a few. There have been at least 68 shipments of F-35 joint strike fighter aircraft parts flown from Australia directly to Israel between October 2023 and September 2025. The simple fact is that, without Australia's contribution, the F-35s would not be able to drop bombs on innocent Palestinians in Gaza. Minister, when will you acknowledge our obligation under the convention to take immediate action to prevent the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza? Will you wait till the genocide is complete, when it will be too late to do what we should have been doing under the convention—that is, everything in our power to stop the mass slaughter?

While we're on foreign affairs, I also want to talk about Australia's relationship with the US and some really concerning reports we heard last week. Does this government really want to give Donald Trump control over our renewables transition? Just last week, the AFR reported that, after courting earlier this year by the Albanese government, the Trump administration is now strongly considering taking an equity stake in Australian critical minerals—critical minerals that are absolutely vital for Australia's and the whole world's transition away from fossil fuels. Last year, Australia cracked down on Chinese investments in our critical minerals to protect our national interest. So why are we courting the highly volatile US government to take an equity stake in critical minerals, selling our wealth, one of our most valuable assets, to the US government? How is that in Australia's national interest?

Trump recently called climate change the greatest con job ever perpetrated on the world. Is this really who we want controlling what happens to our rare earth minerals, which are so critical for the energy transition? He's already cancelling renewables projects all over the US. This is a position fundamentally opposed to the interests of everyday Australians and the planet. The Labor government has already shown that they're willing to do pretty much anything the US wants. They're giving them billions in payments for AUKUS, building public housing for US troops and defence contractors and hosting their nuclear armed subs in Perth. Giving up even more control over our sovereign assets is nothing less than insane