If the horrors unfolding in Gaza are not a red line for Australia to take stronger action then I don't know what is

[Violet_Crumble]

This is by David Pocock, the Independent Senator for.my hometown (Australian Capital Territory) and someone I've been proud to vote for in the last two federal elections.

Everyone knows the Australian government cannot end the war alone, but we do have an important role to play as a middle power, and it must be more than just words

Much has been made this week over Anthony Albanese’s strongest comments yet criticising the Netanyahu government’s ongoing blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza. While welcome, his rhetoric calling this an “outrage”, “unacceptable” and “untenable” feels inadequate in the face of what looks like a genocide unfolding in full view of the world.

These words have not been matched with any new “concrete action” of the kind being called for by what feels like just about everyone, and foreshadowed by three of Australia’s closest allies, the UK, France and Canada. The prime minister hasn’t been able to offer a satisfactory explanation as to why Australia wasn’t a signatory to this stronger statement of intent, choosing to move away from the mantle of middle power leader we’ve worn so proudly in times past.

The time for stronger global action is now. For too long the international community has failed to follow up words of condemnation with action. Palestinian people have been killed in their tens of thousands, two million teeter on the brink of starvation and the Israeli government continues to build new settlements in the West Bank. The pleas for help are becoming ever more desperate, like that of Palestinian ambassador to the United Nations, Riyad Mansour, who broke down while addressing the security council over the deaths of children in Gaza.

(Snip)

In June last year I called on the Albanese government to consider targeted sanctions against members of the Israeli government and the Israeli Defense Forces. Almost 12 months and tens of thousands more deaths later, those calls continue to grow, including from within Labor’s own ranks.

We should have a consistent, values-based approach to how we respond to war and disasters and how we use our humanitarian program. This includes providing an equitable amount of aid and assistance based on need, not politics. Alongside this Australia must stop exporting weapons or parts of weapons that could be used to kill and injure civilians, and start providing emergency visas to the family members of Australians.

If the horror unfolding in Gaza is not our country’s red line for stronger action then I don’t know what is.


David Pocock is an independent senator in the ACT

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/commentisfree/2025/may/30/gaza-horrors-australian-government-action-ntwnfb?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other

[marble falls]

1. It's gone beyond too far. Israel has to pull BeBe back.

[k_buddy762]

2. We need peace talks.

Now.

Someone told me Trump was gonna fix this..........

[hlthe2b]

3. Yes. I fear the conflation of compassion with appeasement, innocents with terrorists,

--Conflation of humanity and global human rights with bigotry toward one group or the other-- has made it nearly impossible to discuss in honest, sincere, and intelligent terms.

I honor those still trying.

[Beastly Boy]

4. Here is the problem, and it is by no means limited to Australian lawmakers.

Nobody is calling for new sanctions against international players like Iran and Qatar who are the driving force behind Islamist terrorism in Gaza and the Middle East in general.

Nobody is calling for arrests and prosecution of Hamas leaders abroad.

Nobody is calling out the failed UN bureaucracies who, despite their good intentions, paved the road to hell which leads to aiding and abeting Gazan militants and their regime.

Nobody is calling for international support for Israeli opposition, which by now constitutes the majority of Israeli public, to the Netanyahu regime, except the aforementioned Israeli opposition, but their calls have been met with deafening silence.

Nobody is willing to acknowledge that the suffering of Gazan civilians so prominently on display in mass media is but a symptom of a far more dangerous disease which is being inflicted on Gaza, deliberately so, by their current rulers. Everybody is calling attention to the horrific signs of the disease and demanding immediate treatment of the gaping wound to cover up its externally manifested symptoms, which may serve as compelling visuals for media consumption, but everybody avoids the mentions of the cause of the disease, and some even glorify it.

With a curious exception of Mahmoud Abbas, the legitimate representative of the Palestinians in Gaza: https://edition.cnn.com/2025/04/23/middleeast/mahmoud-abbas-calls-hamas-sons-of-dogs-demands-hostage-release-intl/index.html

Call this a conspiracy theory, but all signs I see in the news-making pronouncements of leaders like David Pocock point to a very pronounced slant, if not extreme prejudice against Israel, which, BTW, is home to 15% of all the Palestinians worldwide, equal to the entire population of Gaza, none of whom suffer the decades-long oppression nearly equivalent to their Gazan peers.

[Mosby]

5. If anyone knows about stolen land and genocide it's Australia.