Mehreen Faruqi

All prepped and ready for Senate Estimates! Got quite a few spicy questions in these folders to hold the government to account 🫡

Bring it on.

The Labor government must take urgent steps to secure the immediate release of kidnapped Australians and to hold Israel to account for their treatment.

Break your silence PM. Speak up and act NOW.

Unfortunately, this is what we have come to expect from Israel as they have crossed one red line after another in their genocidal campaign.

The cowardly Albanese gov has taken no real action to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza, but surely they can get off their hands to protect and secure the immediate release of Australians who have been illegally abducted by Israel while on a peaceful humanitarian mission to deliver aid to Palestinians.

Families of the Australians abducted are waiting in limbo about news of their loved ones. It is unconscionable that the government and their department isn’t keeping them informed and providing support.

The absolutely horrific reports of inhumane and degrading treatment that the courageous people abducted from the Sumud Flotilla have been subjected to should jolt the Prime Minister Albanese and Minister Wong into action.

The Greens are in solidarity with the Global Sumud Flotilla, the brave people on it and their families who are anxious for their safety.

The people on board the Global Sumud Flotilla deserve their government's support and protection on their peaceful and humanitarian mission to deliver critical aid to Gaza. Their families deserve support and care. This is the government’s fundamental duty and responsibility.

And now that ordinary, decent people are stepping in where they have failed, the Labor government is issuing warnings to them rather than providing support and protection.

The Albanese government has refused to take any meaningful action to stop Israel’s genocide, to break the illegal blockade, and end the starvation and killing of Palestinians.

Minister Wong should be on the phone with her counterpart in Israel. She should haul the Israeli Minister to her office and demand the release and protection of Australians on the flotilla.

This is the moment when Minister Wong’s talk about concrete measures to ensure the safety and protection of humanitarian personnel must turn into action.

Otherwise they are just words on paper and she would have failed in her commitment.

Just last week Minister Wong was at the UN talking a big game on Australia leading the global effort to protect humanitarian personnel. well, now is her chance.

It should be an urgent priority for the Labor government to protect all Australians on board the flotilla and ensure the safe passage of their mission.

Our government should be doing everything in their power to secure the immediate release of Abubakir Rafiq, Dr Bianca Webb Pullman Juliet Lamont, Hamish Paterson, and Surya McEwan who have been illegally abducted by Israel while in international waters.

The brave Australians who have joined the Sumud Flotilla do us all proud. They have stepped up where our government has utterly failed.

I am so grateful to the decent and courageous people aboard the Global Sumud Flotilla who are on a peaceful, humanitarian mission to break Israel’s illegal blockade of Gaza and deliver lifesaving food, baby formula and medical supplies to Palestinians being starved by Israel.

Grateful to have been with Abubakir Rafiq’s family this morning to demand the Albanese Labor government to do everything in their power to secure the immediate release of all Australians abducted from the Global Sumud Flotilla and provide them protection and safety.

Trump and Blair's Gaza plan is (unsurprisingly) shaping up to be an oligarchy of billionaires implementing disaster capitalism.

This is what PM Albanese is backing.

The Australian Labor government is complicit in this genocide and must urgently act to pressure Israel to stop the genocide: end the two way arms trade and sanction Israel like we’ve sanctioned Russia.

Peace is absolutely crucial, but how can we have faith in this colonial approach from the same people who have bombed Gaza to near extermination?

Palestine’s future cannot be left in the hands of fascist Trump, genocidal Netanyahu and accused war criminal Tony Blair.

Palestinians must have the right to determine their own future.

The flotilla represents the best of humanity—ordinary people stepping forward where governments have failed. The Labor government must break its silence and publicly support and protect this humanitarian mission.

We live in hope that Minister Wong will finally do something tangible and take action to stop Israel’s genocide and war crimes. The Genocide Convention requires it, international law requires it, and her conscience must require it.

If the Labor Government recognises the State of Palestine, it must also recognise the genocide Palestinians are experiencing under Israeli occupation. The Albanese Government must sanction Israel and support every effort to break the illegal Israeli blockade that is killing Palestinians every day.

I am also deeply concerned to hear that the Government has all but abandoned consular support for the Australians on the Flotilla and their families. This is unacceptable.

The Labor Government allowed the Israeli Government to whitewash the killing of Australian aid worker Zomi Frankcom with a sham investigation. Zomi’s killers continue to walk free, and not a single person or entity has been sanctioned for her killing. The time for impunity is over.

Minister Wong has touted her commitment to aid personnel on the world stage, and this will be the first test of whether the Australian Government will stand up to Israel and demand free passage of humanitarian aid.

There is no place more dangerous to be an aid worker than Gaza, where Israel’s bombardment of Palestinians has also targeted health workers, journalists, and aid workers, yet these courageous people from across the world are sailing to Gaza to deliver urgently needed aid.

Just last week, the Foreign Minister said we must protect aid workers who deliver the food, water and medicine that civilians need to survive. Now is the test of whether she actually meant it, or whether it was just more of the empty words we have come to expect from this Government.