Peter Dutton slams Anthony Albanese as Opposition rejects October 7 motion

Australia’s political leaders have failed to unite in condemnation of the brutal Hamas attack on Israel a year ago as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton accused Anthony Albanese of trying to “speak out of both sides of his mouth”.

Twin votes on competing motions in Parliament brought to a head days of sound and fury over the domestic political fallout from the conflict in the Middle East.

In extraordinary scenes in Parliament House, the Prime Minister’s attempt to secure bipartisan support for the motion failed amid a dispute with the Coalition over the proposed wording.

Ultimately, the motion was passed 85-54 but Coalition MPs voted against it. Labor and crossbench independents supported the motion, while the Greens abstained.

A similar motion in the Senate was not expected to get to a vote.

It called for the “unequivocal condemnation of Hamas’ terror attacks on Israel” but also stressed “the need to break the cycle of violence” and backed “international efforts to de-escalate for a ceasefire in Gaza and in Lebanon”.

Mr Dutton said the wording on de-escalation expanded the “balanced and objective” proposal he put to Mr Albanese on the weekend in a bit to achieve bipartisan support, and the Coalition would not back it.

He later attempted to put up a motion of his own that had similarities with the Government’s version but omitted any reference to international efforts led by the US to negotiate a ceasefire.

The Opposition Leader instead called on Parliament to recognise “that this entire conflict is between Israel and the Islamic Republic of Iran” and proxies “committed to the destruction of the State of Israel”.

“The Prime Minister is trying to speak out of both sides of his mouth, and that is not something that we will support,” Mr Dutton said in a passionate speech.

“There’s been a position of bipartisanship on these issues, and your (Labor) predecessors would have had the decency to respect the Jewish community in a way you have not done today.

“And for that, Prime Minister, you should stand condemned. We have put to this Prime Minister a more than reasonable position, and the Prime Minister has rejected that position for his own political domestic advancement, and that has been recognised by millions of Australians.”

Mr Albanese used his speech to “unequivocally condemn the actions of Hamas” while also declaring that “every innocent life matters”.

“This Parliament comes together once again to unequivocally condemn the actions of Hamas,” Mr Albanese said.

“A year on from that day, when death emerged out of the sunshine, we reflect on all that happened and all the devastation that has followed, we think of the brutality and the cruelty that was inflicted on so many with such cold calculation. We think of all whose lives and futures were stolen from them that day as they tried to save themselves and their loved ones, and all who have had them stolen since.

“As we mourn and reflect, we also reaffirm a fundamental principle of our shared humanity that every innocent life matters: every Israeli, every Palestinian, every Lebanese, every single innocent life.

“It is the terrorists who close their eyes to that powerful, simple truth. It is the terrorists of Hamas that are not only enemies of Israel, they are an enemy of the Palestinian people as well.”

Earlier, Mr Dutton told Coalition colleagues during a meeting in Canberra that the Government’s moral compass was “out of sync”.

In question time, he asked Mr Albanese to promise Labor would not do a preference deal in the looming federal election with “the racist and anti-Semitic Greens political party”.

At the same time in the Senate, the Greens held up signs reading “sanctions now” after criticising the Government’s response to Israel’s bombardment of Gaza.

Greens deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi accused Labor and the Coalition of treating “white people as victims and brown people as villains” over their response to the conflict.

She attacked reporters asking about the Greens’ actions, saying she would only answer questions about “the genocide and 75 years of occupation”.

Cabinet minister Mark Butler, a close ally of Mr Albanese, and Mr Dutton delivered speeches in Sydney at a commemorative event on Monday night denouncing the growing tide of anti-Semitism and urging Australians to call it out and stop it.

Mr Butler told the event that Israel “has the right to defend itself and respond to these attacks”.

“As (US) President (Joe) Biden has said, a military response should be proportionate,” he said.

“But no self-respecting nation would fail to defend itself if attacked the way Israel has been.”

Meanwhile, a second repatriation flight of Australians fleeing the conflict’s expansion into Lebanon is expected to arrive in Sydney on Tuesday night.

So far, the Government has helped more than 1200 people leave Lebanon, with two more flights scheduled to leave Beirut on Tuesday.

More than 3800 Australians and their family members have registered as wanting to leave the country.