Mr BAYLEY (Clark) – May I start tonight by giving a shout out to Skye. Skye is a work experience student who has been in our office all this week and she has been an absolute pleasure to have around. She is passionate, she is intelligent, she is compassionate and people like Skye really give me hope for the future.
Work experience, internships and the work of the parliamentary education team provide a fantastic opportunity to expose our youth to the work of the parliament, our behaviour and our processes and so forth. I congratulate everybody involved. Skye, thank you for your efforts. Skye helped me research and write this adjournment speech, and I thank her very much for that.
I rise on adjournment to congratulate the UTAS Palestinian Solidarity Encampment, who have been camped at the Sandy Bay campus for three months now. They joined the global movement of students appalled at the state of Israel’s aggression and genocide of Palestinians, wanting to show their solidarity and commitment to making change in their own backyard.
We have all been watching in horror at the escalating violence in the Middle East, the holding of hostages on both sides of the conflict and the crimes against humanity inflicted on innocent Palestinian civilians in Gaza. The United Nations estimates that 39,677 Palestinians have been killed and 91,645 injured.
The meaning of injury deserves unpacking in the context of war – amputations, blindings, brain damage. These are absolutely life‑changing injuries from which people can never recover. It is estimated that 1.9 million people have been displaced in Gaza, and the denial of food and water represents a forced starvation and a further war crime of the state of Israel.
Bear in mind that almost half of the Palestinian population are children, and the proportion of people who have been killed and displaced sadly reflects this. Israel has also destroyed over 70,000 housing units in Gaza and killed a large number of journalists. The international community has condemned this aggression, and the UN has repeatedly investigated and concluded the carriage of war crimes.
I acknowledge that we all in this House want this conflict to end, as does our community. In response to the conflict, students of UTAS set up their encampment in May, demanding that UTAS stop their complicity with this genocide and cut ties with Israeli universities and weapons manufacturers. Students in the encampment were particularly alarmed with UTAS’s partnership with German military company, Hensoldt, which supplies Israel’s military with radar and surveillance systems. They are also concerned with UTAS’s involvement with Fails (TBC 5.37.15) and Caterpillar, companies equipping the Israeli Defence Force with the tools used in the Palestinian genocide.
Students knew there was more, and they demanded that UTAS release the full list of its ties with Israel and its supporters. Their peaceful protest was fantastic, with at least 30 students camping on the lawn at one point. It was a diverse range of students coming together because they all believed strongly in stopping the Palestinian genocide. The encampment was there 24 hours a day. They ate there, slept there and studied there. Some students stayed at the encampment for most nights of the three months of the encampment.
There was an outpouring of support from the community with donations of food and visits in solidarity. I took the opportunity to spend a night with the encampment in the first week of the occupation and was impressed with the organisation, respect, discussion and agreement by consensus of their collective steps forward.
This took incredible courage and hard work from the students, especially through nipaluna/Hobart’s cold winter. It also took courage from UTAS staff, some of whom came out to support the students’ calls and amplify their voice. Congratulations and thank you.
I also acknowledge UTAS’s early response to the encampment, providing additional security, opening up a communal space and respecting the right of the students to protest. I recognise the fact that these actions are in many ways the responsibility they have to a free‑thinking, globally connected and compassionate student population. The UTAS students have only now made the decision to end their encampment because they have convinced UTAS to disclose their research partnerships. The list confirms UTAS’s ties with universities and companies that support the Israeli Defence Force.
This is not the end of the UTAS students’ fight. They will continue to demand that UTAS end their research partnerships with and divest from companies and institutions in Israel or who support the Israel genocide in Gaza.
The Greens continue to stand in solidarity with these students and thank them for their action. We will continue to demand an end to the occupation of Palestine, a permanent ceasefire and greater action from Australia, including a stop to military exports to the State of Israel. How is it that hundreds of sanctions have been slapped on Russia, Syria and other individuals in autocratic, genocidal regimes, but not a single one on an Israeli?
We support a self-determined Palestinian state and stand for peace, non-violence, human rights and a global commitment to shared humanity, respect and compassion.
