Tuesday, 14 May 2024

 Samantha RATNAM (Northern Metropolitan) (14:41): Right now hundreds of students are joining with thousands of their peers at universities across Australia and the world at encampments for Gaza. These brave and compassionate young people are occupying their university lawns and calling for their universities to end their relationships with weapons manufacturers and partnerships that are contributing to the genocide of the Palestinian people. Universities, institutions and governments right across the world have live contracts with businesses and governments that are supporting and profiting from a genocide but are hoping that people will not notice. But we see it for what it is. Anyone with a moral compass must know that all these actions, these relationships, these contracts, our response and your silence matter. These heinous acts of war that we have seen in Gaza, which have seen more than 33,000 Palestinians killed and 19,000 children orphaned, do not happen in isolation. They are aided and abetted by direct funding, contracts, MOUs and research partnerships with the defence industry and occupying governments and are fortified by those who refuse to speak up and refuse to do their part in applying pressure to oppressors.

From Melbourne University to Monash, Deakin, La Trobe, RMIT and beyond, students are showing more moral courage than many in this place. We stand with you. I have no doubt that what we are witnessing today will define our lifetimes. Like the movement to end apartheid in South Africa, when all of us do all that we can in our corners to create social change, change can happen. Let us hold hope, join with others and free, free Palestine!