Thursday, 1 August 2024

Motions

Middle East conflict

Sarah MANSFIELD (Western Victoria) (09:41): I move, by leave:

That this house:

notes that since the Legislative Council’s resolution on 17 October 2023 concerning Israel and Gaza, which states that this house ‘stands with Israel’, the following has occurred:

Gaza’s hospital infrastructure has been destroyed by Israel, leaving only one partially functioning tertiary hospital that can provide maternity and paediatric care, the Al-Nasr;

the Al-Nasr is currently unable to meet demand for paediatric and obstetric care, seeing over 300 paediatric patients a day who are forced to share hospital beds and receive treatment on the floor;

the hospital provides 25 to 30 deliveries a day, and women are being discharged within hours of giving birth, without basic hygiene products, into unsafe and unsanitary conditions;

at least 183 women are giving birth in Gaza each day, most without any access to medical or midwifery support before, during or after delivery, and aid agencies have reported growing rates of life-threatening complications, including eclampsia, haemorrhage and sepsis as well as increased frequency of premature delivery, miscarriage and stillbirth;

Israel’s attacks on civilian populations and infrastructure have led to high and growing rates of paediatric diarrhoea and respiratory illnesses, starvation and trauma, contributing to rising child deaths in Gaza;

does not support the state of Israel’s continued invasion of Gaza; and

supports calls for an immediate and permanent ceasefire and calls on the Victorian government to advocate to the federal government that it ends its support for the state of Israel’s invasion of Gaza.

Leave refused.