Land Forces International Land Defence Exposition
Georgie PURCELL (Northern Victoria) (17:43): (1078) My adjournment matter is for the Premier, and the action that I seek is for the Victorian government to drop their sponsorship of the Land Forces International Land Defence Exposition. Land Forces is Australia’s largest weapons expo, and it is coming to Melbourne for three days in September. Shamefully displayed as a principal sponsor is the Victorian Labor government. One of the exhibitors is Elbit Systems, a weapons manufacturer that not only calls Victoria home but that many of us have continuously called on the Victorian government to end its partnership with. Elbit’s weapons are designed to burn human flesh off the bone. They produce projectiles designed not to penetrate the body but to pass through it. Human rights groups have long sought a ban on these projectiles due to their imprecision, and their use in densely populated areas is a breach of humanitarian law. They produce small bomblets that can kill civilian populations years after their landing. The weapons that Elbit produce cause such unimaginable cruelty that our sovereign wealth fund, the Future Fund, deemed this company to be an excluded investment. It was even Elbit’s drones that were responsible for the deaths of the six World Central Kitchen aid workers. The terror caused by these weapons is very difficult to think about, even more so when you know people in Palestine are at constant risk of being killed by them each and every day.
I have told you all about Muhannad and his family and their work with Sulala Animal Rescue, Gaza’s only animal welfare organisation. They are still alive, but every second of their lives is occupied by the knowledge that it could be the last, with the sound of drones constantly over their heads. The Victorian Labor government constantly claims that there is no role for them to play in ending the relentless slaughter and displacement of Palestinians by Israel. That simply is not true. This is just one meaningful action that they can take right now to ensure that Victorian taxpayer dollars are not used to fund and support the weapons companies causing unimaginable suffering to civilians not just in Palestine but around the world. I urge the Premier to drop the government’s sponsorship of this event that has absolutely no place in this so-called progressive state.