Israel preparing for hostage release as Trump visits Middle East; Opposition leader’s approval ratings tank, new polling finds
Social Services Minister Tanya Plibersek condemned comments made by Lidia Thorpe at a pro-Palestinian protest at the weekend but said the issue should be ignored to prevent the Victorian senator from being given any more “air time”.
“What Lidia Thorpe said is absolutely irresponsible. We just don’t want to give extra airtime. So, what we know for sure is that Australians want to see peace in the Middle East. We’re holding our breath. We hope the hostages return tonight, as they should,” Plibersek told Seven’s Sunrise this morning.
“We want to see aid return to Gaza and the rebuilding of Gaza and we want to see peace in the Middle East. We certainly don’t want to bring the hostility and conflict here to Australia and we don’t want to give people like Lidia Thorpe any airtime,” he said.
Speaking at a pro-Palestinian protest on Sunday, independent senator Lidia Thorpe said she would “burn down Parliament House if I had to burn it down to make a point about the rights of indigenous people and Palestinians” and that “I’m not there to make friends. I’m there to get justice for our people.”
Minister of Social Services Tanya Plibersek.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen
Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Michaelia Cash issued a statement calling Thorpe’s comments “shameful and shocking but unfortunately not surprising”.
Cash said the opposition will “evaluate available options in the Senate to hold Senator Thorpe accountable.”
Plibersek said a vote of no confidence in Thorpe or similar outcomes was “a matter that will have to be decided in the future.”
“The last thing I want to do is promote him or give him the attention he so desperately craves. We need to focus on what we can do here in Australia. That’s supporting the two-state solution, that’s supporting anything we can do to secure peace in the Middle East,” he said.
“People have the right to protest peacefully. Of course they do. We are a democracy, but it has to be peaceful and it has to be legal. And when people make these kinds of suggestions that would encourage violence, we have to say that it’s not here. It’s unacceptable, but let’s not encourage them. Let’s not give them more attention than they deserve,” Plibersek said.
