JOSH BURNS
The night of the Bondi terror attack, I got a call. It was Basem.
He offered his condolences and asked if there was a community gathering he could attend.
Basem joined me at Caulfield Synagogue the next evening.
At a time that I needed it most, he showed me what a shared humanity looks like:
He demonstrated that we can, and we should, hold two truths at once – while grieving for his own people, he stood in solidarity with Jewish Australians in our time of pain.
History shows, one of the finest sons of our Labor Party tried to help create a shared future for Israelis and Palestinians alike.
Doc Evatt’s vision was for two states, for two peoples, living side by side.
Today, generations later, stand two sons of the Labor movement.
A Jewish Australian with deep family ties to Israel.
A Muslim Australian with deep family ties to Palestine.
For both of us, Australia has given our families an end to displacement and dispossession, and a safe place to finally call home.
And now, both of us proudly serve as Members of the House of Representatives.
We are fathers who dream of taking their children to a land free from conflict.
Our stories can be seen as coming from two different worlds, yet our similarities have brought us here today.
Too often people choose to dehumanise rather than walk alongside one another.
At the heart of so much violence, destruction and dispossession is an inability to truly see each other.
If we fail to recognise one another's pain, we limit the future we can build together.
Delegates, the statement before the conference does not represent everything either of us might wish to say, nor every aspect of government policy.
But through hours of conversation, compromise and respect, we are both standing here together.
If agreement was easy, there would be no conflict to resolve.
But beneath agreement lies something more powerful: hope.
Hope that two peoples can share a better future.
Hope that our disagreements never stop us from recognising each other's humanity.
We stand here to demonstrate what is possible when people choose to work together.
And that the Australian Labor Party has room for both of us, and for the communities we love.
Here at home, it wasn't just that we had to carry the fear for loved ones in the Middle East.
Our communities have also endured rising antisemitism and Islamophobia.
But I know that is not who we are.
So today this conference has a choice.
We can continue to focus on the divisions that pull us further apart.
Or we can do something far more important.
We can stand together to choose empathy over outrage - dialogue over division.
We can uphold Evatt’s vision of two states, for two peoples, with equal rights, dignity and security for all.
Because that is the only path to the lasting peace the world longs for.
A peace I dream of for my family and my people, and for Basem, his family and his people.
We are standing together to say that the conflict that has tortured our families, does not have to define our future.
Today, we are choosing hope.
We are choosing to believe that the long arc of justice can bend towards a shared future, where Israelis and Palestinians live side by side in peace.
We are choosing the future that we owe our children.
Delegates, we are choosing it together – and we hope you can join us to stand united - in the finest of Labor traditions.
BASEM ABDO
This motion is not designed to encompass everything.
It builds on the progress that previous national conferences and rank and file members have made to help advance peace and justice.
It does not seek to prescribe, describe or ascribe every responsibility to every party. Nor does it seek to list every circumstance or point that needs addressing.
It’s been an incredibly difficult few years on what is already a very difficult issue. No single motion can do justice to it.
What it is, is a motion of the Australian Labor Party.
A party of government. A party for all Australians.
Our engagement on foreign policy, like everything we do, begins with Australia and the Australian people.
That is why this motion is grounded in principles. Principles of international law. Of peace. Of justice.
It asks us to stand by the foundations Australia has helped shape and long defended – a rules-based order.
That is why this motion affirms the UN and international frameworks for peace and justice.
Because our own security has always depended on the strength of the rules that protect Australia.
We should never underestimate the impact these debates have on our communities.
I want to thank every member who has contributed respectfully to these discussions.
To our rank and file. Thank you.
To our unions. Thank you.
Both have long championed the need for action.
Thank you for the generosity of spirit you have brought to this debate. And thank you for believing that progress is always worth pursuing.
I want to thank Josh for his engagement throughout this process.
Thank you, Josh, for the good faith in what is not an easy process – and thank you for your friendship.
Over the course of this Conference, we have debated the values that define our movement.
The dignity of work. The opportunity that comes through education. The security of a home. The strength of families. The promise every parent wants to give their child - a better future than the one they inherited.
They are the things that allow people to build a life. To make choices. To live with dignity.
That is what Labor exists to advance.
Yet for generations of Palestinians living under occupation, so many of those things we take for granted remain out of reach.
Occupation reaches into homes. Into schools. Into workplaces. Into communities. Every single day.
I am the father of a one-year-old boy. One of the moments I look forward to most as a new parent is the day I get to watch my son walk into a classroom on his first day of school for the very first time.
That is a privilege we take for granted here in Australia.
Imagine if we lived under occupation.
Imagine having to tell your child they must pass through a military checkpoint just to get to school.
Imagine weighing up every morning whether it is safer to let your children leave the house - or to keep them inside a home that itself cannot promise safety.
Imagine explaining there are streets they cannot walk. Roads they cannot travel. Family they cannot see. Opportunities they cannot pursue. Healthcare they cannot access. Simply because of who they are.
They are the things that allow people to build a life. And they should never be determined by where you are born. Or who you are.
Human dignity is universal.
In closing – every one of us in this movement believes in social justice. It is the foundation of Labor.
It shapes our platform and guides our movement.
And when it comes to Australia's place in the world, consistent with our Labor history, we believe every family deserves the dignity we want for our own.
This is worthy of the only movement that carries and can carry these values into government.
I commend the motion to the floor.