If the Australian Government Stands with the Hostages ...

Penny Wong, I have some questions

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong arrived in Israel overnight where she told the families of people held hostage by Hamas that Australia stands with them.

Well, not so fast Minister Wong.

I have questions.

If the Australian Government stands with the hostages, why did it take more than three months for a senior government minister to visit our Middle Eastern ally?

Airbus Albo has never seen a plane he didn’t want to be on. Yet he has been completely disinterested in flying to Israel.

And the Prime Minister dispatched his foreign minister only after being shamed by the shadow foreign minister’s trip to Jerusalem.

If the Australian Government stands with the hostages, why did Wong fly first to Jordan?

Wong’s first port of call on her Middle Eastern tour was a meeting with her counterpart in Jordan who is stridently anti-Israel and who has suggested that the hostages had it coming.

Everything says something. And that said a lot.

Wong figuratively stood with the hostages only after literally standing beside Ayman Safadi.

If the Australian Government stands with the hostages, why did Wong stand in Jordan announcing $21m in aid for Gaza before visiting the Israeli families of hostages?

‘The Australian Government stands with the hostages, but first, here’s millions of dollars for the people where the hostages are being held …’

Give me a break!

If the Australian Government stands with the hostages, why not make the $21m in aid for Gaza conditional upon Gazans freeing the hostages?

And yes, I said Gazans rather than Hamas.

We know from footage of the October 7 attacks that ordinary Gazans participated in and celebrated the slaughter of Jews.

We also know - from the testimony of freed hostages - that ordinary Gazans are helping to keep hostages in captivity.

Further, independent opinion polls show the majority of Gazans support Hamas.

Tell me again why Australian taxpayers are shelling out mega bucks to Gazans, especially while Israelis are right now still being held hostage?

If the Australian Government stands with the hostages, why is Australia calling on Israel to implement a ceasefire, rather than demanding the people of Gaza immediately release the hostages?

Who agrees to stop fighting while their family members are still being held hostage by sexual deviants?

And what kind of friend suggests that they do?

If the Australian Government stands with the hostages, why couldn’t Wong have been bothered driving 90 minutes from her Jerusalem hotel to see first hand the horror of where Israelis were violently abducted?

Sitting in an air-conditioned boardroom hearing stories is not quite the same as standing in a bullet riddled home where people’s family members were raped, tortured and executed.

If the Australian Government stands with the hostages, why won’t Wong watch the 45-minutes of video footage of the October 7 attack?

Is she squeamish? Is that it?

Or would seeing the true horror of what Palestinians did to Jews on that fateful morning make it too hard for her to talk out of both sides of her mouth?

One gets the distinct impression that there are some things this Australian Government would rather not know, lest their half-assed ‘stand’ with Israel make them feel hypocritical.

If the Australian Government stands with the hostages, why is Australian importing almost 1000 Gazans to our country before Gazans free 100 Israseli hostages back to theirs?

Our government has been far more animated about what it can do to secure the safety of Gazans than hostages.

If the Australian Government stands with the hostages, why do senior government ministers - Tony Burke, Ed Husic and Anne Aly to name just three - stand with the kidnappers?

Husic’s concern was less for the hostages and more about what he saw as the “collective punishment” of those holding the hostages.

Burke has supported the flying of the Palestinian flag while Israelis are still being held hostage in Palestine.

And he told a Woodford Folk Festival audience that the hostages were not taken in a vacuum.

Anne Aly called on Israel to be investigated for war crimes against those holding Jews hostage. What a joke she is.

If the Australian Government stands with the hostages, why does the government not condemn South Africa’s attempts to have Israel damned for genocide?

It’s outrageous that when a friend trying to free civilians kidnapped by a terrorist state finds itself in the dock, the Australian government has been mute.

If the Australian Government stands with the hostages, why does the government continually warn Israel that their actions in Gaza are being monitored?

It’s true that Wong condemns Hamas but it’s also true that she reserves her strongest words for Israel. She chides Israel about acting within the law and she warns Israel to show “restraint”.

Let me ask you this Ms Wong - if it was your children taken hostage and held by violent sexual abusers, would you be worried about “restraint”?

If the Australian Government stands with the hostages, why are we not moving resolutions in the UN demanding their release?

We sit by while Israel is condemned in the United Nations. But worse, we don’t even support Israel when the UN votes against Israel.

Where is the insistence, the demanding, the table-thumping in global forums that until Hamas release the hostages there is nothing to talk about?

If the Australian Government stands with the hostages, why did the Victorian Labor Government refuse police protection for families of the hostages forced out of their hotel by rabid protestors during a visit to Melbourne?

Israeli families visited our country to raise awareness about their loves ones being held hostage. They were harassed and threatened. When the Israeli embassy asked the they be protected, the request was ignored.

Shameful.

If the Australian Government stands with the hostages, why is the Australian government allowing hate speech and threats of violence to go unpunished?

I’ve seen the vandalised and disfigured posters of hostage victims around Sydney. The Labor government has allowed anti-Semitism to explode on their watch, while claiming they stand with Israel. It’s a joke.

If the Australian Government stands with the hostages, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.