2025-02-05
Australian Greens Deputy Leader Senator Mehreen Faruqi has demanded that the Australian government unequivocally condemn President Trump’s decision to stop UNRWA funding and withdraw the US from the UN Human Rights Council. These decisions follow Trump’s reckless order to freeze international aid.
Lines attributable to Senator Faruqi:
“Trump’s decision is an unprecedented attack on global human rights, international aid and the Palestinian people in their time of greatest need.
“Slashing UNRWA funding will deepen an already dire humanitarian crisis, while walking away from the UNHRC sends a dangerous signal that human rights abuses will go unchallenged.
"The Albanese government must take a stand and forcefully condemn this shameful move instead of sitting idly by while President Trump makes one cruel disastrous decision after another.
“Minister Wong should be on the phone to her US counterparts right now putting pressure on them to reverse these catastrophic decisions.
"Labor cannot just wring its hands and look the other way. Australia must step up where the US is failing—by increasing its contributions to UNRWA to ensure life-saving services continue, and by reaffirming its commitment to the UN Human Rights Council to defend international law and fundamental freedoms.
“Silence or inaction in the face of these horrific decisions from the US, which our government calls “one of our closest allies”, would make Australia complicit in the suffering that will inevitably follow.
"The Albanese Government has been complicit in genocide and timid as a mouse when it comes to calling out Israel’s atrocities, but surely even they must denounce the utter madness of Trump’s comments that the US will own and run the Gaza strip."