Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi has delivered a blistering speech outside Parliament House, accusing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong of “moral cowardice” over their handling of the war in Gaza. As The Guardian reports, Farupi said this in an address to several hundred pro-Palestine demonstrators gathered on the parliamentary lawns. The outspoken NSW senator labelled the Albanese government “heartless and gutless cowards” for refusing to directly condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide, apartheid, or occupation. “To be honest, I have never seen such moral co

Greens Senator Mehreen Faruqi has delivered a blistering speech outside Parliament House, accusing Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong of “moral cowardice” over their handling of the war in Gaza. As The Guardian reports, Farupi said this in an address to several hundred pro-Palestine demonstrators gathered on the parliamentary lawns. The outspoken NSW senator labelled the Albanese government “heartless and gutless cowards” for refusing to directly condemn Israel’s actions in Gaza as genocide, apartheid, or occupation. “To be honest, I have never seen such moral cowardice in my whole life that I see in there, in that Parliament,” Faruqi said. “Nothing has moved these heartless and gutless cowards … week after week, headline after headline, homes flattened, refugee camps bombed, aid convoys attacked. Entire families have been wiped out.” Faruqi also took aim at the federal government’s special envoy for antisemitism, Jillian Segal, and the recommendations in her recent report. Segal’s report, delivered last week, proposed that funding be withheld from universities and artists who fail to act against antisemitism and that visa holders with antisemitic views be subject to deportation. “This plan … should be outright rejected by the Albanese government and everyone else in there,” Faruqi declared. Her remarks have drawn both support and criticism amid ongoing political and public debate over Australia’s stance on the war in Gaza and domestic policies surrounding antisemitism and free speech.

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