Middle East: Casualties

The majority voted against a motion to pause (or 'suspend') the normal rules for how the Senate runs ('standing orders') in order to give priority to motion 621, which means it failed.

Motion 621 is a call for the Australian Government to independently investigate the death of over 300 aid workers in Gaza. Importantly, this motion 621 wasn't voted against - the idea of treating it with priority over normal business was.

Motion Text

The text of this motion was:

That so much of the standing orders be suspended as would prevent me moving a motion relating to the conduct of the business of the Senate, namely a motion to give precedence to general business notice of motion No. 621.

Motion 621

The voted-on motion refers to motion 621, which says:

That the Senate—

(a) notes:

(i) it has been more than 5 months since Israeli forces killed Zomi Frankcom, an Australian citizen and aid worker, along with 6 other World Central Kitchen aid workers, and there has been no credible investigation into the killing,

(ii) nearly 300 aid workers have been killed since Israel began its genocide in Gaza, including at least 220 United Nation workers, making it likely that 2024 will be the deadliest year for aid workers,

(iii) humanitarian organisations have accused Israel of systematically targeting aid workers in Gaza, and last month another World Central Kitchen aid worker was killed while the World Food Programme had to briefly halt its movement after Israeli forces fired at one of its vehicles, and

(iv) a request by World Central Kitchen to the Australian Government, made 3 days after Zomi's murder for an independent investigation into the Israeli attack, noting that ‘the IDF cannot credibly investigate its own failure in Gaza’; and

(b) calls on the Government to call for an independent investigation into the Israeli attack on 1 April 2024 that killed Zomi Frankcom along with 6 other World Central Kitchen aid workers.

Note that motion 621 was not actually voted on, and is still listed for voting on in the future. The motion that was voted on was to suspend the normal rules in order to give motion 621 higher preference over other motions.