Recent reports on Australian-made weapons parts and locally produced weapons systems ending up with the Israeli Defense Force during the Gaza genocide provide further reasons why Anthony Albanese’s Labor government has attempted to sink the Thorpe-Payman Genocide Red-Lines Bills.
Since the beginning of Israel’s mass murder of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, in October 2023, Labor MPs have vehemently denied that Australian weapons and components are making their way to the genocide, although these excuses have evolved as some politicians, journalists and activists have uncovered evidence that refutes their claims.
Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe and Australia’s Voice Senator Fatima Payman introduced three genocide-related bills on November 28 last year, which would help non-government entities stop the government aiding and abetting nations committing genocide, in a preventative and responsive manner, as well as ensuring that governments do not support genocides.
There is a reluctance to approach the crime of genocide here, even as the mass slaughter in Gaza continues 18 months on. This is for a number of reasons, including the unofficial prohibition on criticising Israel and, just like the Zionist state, Australia being founded on genocide.
The Genocide Red-Lines package of bills were hailed by legal and activist communities because they propose reforms that would disallow Australia from supporting the Israeli-perpetrated genocide.
However, this outcome appears to be the reason that Labor sought to block these bills in the dying days of the 47th Australian parliament.
Guaranteeing genocides
“The government’s story is that the Red-Lines package is divisive and unnecessary, because they claim Australia is already following international rules on genocide,” said Gunnai, Gunditjmara and Djab Wurrung Senator Thorpe.
“But that is a lie,” she continued. “It’s a tactic to dodge scrutiny, which is why [Labor MPs] refuse to let these bills go to an inquiry — a standard parliamentary process — and why they’re withholding the legal advice on this very topic from the Australian Government Solicitor.”
Payman introduced three anti-genocide bills into the Senate in November last year. On February 6, a committee reported to the Senate which recent bill it had selected to progress to the committee inquiry process and on to a Senate vote. All three bills of the Red-Lines package had been prevented from proceeding.
Thorpe introduced the Criminal Code Amendment (Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes) Bill 2024 in February last year. It sought to remove a law known as the “Attorney General’s (AG) fiat”, which requires the AG to green light any international atrocity crime prosecution under law, as it serves to block genocide prosecutions.
The major party senators voted against removing the block on genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes prosecutions in March. This is a legal mechanism that has been used to block prosecutions of perpetrators of alleged atrocities committed against Tamils, Rohingyas, Palestinians and First Peoples of this continent.
“If the government was to formally acknowledge genocide and apartheid occurring here or overseas, it would trigger a series of obligations and actions which, for political reasons, it is not willing to take,” Thorpe said.
“It’s important to note that those obligations — and the breaches and consequences — exist whether or not they formally admit it.”
Laws that value life
Despite foreign minister Penny Wong stating that Labor does not support the Red-Lines bills during February 27 Senate estimates and the committee denying an inquiry, it doesn’t mean the bills will not come back to the next parliament.
Australian Lawyers Alliance national criminal justice spokesperson Greg Barns SC hailed the introduction of the bills on February 8. He suggested they be a “litmus test” on how to vote in the coming election, given that most want MPs who uphold international humanitarian law.
The first bill is the Genocide Risk Reporting Bill 2024, which creates an obligation on businesses to ensure that they have stopped any involvement in supply chains or operations that risk being a part of a genocide.
Businesses would be required to proactively report on this, with penalties for noncompliance. It would also establish an Anti-Genocide Commissioner.
The Treasury Laws Amendment (Divesting from Illegal Israeli Settlements) Bill 2024 seeks to prevent Future Fund, the sovereign wealth fund, and registered charities from investing in companies operating within illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
A United Nations database that lists such companies would inform this process.
The final bill, the Defence Trade Controls Amendment (Genocide, War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity) Bill 2024, broadly takes aim at the goods, software and technology on the Defence and Strategic Goods List. It would ensure that export permits can only be issued when there is no risk of involvement in serious violations of international law, including genocide.
Thorpe told Sydney Criminal Lawyers that without these bills most MPs are “blindly following orders from higher-ups” without any real understanding that they have an obligation under the 1948 Genocide Convention to prevent atrocities.
They are oblivious to the fact they could be making decisions that leave them open to criminal charges of genocide complicity.
World leader in denial
“Australia is a world leader in denying genocide,” Thorpe said. That is “because it has carried out, and continues to carry out, similar violence against Blackfullas on this land”.
“This country has a record of signing up to international treaties and then taking very little concrete action to adhere to those treaties,” Thorpe said. “Look at what is happening to children across the country in the criminal legal system, for example — that clearly contravenes the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and OPCAT.”
Australia ratified the Genocide Convention in July 1949, which creates an obligation on state parties to stop genocide.
Australia ratified the Rome Statute in 2002, which required parliament to make unlawful the various forms of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. However, the attorney general’s fiat was included to prevent such prosecutions being raised.
Regardless of these legal obligations, as well as any moral qualms the Albanese cabinet might have about Palestinians being slaughtered, Labor has backed Israel repeatedly claiming that it is just “defending itself”.
Australian firm Birchgrove Legal has presented a detailed genocide complicity claim against the prime minister, Wong, defence minister Richard Marles and Liberal leader Peter Dutton to the International Criminal Court prosecutor Karim Khan. The highest criminal court has added it to its inquiry.
“Voters have made it clear,” Thorpe said. “They do not support genocide. But the government is ignoring this, putting Australians and businesses at risk of being complicit. These bills are about protecting us from that.
“Governments have long been aware that they’re implicated in genocide — both overseas and here, against First Peoples. They go to great lengths to avoid and suppress scrutiny around these crimes,” Thorpe said.
[Paul Gregoire writes for Sydney Criminal Lawyers, where this article was first published.]