Coalition Rejects Government's Oct. 7 Commemoration Plan, Criticizes Albanese For Including Ceasefire

The Coalition has rejected the Australian government's proposal to mark Oct. 7 as a special commemoration day for the Hamas attack on Israel, because it also called for regional de-escalation and a ceasefire.

The opposition leader Peter Dutton accused the Anthony Albanese administration of overstepping by doing more than paying tribute to the 1,200 victims.

Dutton took sharp jibes at the Albanese government right after parliament resumed business, accusing the latter of "talking out of both sides of his mouth" to just score more political points instead of sincere commitment, ABC reported.

The Albanese government and the Coalition have fundamentally differing views on addressing the Middle East conflict. The Coalition's proposed motion focused on offering "words of comfort" and "words of recognition" to the victims of the Oct. 7 tragedy, whereas the Albanese government's motion took a broader approach, acknowledging the violence in Gaza and Lebanon, reported Sky News.

"But, of course, the prime minister is trying to speak out of both sides of his mouth and that is not something that we will support in relation to this debate," Dutton said.

"This prime minister wasn't able to lead a moment of bipartisanship in this parliament, which in my memory, is without precedent. There has been a position of bipartisanship on these issues, and your predecessors would have had the decency to respect the Jewish community in a way you have not done today, and for that, Prime Minister, you should stand condemned."

"There are other sections here which go well beyond the intent of what should be a motion to mark the loss of life of 1,200 people on the first anniversary," Dutton said.

"This motion was supposed to be about October 7, about the loss of human life," Dutton told the House of Representatives. Regrettably, we have not been able to arrive at a position of bipartisanship in relation to this matter. And I think when you go to the detail of what the Prime Minister has proposed, it becomes clear why the Coalition cannot support this motion before the House."

This comes as the U.S. has pledged to provide increased military support to Israel, with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin expressing solidarity with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's offensive against Hamas.

On Oct. 7 last year, Hamas launched a deadly attack that killed 1,200 Israeli citizens and took hundreds hostage. The attack's aftermath escalated into a full-scale war, resulting in more than 41,000 Palestinian fatalities and large-scale destruction in the Gaza Strip.