Heather du Plessis-Allan: Damien O'Connor must apologise

Labour’s going to have to sort itself out over this Middle East situation. 

This is about Damien O'Connor's tweet. I was really surprised yesterday when I was listening to Carmel Sepuloni being interviewed on this, as the deputy leader of the Labour Party. 

She was asked if he should apologise for his tweet and instead of saying yes, which is the only answer to give, she made excuses for him, saying he feels strongly about the situation as if that makes it OK. 

Let me just remind you what he tweeted - "Palestinians have every right to do whatever they did on October 7th". 

And I'll remind you what Hamas did that day. They raped and murdered innocent people. 

It really doesn’t matter where you stand on this conflict. You can never, especially as a senior politician, say or think it’s okay for terrorists to kill teenagers out at a dance party just because you feel strongly about what the state of Israel is doing. 

He should absolutely apologise for that. 

I know that this is a conflict that is making people feel very upset and it’s scrambling people’s better judgment. 

Just this week in Australia we had the case of a young reporter questioning why Australia doesn’t ban the Israeli flag like it bans the Hezbollah flag. 

They’re not the same. 

There is no equivalence between a state and a terrorist organisation, no matter how much you don't like what a state is doing. 

But that’s exactly why Damien should apologise. 

Because right now, when people are as angry and confused about what's going on, what we need is our major and serious political parties and our MPs, especially the senior ones holding senior portfolios like Associate Foreign Affairs spokesperson, to set an example for how to behave with decency. 

Not the opposite. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
On Labor and the situation with the Middle East. They're
gonna have to sort themselves out of over this. I'm
obviously talking about Damian O'Connor's tweet. Just sort of had
a little bit of media coverage in the last few days,
but actually, frankly, not enough for how offensive it is.
I was surprised yesterday when I was listening to Carmel
Seppaloni being interviewed on this. She's being interviewed as the
leader at the deputy leader of the Labor Party, given

(00:20):
that Chippy's away at the moment, she's in charge, and
she was asked if Damian O'Connor should apologize for his tweet,
and instead of saying the obvious thing, which is yes,
because that's the only answer to give, started making excuses
for him. Oh, he feels very strongly about the situation,
as if that makes it okay for him to say
what he did. Now, let me just remind you what

(00:40):
it was that he retweeted. Palestinians have every right to
do what they did on October seventh, and let me
remind you what Ramas did on October seventh. They raped
and murdered innocent people. Now it doesn't really matter where
you stand on this conflict. No one, especially a senior politician,
can say or think that it's it's okay for terrorists

(01:01):
to go and kill teenagers who are out at a
dance party. It's not okay, il, and care how much
you are angry with the State of Israel or whoever,
it is not okay for terrorists to go and do
that to innocent kids. Absolutely, Damian O'Connor needs to apologize
for endorsing that sentiment. Now, I get that this conflict
is making people feel very, very upset, and it appears
to be scrambling people's better judgment. Right Just this week

(01:23):
in Australia, we had the case of a young reporter
questioning why Australia doesn't treat Israel in the same way
that they treat Hisbola. All the answers obvious. They're not
the same. One is a state and one's a terrorist organization,
and there is no equivalence between the two of them,
no matter how much you may disagree with what a
state is doing. But that is exactly why Damian O'Connor
needs to set an example by apologizing, because right now,

(01:45):
when people are as angry and confused as they are
about what's going on. What we actually need from our
major and serious political parties and our MPs, and especially
the senior ones who are holding senior portfolios like Associate
Foreign Affairs spokesperson. What we need from them is to
set an exam of how to behave with decency, not
the opposite. For more from The Mic Asking Breakfast, listen

(02:06):
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