We need much more than the “Gaza Pose”. We’ve seen the furrowed brows and sorrowful looks. We’ve heard the regretful tones, the exhortations, the warnings, the carefully studied words.

Often that’s all there’s been: words and more words. So the question for Anthony Albanese and his Minister for Steely Gazes, Penny Wong, is this. Have they said or done anything since 7 October that has saved a single life, Israeli or Palestinian? Does one Israeli hostage now owe their freedom, in part, to Australia? Is there one Palestinian child who is alive today, thanks in part to Australia? Are we one millimetre closer to easing, let alone ending, the horror that is Gaza because of an idea Australia put forward, a quiet warning to an ally, a shot across the bows of the protagonists?

Australia is a long way from the crime scene, its influence limited. Doing what is effective and humanitarian is complicated by domestic and international politics, by demography, geography and history. Yet look at Australia’s sharp and unrelenting criticism of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Earlier this year Penny Wong noted that Australia had imposed more than 1,200 sanctions in response to that invasion which, according to the UN, killed 10,582 Ukrainian civilians in the two-year period to February 2024, including 587 children. Barely six months into the Gaza war 31,000 plus Palestinians have died at the hands of the IDF, well over........

© Pearls and Irritations