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An event was held in the courtyard of the parliament to display The Wall of Tears art work. (Facebook: Sophie McNeill)<\/p>\n
After clashing with the deputy speaker on a number of points during his speech, Mr Hunter argued with her about whether his comments were relevant to the debate, which was about essential services for vulnerable people.<\/p>\n
As a result of this defiance, the legislative assembly voted to suspend Mr Hunter on Thursday morning.<\/p>\n
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Mr Hunter was censured for making comments about the Wall of Tears event, and other issues, during a debate about essential services. (ABC News: Glyn Jones)<\/p>\n
“The member’s response went beyond mere noncompliance,” Speaker Stephen Price said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
“He effectively challenged the Deputy Speaker to remove him from the chamber.”<\/p>\n
Liberal and Nationals MPs, as well as independent Jonathan Huston, voted against the measure.<\/p>\n
Later in the day, the opposition attempted to have Mr Hunter’s suspension overturned, but failed.<\/p>\n
Controversial display<\/p>\n
Speaking outside parliament after his suspension, the Central Wheatbelt MP accused the Speaker, a Labor MP who is appointed to the role to oversee the lower house, of playing politics.<\/p>\n
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This is Mr Hunter’s second suspension so far this year. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n
“Labor used their absolute majority to shut down a member of the opposition for standing up and speaking for vulnerable Western Australians,” Mr Hunter said.<\/p>\n
“Antisemitism \u2026 actually occurred in the courtyard of the parliament on Tuesday evening,” he added.<\/p>\n
Mr Hunter initially said the event had become political and antisemitic when Ms McNeill spoke about it in the chamber \u2014 a speech that Jewish Liberal MP Simon Ehrenfeld also took issue with that evening.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Mr Hunter said the art event had become political and antisemitic after Greens MP Sophie McNeill spoke in the legislative council about the children named in the artwork as being killed in a “genocide”.<\/p>\n
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MP McNeill has called the killings in Gaza a genocide. (ABC News: Courtney Withers)<\/p>\n
Jewish Liberal MP Simon Ehrenfeld also took issue with her comments immediately after they were made.<\/p>\n
“We all weep the death of every person in this war, but it’s inescapable that many of these children were used by Hamas as combatants in the war,” he told parliament.<\/p>\n
He said the event was a “propaganda piece used against Israel”.<\/p>\n
“If you had 100 of those walls, you wouldn’t even begin to touch what was genocide in our history,” Mr Ehrenfeld said.<\/p>\n
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Simon Ehrenfeld objected to the event, calling it anti-Israeli propaganda. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n
A United Nations commission of inquiry has concluded Israel is committing genocide in Gaza<\/a>. Israel has denied the accusations, labelling the UN report “distorted and false” and calling for the inquiry’s abolition.<\/p>\n ‘All lives mourned’<\/p>\n The co-convener of the Parliamentary Friends group which hosted the exhibition, Labor backbencher Dave Kelly, said the event had been organised to “highlight the horrific number of children killed in Gaza”.<\/p>\n “All lives lost during this conflict were mourned at the event,” he said.<\/p>\n Labor MP Dave Kelly supported the art event. (ABC News: Nicolas Perpitch)<\/p>\n The art exhibition was supported by Perth Doctors Medical Aid for Palestine, a group that an email to MPs described as a “non-partisan group of WA health workers who have been raising funds for humanitarian relief in Gaza”.<\/p>\n Images posted to social media by the group’s other co-convener, Ms McNeill, show Labor MPs Colleen Egan, Dan Bull, Klara Andric and Ayor Makur Chuot in attendance, as well as former Labor minister Alannah MacTiernan.<\/p>\n The Wall of Tears exhibition was also displayed at art galleries in Perth. (Facebook: Sophie McNeill)<\/p>\n Mr Hunter claimed the group was made up of “activists who seek to preach hate against a very vulnerable part of our community”.<\/p>\n “If you Google what they believe in, if you Google the rallies they’ve been to, if you Google every single thing that the Greens in Western Australia and right across this nation believe in, it is all antisemitic,” Mr Hunter said.<\/p>\n The ABC understands Ms McNeill and Perth Doctors Medical Aid for Palestine are seeking legal advice about commencing defamation proceedings over Mr Hunter’s comments.<\/p>\n Ms McNeill described him as a “gutless coward” and said Australia’s highest courts had ruled that criticising Israel was not antisemitic.<\/p>\n “Our event was all about the horrors of war. It was hosted by doctors who’ve worked in Gaza, Palestinians there who’ve had their family members killed in Gaza,” she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n “We honoured the deaths on both sides of this conflict.”<\/p>\n Focus ‘humanitarian, not political’<\/p>\n On Thursday evening, Perth Doctors Medical Aid for Palestine released a statement, saying it opposed all forms of racism.<\/p>\n “From the outset, our focus has been humanitarian, not political \u2026 We are against all forms of racism and religious discrimination,” the statement read.<\/p>\n They wed amidst the bombs of war-torn Gaza. Now they’re hoping for a new start<\/a><\/p>\n Mohammed Mustafa and Nour Dalloul got married while bombs exploded around them. Now their war-torn love, forged in the emergency rooms of a Gazan hospital, has found a home in Australia.<\/p>\n “We believe that advocating for vulnerable Palestinian children killed in war is not and never will be antisemitic.<\/p>\n “We cannot advocate for the protection of children if we allow their suffering to remain distant or invisible \u2014 The Wall of Tears reduces any abstractions to a simple fact: too many children have died.”<\/p>\n The organisation said it had worked with Israeli doctors and lawyers from human rights group Physicians for Human Rights Israel, and welcomed Mr Hunter to attend future events and speak with Perth Doctors Medical Aid for Palestine members about their work.<\/p>\n Premier says MP ‘disrespectful’<\/p>\n Premier Roger Cook supported Mr Hunter’s suspension, saying the decision had “nothing to do with the subject matter he raised”.<\/p>\n Premier Cook supported the suspension. (ABC News: Keane Bourke)<\/p>\n “What he chose to do was simply to run loose with the rules of the chamber \u2026 he was talking over, being disrespectful and rude, and there are rules around that.”<\/p>\n Before Mr Hunter’s suspension, Nationals leader Shane Love said he had not counselled the MP over his behaviour.<\/p>\n “I think he was making a forceful point about something that he had a great deal of personal concern over,” he said.<\/p>\n “It’s up to the chair to control the chamber.”<\/p>\n Opposition Leader Basil Zempilas said it was a “legitimate question to ask what were the procedures and protocols that were followed for that event to be organised”.<\/p>\n Do you know more?<\/p>\n Contact Keane Bourke on encrypted email<\/a>.<\/p>\n![\"Dave](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/f98d9988eea62ad9a2e0a894fbb602a9.jpeg\")
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