Penny Allman-Payne Slams Australian Government Over ‘Picking and Choosing’ International Law
March 5, 2026
Senator Penny Allman-Payne just delivered a brutal reality check to the Labor government. During a heated Senate session, she didn’t mince words, asking the front bench: “Are you incompetent, or are you lying?”
The Queensland Senator is calling out the blatant hypocrisy of an administration that “picks and chooses” which parts of international law to uphold. She argues that the “Epstein Class” in the Australian government is quick to condemn Iran’s strikes but remains strategically silent on the ICC warrants for Benjamin Netanyahu and the “ongoing and blatant disregard for international law” in Gaza.
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English Script:
Penny Allman-Payne: Our foreign minister was asked to confirm whether or not the Australian government believes that the war that has been started in Iran is illegal, and our foreign minister refused to answer that question, deflecting and deferring and saying that it is up to the US and Israel to explain their actions. That should horrify every single Australian, that our own government doesn’t have the willingness or the capacity to make a call on whether international law has been breached. Are you incompetent? Or are you lying? The United Nations has said it’s unlawful. It didn’t even go to Congress in the US. US Democrats and some Republicans are questioning its legality. And yet our Prime minister and our foreign minister are first out the gate to say, “Good job, well done. We support you”. Shame. It is possible to be against a hateful regime, to condemn its actions, to support the right of Iranians to freedom, which the Greens are on the record as supporting. And at the same time, to be against an unjust and dangerous military intervention that is outside international law. When did we start picking and choosing? When we follow the law and when we don’t? Because that should be alarming to every Australian, because a government that picks and chooses when it follows the law might not just start doing that overseas. There’s a real chance they will start doing it here at home. This labor government has lost its way and it should be ashamed of itself.
