 Parke withdrew her candidacy for the seat following negative media coverage after she was reported to have told a meeting that Israel's treatment of Palestinians was "worse than the South African system of apartheid".She said her views regarding Palestine-Israel were well known but that she did not want them to be a "distraction from electing a Labor government which will take urgent and strong action on climate change".In January 2020, Parke sued Liberal MP Dave Sharma for defamation over a tweet in which he accused her of anti-semitism and "trafficking in conspiracy theories".