Luke Simpkins (Cowan, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

The challenge of going last in a debate like this is to try to find an excellent point that has not already been made and made very well by all speakers today. I do, however, acknowledge Natalie Mobini for her assistance in the last few days and the members of the Baha'i community here in Canberra.

It does seem like we have been here before, and certainly in my travels in the world, when I have been fortunate enough to go overseas, I have seen persecution in many places. Whatever happens here in this place in these debates, we need to acknowledge that, down there on the ground, people are living the challenges of this every day. And it is not just in recent times, either. The Baha'i community has been persecuted since 1844, from the origins of their faith.

Our mutual friend Mehran Zare from Perth has told me on many occasions about his flight from Iran. It was something like 30 years ago when he was at school that he was taken from a classroom, because he was a Baha'i, taken out into the snow and had his hand held under the snow; the boot of one of the staff of this school held his hand under the snow for two hours—a terrible act of torture against a child. But this is the day-to-day life of people of the Baha'i faith in Iran.

Although persecution has been a constant part of the existence of the Baha'is since the origins of their faith—and we know that that is the case—since 1979 the Islamic Republic of Iran has been responsible for great torture and persecution. It has been described as alienating or keeping people away from education and stopping them from entering universities, and then arresting those who tried to set up a Baha'i university as well. This is systematic; there is no doubt about it. Billions of dollars of property has been seized since the revolution in 1979. It is a wonder to me, and a great indication of the courage and the resolute nature of Baha'i people, that there are still 300,000 of them left in Iran. What brave people they are. I can understand that so many have had to find a better life elsewhere, and it is great that they have found that better life. Many have found that better life here in Australia. It is a great indication to me of how brave and strong the people who remain behind in Iran are.

I have no time for the regime there in any regard, whether it is creating a nuclear program, the killing of apostates or the persecution of the Baha'is and other minorities in their country. I have no faith, no confidence in the Iranian regime. I know that so many of the recommendations of the Universal Periodic Review of human rights in 2010 came to nothing. Very few of the recommendations were accepted. Those that were accepted were hardly carried through with at all. We know that on Thursday there will be Iran's response to the 2014 recommendations. There are 291 recommendations and we will see what they do with that. But I tell you this: in the circumstance where a religion is not even acknowledged as a minority within the constitution of that bureaucracy, I have little faith that they will either acknowledge the concerns of the international community or even act on them at all.

It is important that, whatever we do in this country, we keep talking about this. I know the Minister for Foreign Affairs has raised it with Iran and our embassy in Tehran has also raised it. We must continue to raise it at every opportunity. It should be part of the furniture. Part of every discussion we have with countries like Iran should be to raise this issue of the human rights of people over there, particularly the Baha'is, a long-suffering but very brave people. We should always keep them in our prayers and close to our hearts, because they certainly deserve our greatest respect.

Debate adjourned.

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