Gabriel Ng (Menzies, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

Menzies is home to the largest Iranian community in Australia. I am proud to represent such a vibrant community, who contribute so much to the life of our electorate. I stand today to make clear that the actions of the Iranian regime in orchestrating vile attacks on the Australian Jewish community do not reflect the beliefs of the overwhelming majority of the Iranian diaspora in Australia.

I have reached out to community leaders since the government's announcement. Like me, they are appalled that the Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps would use proxies in the form of criminal gangs to stoke hatred towards and fear amongst the Australian Jewish community. They welcome the government's moves to expel the Iranian ambassador and list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation. Indeed, I recognise that they have been calling for this last measure for some time.

During the recent conflict in the Middle East, both between Iran and Israel and in Gaza, our first priorities as a government have been to take concrete actions to achieve peace and safeguard social cohesion in Australia. That a foreign government would seek to sow division locally is an egregious attack on the social fabric of our country, deserving of the strong and decisive response taken by this government. But let me be clear: our local diverse communities should never suffer because of the actions of foreign governments in the countries in which they were born. In the case of the Iranian community, many have fled the totalitarian, authoritarian Iranian regime and are its fiercest critics. (Time expired)

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