Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Hansard source

As the member for Berowra I am delighted to represent the fourth-largest Persian community in the country. Persian Australians are wonderful people, with an ancient civilisation and a modern liberal outlook. There are nearly 100,000 Persians in Australia, and they contribute to every aspect of my community, from the P&Cs to the sports clubs to the doctors and nurses at Hornsby Hospital. They're engineers, IT professionals, artists and small-business owners. They moved here to create a better life for themselves and they work every day to contribute to our country and our community.

I know that so many of them are here because for the past half century the Iranian regime has made their lives in Iran a living hell—a criminal regime that abuses women and minorities, a criminal regime noted for its abuse of human rights at home and its export of terror abroad, a criminal regime whose long arm follows people and intimidates them even in this country. I've been calling out Iran for a decade for its human rights violations against its own people—women, the Baha'i and other minorities—and for its terrorist proxies around the world. My proudest moment in the six years I served on the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security was when we listed in full Iran's proxies Hamas and Hezbollah.

In February 2023, following the murder of Mahsa Amini, I called for the listing of the IRGC as a terrorist organisation. At that time, as shadow Attorney-General, I offered the coalition's support for any measures to help the government list the IRGC. When I hosted Senator Claire Chandler at a forum with the Persian community in my constituency in 2023—and Senator Chandler did a terrific report on human rights abuses in Iran—people told me they were afraid to come because of the long arm of the embassy and the IRGC in our own country. In October 2023 I called for diplomatic relations against Iran to be suspended, even as Labor luminaries like Bob Carr were having happy snaps with the ambassador.

Our government's Middle East policy has been a shambles. Australia has spent too much of the past four years berating Israel rather than standing up to Iran, when they were warned by the Persian community and the Jewish community about the danger Iran poses to Australia. It took two regime-coordinated attacks on our own soil—at Lewis' Continental Kitchen and the Adass Israel Synagogue—for this government to be dragged kicking and screaming to take action. Australia should be leading global efforts to bring the Iranian regime to justice, but the Albanese government has never acted with strength or urgency.

Today in Iran protests have spread across hundreds of cities and towns. Millions of ordinary people have found the courage to stand up and demand change. Many more have been murdered, arrested, tortured or left carrying trauma which will last a lifetime. More than 30,000 people have been murdered. I want to talk about just a few of these people: Sholeh Sotoudeh, a mother of two young children, from Langarud, who was pregnant with her third child when she was killed when forces opened fire on a crowd she was in; Ziba Dastjerdi, 33, who was shot and killed in front of her eight-year-old daughter at a protest at Nishapur; and 40-year-old Soran Feyzizadeh, who died because of torture he was subjected to while being held following his arrest on 7 January—reports say his body was barely recognisable due to the extent of injuries caused by repeated blows. And there is 15-year-old Taha Safari, one of the youngest victims of the protestors, who was detained by authorities, his body handed to his family three days later, and 28-year-old Negin Ghadimi, shot with live ammunition, cleaving her body from her stomach; unable to get to the hospital, she died in the arms of her father.

We hear of widespread sexual violence, including against children. An Iranian-born journalist said in recent days, 'No women's bodies are turning up, and that's because, according to eyewitness accounts, they're raped, their uteruses are removed, their scalps ripped off along with their hair, and their bodies covered in cigarette burns.' This is a regime of pure evil.

And we know Iran has Australia in its sights. Radical Islamist extremism should have no place in this country. It's time we looked the Ayatollah in the eye and said, 'Enough.' I want the world to know that we stand with the Persian people. I honour all those who speak up and who want Iran to live out its destiny as a free democratic nation, not a pariah state under a brutal criminal dictatorship. I want an Iran where the Iranian people freely choose their future, far from the jackboot of a police state. I want an Iran where women have the same rights and freedoms they enjoy in Australia. I want an Iran where women and girls can go about their lives without fear, where they can dress as they choose, pursue an education, build careers and shape their futures. I want an Iran where children go to school to learn and grow and are not subjected to political or religious extremism and indoctrination, and where families live their daily lives in peace. To those protesting in Iran I say: you may live under the sword of fear, but you are counted among the champions of liberty. We see you, we hear you, we stand with you and we will not be silent.

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