Richard Marles (Corio, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for her question. Let me start by saying that Australia stands with the people of Iran in their brave struggle against an oppressive autocracy, which in the last few weeks has seen them kill thousands of their own citizens. As the Prime Minister has said, we support the United States led action, which has as a core aim denying Iran the ability of ever having a deployable nuclear weapon—which would be a catastrophe for the world.

Australia has a number of equities in the Middle East. There are more than 100 Australian serving personnel in a number of countries across the region, most of whom are in the United Arab Emirates, where we have had for many years operational headquarters at Al Minhad outside of Dubai. I can report to the House that all of those serving men and women are accounted for and, right now, are safe. We have about 115,000 Australians across the Middle East, which represents a significant consular challenge. Again, as the Prime Minister has said, right now we have a 'do not travel' advisory in place for Iran, Israel and Lebanon but also the UAE, Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait.

We have had a 'do not travel' advisory in place for Iran since 2020 and not only there but for other parts of the Middle East—for example, in southern Lebanon, where there has been a 'do not travel' advisory in place since 2019. As the Prime Minister has said, our ability to provide effective consular assistance to those Australians in Iran since August of last year has been very limited, but we are encouraging Australians there and in Israel as best as possible to register on the crisis portal, and that has been extended to Australians in the UAE and Qatar. What that means is that those people who register will be given direct communication about our advisories, the latest information and any actions that Australia is planning. Beyond that, we encourage people to follow the advisories we publish on Smartraveller. For those in the region who have particular concerns and, indeed, for those Australians who have particular concerns for family in the region, our 24-hour consular hotline is available, and that number, for people outside of Australia is +61262613305.

With respect to air travel, the most obvious point to make is that airspace across the Middle East is currently blacked out, and so there is no air travel at all. Without speculating too much, what I would observe is that, as air travel starts to reopen, we expect that the most expeditious flights which will come online quickest will be commercial options. Now, this is a fast-moving situation. As information comes to hand we are publishing it as quickly as we can in our travel advisories, and it is forming the assessments around the actions that we take because our primary concern right now is for the safety and welfare of Australians in the Middle East.

See this speech in context