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

I rise today proud that our government has granted humanitarian visas to five members of the Iranian women's soccer team. This was an issue that was raised with me by my local Iranian-Australian community and raised with me at an International Women's Day event I attended on Sunday organised by AusIran and Rana Dadpour.

I'd like to acknowledge the work of Minister for Home Affairs Tony Burke in navigating this difficult situation and achieving the incredible outcome of being able to tell five members of the Iranian women's soccer team that they are welcome to stay in Australia, that they are safe here and that they should feel at home here.

Rightly are the Iranian women's soccer team called the Lionesses, for they have shown extraordinary courage in the face of repression. All of them were faced with an impossible choice, and it is a moment of pride for our nation that we have offered protection to all of them and can provide protection to five of them. We stand with these women, and we stand with the people of Iran. Having just marked International Women's Day, we also recognise the extraordinary bravery of generations of Iranian women—from those who first protested against hijab laws on International Women's Day in 1979 to the Women, Life, Freedom movement and to the protests this year—women have always been at the forefront of resistance against the Islamic Republic in Iran. We stand with the Iranian people, and we stand with Iranian women.

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