Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Hansard source

I want to thank the member for Bennelong, a real champion in this place for Australians of Iranian heritage. Today, as a parliament, as a nation, we stand in solidarity with them. Last night, I was able to tell five members of the Iranian women's football team that they are welcome to stay in Australia, that they are safe here and they should feel at home here. There's been a lot of work going on in recent days to make sure we give these women every possible opportunity to seek assistance if they want it. Once it was made clear that there were five women who wanted to stay in Australia, they were moved to a safe location by the Australian Federal Police, and last night I met with them at that location.

Before I signed off on their visas, I spoke with Mike Burgess, the director-general of ASIO, to make sure that there were no security concerns and then spoke to the Commissioner of the Australian Federal Police, Krissy Barrett, to make sure that we had the appropriate measures in place to ensure the safety of these women. At around 9.15 last night, when I was with them, I signed off on their applications to go onto humanitarian visas, and I asked the department to process it as quickly as they could. They went back to the offices and processed it immediately, finishing the processing at around 1.30 am this morning.

I also want to thank the Australian media for the way that they have handled this issue. One of the challenges at times like this is that it's not only the Australian people who are listening. The people who would want to harm these women or make it more difficult for them to communicate with our officials are always listening too. Any public messaging that would have led to it being more difficult for the women to access our officials would have made them less safe, not more. I also want to acknowledge the shadow minister for home affairs, Senator Duniam, for his cooperation in making sure that we were handling this issue in that particular way. All of this has been possible as well because of the extraordinary efforts of the team at the Department of Home Affairs, and I want to acknowledge their work.

Australia as a nation have taken the Iranian women's soccer team into our hearts. I think, when everybody saw the swapping of jerseys with the Matildas, we all felt we were there in that moment too. I say to the other members of the team who have not yet made this decision: the same opportunity is here for you if that's what you want. Once everything had been signed off last night, there were lots of photos, lots of celebrating and then a spontaneous outcry of, 'Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, oi, oi, oi,' from the newest Australian residents. These women are great athletes and great people. I say to them, on behalf of the government, on behalf of the parliament and, I suspect, on behalf of the whole nation, welcome home.

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