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

I move:

That this House:

(1) notes that:

(a) the human rights situation in Iran remains of grave concern, including reports of the Iranian regime engaging in repression, violence against protestors, arbitrary arrests and communications blackouts;

(b) many members of the Iranian Australian community are deeply distressed by the actions of the Iranian regime; and

(c) the Australian Government condemns the actions of the Iranian regime and affirms Australia's support for the people of Iran in their struggle for freedom, democracy and human rights;

(2) recognises that:

(a) the Australian Government has taken strong action to hold those responsible for human rights abuses in Iran to account, including targeted sanctions on more than 200 Iranian individuals and entities and more than 100 Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) linked individuals and entities, as well as listing the IRGC as a state sponsor of terrorism;

(b) the Australian Government's most recent sanctions target senior officials and entities linked to the IRGC complicit in oppressing the Iranian people, violently suppressing domestic protests, and threatening lives both inside and outside Iran; and

(c) Australia has taken significant diplomatic steps, including:

(i) the expulsion of the Iranian Ambassador; and

(ii) leadership in international efforts to hold Iran accountable through the United Nations; and

(3) affirms its:

(a) solidarity with the people of Iran; and

(b) ongoing commitment to the protection and promotion of human rights and democratic freedoms.

I stand today and move this motion to affirm the House's support for the Iranian people in their brave struggle for freedom, democracy and human rights and against the Iranian regime's repression of and brutal violence against its own people. I'd like to acknowledge the members from across the parliament speaking in support of the motion and. in particular, my friend the member for Bennelong, who has long been an advocate for the Iranian people and the Iranian community in his electorate.

I'm honoured to represent a strong and proud Iranian community in Melbourne's east, in suburbs around Doncaster, Bulleen and Templestowe, to name a few. They are our friends, our neighbours, our children's classmates, our parents at school pick-up and our small-business owners. They share with us the richness and beauty of Iranian culture through the Persian Fair at Box Hill and the fire festival in Ruffey Lake Park.

Since December last year, when the protests started, I have been in contact with many members of the community and community leaders. As well, I attended a rally on the steps of the Victorian state parliament. I'd particularly like to acknowledge House of Persia and the Australian Iranian Society of Victoria for the support they have been providing to their communities in this deeply distressing time.

As you would expect, people's primary fears are for family and loved ones in Iran. But there is also fear for their compatriots and the country they love. This distress has been made all the worse by the regime's blackout of the internet and telecommunications to hide their atrocities and for the uncertainty it brings. As one member of our community, Sarnevaz, put it:

Many of us are living with constant fear and distress. We are cut off from reliable news from our families in Iran. We wake up every day not knowing if our loved ones are safe, able to communicate or even alive. This emotional weight does not stay at home. We carry it into our work, our parenting and our daily lives as Australians trying to cope and function while our hearts are elsewhere.

We are devastated, exhausted and grieving. Yet we continue to show up, contribute and hold ourselves together.

The communications blackout has meant the Iranian community has had to rely on social media or, when they can get through, firsthand accounts from their relatives and loved ones.

The reports coming out of Iran are truly horrific. Conservative estimates are that the regime has killed several thousand people, but others say it could be 10 times that. I've been told of the regime leaving bodies displayed in piles in the street to act as a warning to dissenters, of families having to search for hours through body bags to find their loved ones and of people injured in the protests who sought help in hospitals only to be executed.

That is why I am proud to be part of a government that has taken the strongest action against the Iranian regime of any government to date. Last week, we implemented further sanctions against 20 individuals and three entities, including senior officials from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who have been complicit in violently suppressing protests as well as causing destabilisation in the region and further abroad. This comes on top of sanctions already applied to 200 individuals and entities, including 100 linked to the IRGC. Of course, last year we also expelled the Iranian ambassador and other Iranian officials and listed the IRGC as a state sponsor of terrorism.

I take this opportunity to say that the Parliamentary Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security is currently conducting a review into the listing of the IRGC. It is an important part of the parliamentary process that occurs with the listing of any organisation. Public hearings will be held shortly. Those who have already made written submissions, as well as members of the public, may request to appear. I'd encourage organisations and communities in my electorate to do so. You are welcome to get in touch with my office for any details about how to go about that.

As I have said before and will say again, the Australian government stands with the Iranian people in their struggle for their democratic and human rights and freedoms. We call on the Iranian regime to stop these brutal, repressive actions against their own people.

Zaneta Mascarenhas (Swan, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Is there a seconder for the motion?

Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I second the motion and reserve my right to speak.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party, Shadow Attorney-General) Share this | Link to 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.

Jerome Laxale (Bennelong, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In Bennelong, our Iranian Australian community is strong, proud and deeply connected to family and loved ones in Iran. Over recent years, I've heard from many across my electorate whose messages are clouded in desperation, many asking for hope and all asking for the stories of their family and friends to be told by those who can. Today, I want to use this opportunity of this debate to amplify the voices of the Iranian Australian community in Bennelong and to bring those voices directly to this parliament. I want to speak about their courage and about the horrific cruelty in Iran.

Earlier this year, the Iranian people once again did what free people everywhere have done throughout history. They asked for dignity, accountability and a voice in their own future. For that, they were met not with dialogue but with force. Iran has shown the world that standing up to an oppressive regime has no borders. Across countries, cities and communities, including my own in Bennelong, hundreds and thousands of Iranians have raised their voices to shine a light on what is happening to the women, men and children who are standing up to the regime in Iran. Inside Iran, peaceful protest has been treated as a crime. Grief has been criminalised. Arbitrary arrest, intimidation, violence and the silencing of truth have become tools of state control. Women and girls, journalists, activists, minorities, individuals have been targeted simply for asserting their basic rights. Many remain unaccounted for. Tragically, many more have lost their lives.

These are not abstract events on a distant news ticker for Iranian Australians. They are deeply personal, and their impact is felt far beyond Iran's borders. Families have been cut off from one another. People cannot call their parents, children or siblings. And, for those who can get through, many report something even more chilling: third parties on the phone listening in, interrupting conversations and warning them not to speak about what is happening. Here in Australia, many Iranian Australians live with a constant anxiety of not knowing whether their family are safe. They measure time in missed calls, unanswered messages and the terrible silence that follows a protest crackdown. And yet, despite fear and uncertainty, Iranian Australians continue to stand up and speak out in our streets in our communities and by bringing their stories directly to this parliament. Their courage doesn't stop at Iran's borders. It travels with them.

That shared courage inside Iran and across the Iranian diaspora carries with it a responsibility for those of us who have the freedom to speak to speak out, because the desire for freedom does not disappear when it's beaten down. It doesn't vanish when the internet is cut, when phones go dead or when fear is meant to do the regime's work for it. It simply finds a new way to be heard. When those voices are raised here in Australia, our responsibility is clear. Our responsibility is not to look away, because silence only helps the oppressor. Bearing witness matters and speaking truth matters. That's why this motion is so important and why I'm proud to second it alongside the fantastic member for Menzies, representative of the largest Iranian Australian community in the country. He serves that community so well, and I congratulate him for bringing this motion here today.

This motion moved by members of the government backs in our tough and principled stance against Iran since we came to government in 2022. We've imposed targeted sanctions on more than 200 Iranian individuals and entities, including over 100 linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. We've strengthened our autonomous sanctions framework so we can directly target those responsible. We've listed the IRGC as a state sponsor of terrorism, which, importantly, criminalises here in Australia support and cooperation of the IRGC. We've backed that with decisive diplomatic action, including expelling Iran's ambassador to Australia and withdrawing our own ambassador too.

To the Iranian people inside Iran, in my home in Bennelong and right across the world, please know this: you are seen, you are heard and your call for change and your action do not echo into the void. Today they speak loudly, here in this parliament, and, for as long as it takes, we'll continue to share your stories, your struggles, and stand with you here.

Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

'Woman, life, freedom.' 'Say her name: Mahsa Amini.' These are just two of the protest movement slogans that have been chanted by Iranians, and Persians all around the world and here in Australia, since September 2022. And we can never forget Mahsa Amini, brutally murdered for wanting to live a life of freedom.

How has this transpired, over three years? We now live with a situation where there are reports—and credible reports, from Iran International—that over 36,500 Iranians were killed in a massacre. Thirty-six thousand, five hundred Iranians killed—for what? For protesting—for wanting to stand up for their rights and have freedom. This protest has been going for over three years, and it continues to escalate. I want to send my support and solidarity to those in the Iranian community in Casey and in the outer east, and to their families, friends and loved ones at home in Iran. You are not alone. We stand with you. We support you.

This journey has not just happened today. It has been going for over three years. I was proud, in the last term of parliament, to stand with my good friend the former member for Menzies, Keith Wolahan, to sponsor political prisoners. Some of those political prisoners paid the ultimate price—being murdered in prison for their beliefs.

In politics, too often people do things because it's easy or because they have to do it as a member of parliament. I want to pay tribute right now to Keith Wolahan. He's no longer in this House, but he's still fighting for the Iranian community. Yesterday he was in Melbourne joining the Iranian protesters to show his support and addressing the crowd—a man of conviction, who has strength in his beliefs, who didn't turn up to support the Iranian community in the last term of parliament because it was his responsibility as a parliamentarian, as he proved yesterday. He's there with the Iranian community through their journey because it is his responsibility as a human. It is his responsibility as the principled person that he is. I congratulate him for showing, not with words but with actions, his strength. He's a great man, and I look forward to continuing to support and work with Keith as we support the Iranian community all across the country.

But the coalition have been calling for action on the IRGC and wanting them to be listed as a terrorist organisation since 2022 and before. Since I came into this parliament, I've been calling for that. So forgive me if it is galling to see the government pat themselves on the back for finally realising, in November 2025, that they should list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation—

An honourable member: After the synagogue—

After synagogues had been attacked and after the Lewis Continental Kitchen had been attacked by the IRGC, in November 2025, this government finally acted. But let's not pretend that that was a surprise. The Iranian community in Australia had been calling for that for years. The coalition had been calling for it for years. Security experts had been calling for the IRGC to be listed as a terrorist organisation for years.

The answer we will never know and can never know, but a question which many people have is: if those cries had been listened to in 2022, three years before the IRGC-coordinated attacks in our country on the Jewish community, could those attacks have been prevented? Could they have been prevented if the IRGC had been listed in 2022—as so many in the community, including the coalition, had called for?

This government does not get the right to rewrite history and pretend that they acted ahead of time. There were warnings. There was commentary. I can provide the Hansard showing me, Keith Wolahan, Senator Claire Chandler, the member for Berowra Julian Leeser and many others calling for action in 2022, and it took until November of 2025.

The Iranian people in Australia and in Iran deserve better. We will continue to stand with them and continue to fight for them. (Time expired)

Carina Garland (Chisholm, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I think it's really important that we conduct this debate with grace, and I have no intention of demeaning this debate by responding to some pretty poor comments from the previous speaker. What I do want to do, though, is thank the member for Menzies for putting this motion to the House. He is of course my neighbour in our adjoining seats in Melbourne.

The human rights situation in Iran is dire, and I want to speak in support of the Australian Iranian community. We know how appalling and horrifying the situation is, and I know how deeply it affects the Iranian community that call Chisholm home. More than a thousand Australian Iranian people live in Chisholm. Long before I became a member in this place, I stood in solidarity with the Iranian people. I have stood in solidarity with Iranian people for years, attending many events over the years. I've long had friends from Iran who have shared with me pretty horrifying stories and who have lived through some things that I would not imagine anyone should have to live through. I will continue to stand in solidarity with the people of Iran against the brutality of the Iranian regime, today and every day. I really want to acknowledge that many people in our community, many people who I know and care about deeply in the diaspora community, carry trauma with them. I really want to acknowledge the courage that they've shown in sharing their stories with me and with other members of this House.

Our government stands in solidarity with the Iranian people in their brave struggle against oppression. We condemn the Iranian regime's agenda of violence against its own people and will continue calling on Iran on the international stage to protect the rights of its citizens to peaceful protest.

Our government has taken stronger action to hold the Iranian regime to account than any other Australian government to date. We've bolstered our autonomous sanctions framework to target those involved in oppression inside Iran, including against women and girls. In 2022, we were at the forefront of international efforts to remove Iran from the Commission for the Status of Women, and we co-sponsored the successful Human Rights Council resolution establishing an independent investigation into human rights violations in Iran.

In an unprecedented diplomatic step, we've declared Iran's ambassador to Australia, along with three other officials, persona non grata. They've been expelled and we have withdrawn Australia's ambassador to Iran. We've also sanctioned more than 200 Iran-linked persons and entities, including more than 100 IRGC-linked individuals and entities.

Since 3 February, we have imposed further targeted financial sanctions on Iran and have taken this action in coordination with our international partners, including the UK and the EU. We are absolutely committed to ensuring that our sanctions have the maximum impact. Those sanctioned under our further financial sanctions include senior officials and entities of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. This builds on the Australian government's listing of the IRGC as a state sponsor of terrorism. The IRGC are complicit in the oppression of the Iranian people. They continue to violently suppress domestic protests and threaten lives in and outside of Iran.

I will not stop, and I know this Labor government will not stop, fighting for the Iranian people. The killing of protesters must end, arbitrary arrests must end, telecommunications blackouts must end, and the blatant human rights abuses must end.

To the Australian Iranian community in my electorate of Chisholm and across the country, I have one message: know that you are not alone. During this time, we share your horror at the events in Iran and we understand that you may be distressed by the actions of the Iranian regime, but know that we will always support you. As a personal commitment, my door is always open to members of the Iranian Australian community in my electorate of Chisholm. It has always been a pleasure to work alongside them, and I look forward to continuing to do so even in these darkest of days.

Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Small Business) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm happy to support the spirit of this motion. It isn't just a motion about our solidarity with the people of Iran; it's also about our solidarity with all people everywhere who want to live in freedom and safety, avoiding the tyranny of extremism, Islamic extremism, and oppression as occurs under the IRGC in Iran.

You just need to look at some pretty brutal realities. We currently have tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people on the streets of Iran standing up for a basic thing, which is their right to be able to determine their own future, to be able to make a choice about how they are going to live out their lives free from the oppression of the government that wants to impose a radical form of religious theocracy to enforce people to conform. We know what happens to women; we know what happens to homosexuals; we know what happens to other minority groups. And it's not just those groups as the IRGC seek to export their terrorism around the world. We've seen, in the case of Australia, where they have financed directly and engaged in state-sponsored terrorism against synagogues in Melbourne. We also know they have a direct connection with the illegal tobacco trade, which they used to finance attacks on our soil. Tragically, some government policies assist them in that process of profiteering from the practice, to use it to promote things like antisemitism and violence against Australians of Jewish heritage. We know the consequences that have befallen the people who have chosen to stand up against the mullahs in Tehran; 30,000 odd people have been reported. We know full well that they continue to target people, shut down pathways to communicate with the rest of the world and stop us all bearing witness to the horrors of the IRGC.

What's tragic about this situation, more than anything else, is we have known for a long time that this situation would come. We know the IRGC simply takes power through force, and that's why we wanted to list them as a terrorist organisation in the last term of parliament. I remember when I was involved in the listing of Hamas and Hezbollah as terrorist organisations, it was a relatively straightforward process. To this day, it is still distressing that it took the firebombing of synagogues, sponsored by the Iranian government, for our government to act and acknowledge the IRGC and its state-sponsored terrorism as a threat, not just to Australia but to the international community.

Now we face a choice about how we're going to respond. We know that this challenge is going to be one where we have to stand by the Iranian people at every step. Last week I stood on the steps of Parliament House and spoke at a protest. I spoke specifically about how disappointing it is that so many people who used to flood the capital cities of our nation for the victims of the Israel Hamas conflict—one where terrorist organisations attack the free state and then that free state chooses to respond to defend their citizens. And make no mistake: all civilian deaths are a tragedy; it does not matter the context in which it occurred. I spoke about how so many of those people went out into the streets and stood up for the civilian victims of Gaza—and fair enough, they have every right to do so—yet we have seen a conspicuous conspiracy of silence from the same core group within the community about the 30,000 people who have been murdered by the IRGC in Iran. They have not stood up for the people of Iran, and we need to call this out because it highlights the double standard and Jew hatred that occurs within some sections of the community if they won't stand up against the oppression of the Iranian people.

Now is the time people are rising up and now is the time that we must stand by them. We must, of course, support them in their actions as much as possible and give them comfort and hope. And to those people in Australia who have family members on the frontline standing up against the Iranian government, you have our sympathy and our support. I've had people from the Iranian community in Goldstein, as well as from across the country, contact me and say, 'Please keep speaking up on this, because it matters to the people behind the Tehran curtain.'

Now is the time for us to stand up and to be called to account; now is the time for all of us to show solidarity where it belongs. The consequence, if the Iranian people are successful—and of course we always look for opportunities where we can intervene to support them in achieving their shared objective of self-determination—is we will have an Iran that is free of the mullahs and their tyrannical regime, a world where we're less likely to have radical extremist ideology that seeks to oppress people and less state-sponsored terrorism in Iran, in the region and around the world. But if we fail, we know there will be a perpetuation of those terrors and those horrors on the people who have done nothing more than want to stand up and say they want their voice, their freedom, and to decide their future.

Sharon Claydon (Newcastle, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support this important motion moved by my friend and colleague the member for Menzies, and I thank him for bringing the human rights catastrophe in Iran to the attention of this chamber. What we are witnessing in Iran is not an isolated or fleeting crisis. It's a sustained and systemic assault on fundamental human rights. Iranian citizens continue to face brutal repression for the simple act of demanding dignity, freedom and equality. Since the death of Mahsa Amini in custody in 2022, the Iranian regime has responded to peaceful protests with violence, mass arrests, draconian detention, torture and executions. Women are persecuted, beaten and imprisoned for resisting compulsory veiling laws. Protesters are crushed by a regime that rules through fear, arbitrary detention and force. Families are left grieving loved ones who dare to speak out.

Australia has been clear eyed and resolute in our response to these shocking abuses of human rights. The Australian government has stood shoulder to shoulder with the international community in calling for the protection of rights of Iranian citizens. We have used every appropriate diplomatic and multilateral forum to condemn Iran's actions and to demand accountability for those responsible, and we will continue to do so. Importantly, we have strengthened Australia's autonomous sanctions framework so that we can directly target individuals and entities involved in oppression.

Since 2022, Australia has sanctioned more than 220 Iranian linked persons and entities, including over 100 officials and organisations linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The government has also taken the significant step of expelling the Iranian Ambassador to Australia, and we have consistently and forcefully raised our concerns with Iran about its human rights abuses, its destabilising actions in the Middle East and its foreign interference here in Australia.

The decision to expel the ambassador followed deeply disturbing revelations by the Australian Federal Police that Iran had directed on at least two occasions antisemitic attacks on Australian soil. Those attacks were thwarted, but let's be clear that agents of Iran dared to plan a violent attack in our country. That behaviour represents a profound breach of trust, a direct threat to Australian sovereignty and an affront to the safety of our people. Australia will never tolerate foreign intimidation, extremism or terror, and, when our values and security are challenged, we respond decisively. Collectively, the actions of the Australian government matter, and they bring home the threat of state sponsored terrorism and malicious foreign interference for all Australians to see.

On 27 January, I attended a candlelight vigil in Civic Park, Newcastle, to mourn the thousands of innocent lives lost to the brutality of the Iranian regime. I stood alongside members of our local Iranian community—people who carry immense grief, trauma and courage with them every day. The vigil was deeply moving, solemn and powerful and marked a quiet strength and an unyielding demand for justice. I want to acknowledge Diana Abdollahi, who invited me to attend the vigil. Dianna shared with me stories of loss, fear and resilience. She introduced me to those who have lost loved ones, sons, daughters, siblings and best friends—taken by a regime determined to silence dissent and conceal their deadly crackdown on protesters and other dissidents. These conversations are ones I will never forget.

To the Iranian community in Newcastle and across the country and indeed the citizens of Iran, I want to say this: you are not alone. Your voices are heard in this parliament, and your grief, your anger and your hope matter. Australia stands with you. We stand with the women of Iran who refuse to be erased. We stand with the protesters who risk everything for freedom, and we stand with those who have lost loved ones but continue to speak their names. Parliament has a responsibility to speak clearly when human rights are under attack, and today I am pleased that this chamber chooses to stand together in unity and with purpose. This is important.

Leon Rebello (McPherson, Liberal National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support this motion moved by the member for Menzies. I do so, however, with a profound sense of frustration. While the words contained in the motion are welcome, the reality is that the action it gestures towards has come far too late. For years, the coalition has urged the government to take stronger, clearer and more decisive action against the Iranian regime, both for its brutal repression of its people and for its malign activities beyond its borders. The question before us is not whether action is justified—that has never been in doubt. The real question is why the government waited so long.

The human rights situation in Iran has been dire for years, not months. We've witnessed violent crackdowns on peaceful protesters, arbitrary arrests and executions, and the systematic oppression of women and girls. We've seen communication blackouts imposed to conceal the scale of violence from the world, actions repeatedly documented by international partners and human rights organisations. These are not sudden developments; they are the predictable behaviour of a regime that has repeatedly demonstrated its contempt for basic human dignity and the rule of law.

Let me also state clearly: the Iranian regime is not a friend of Australia's, but the Iranian people are. Australia has long stood in solidarity with the Iranian people, particularly the courageous women and girls who continue to demand equality and freedom despite grave personal risk. Our disagreement is not with a civilisation or a culture but with the actions of a government that has consistently chosen repression over reform. Yet for too long this government hesitated, issuing statements while abuses continued and delaying decisive action at precisely the moment leadership was required.

Even more concerning is that Iran's malign influence has not stopped at its borders. Australian authorities have taken serious steps after intelligence linked Iranian state actors, including the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, to activities that were designed to intimidate communities and even to direct attacks on Australian soil. Members of the Iranian-Australian community have also reported intimidation, surveillance and threats extending beyond Iran's borders. They were not asking for rhetoric; they were asking for protection, for clarity and for leadership. Too often, they were met instead with delay.

It's precisely because events in Iran do affect Australia that a strong and principled stance matters. Stability in the Middle East is directly tied to the security of global shipping routes and energy markets upon which Australia's economy relies. When regimes engage in destabilising conduct, whether through proxy activity, interference abroad or repression at home, it's not a distant issue. It has real implications for Australia's national security, our economic interests, and the safety of Australians here and overseas. The government now points to sanctions and diplomatic measures as evidence of resolve, but let us be clear: these actions were not proactive—they were reactive. The coalition has consistently called for stronger and earlier sanctions, decisive action against the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and a tougher stance on Iranians and Iranian officials complicit in repression and terrorism. It should not have taken sustained pressure from the opposition, from civil society and from diaspora communities for this government to finally act. Leadership means acting before atrocities escalate, not after international outrage becomes impossible to ignore.

The coalition's position has been clear and consistent. We stand with the people of Iran. We stand with women and girls who are courageously resisting oppression, and we believe Australia must take a firm, principled stance against regimes that brutalise their own people and seek to undermine democratic societies abroad. We'll continue to call for immediate accountability for human rights abuses, stronger protections for diaspora communities here in Australia and early decisive action against hostile foreign influence.

This motion is necessary, but it should not be mistaken for leadership. Leadership requires courage, speed and moral clarity. The Australian people and the Iranian people deserve that leadership much sooner. The coalition will continue to hold this government to account until words are consistently matched by action.

Matt Gregg (Deakin, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support this important motion brought forward by the member for. Menzies. As the members for Menzies and Chisholm have already outlined, we have a wonderful Iranian community in Melbourne's east. They've been deeply concerned about the policies of the Iranian regime for some time, but this concern has only sharpened since the horror and outrage of the events we've seen since 28 December last year. The regime has massacred thousands of Iranians while attacking and arresting many thousands more for participating in peaceful protest. It has imposed nationwide internet and telecommunications blackouts in an attempt to conceal the scale of their brutality. The bravery of the Iranian people cannot be overstated. They have taken part in political action against a regime infamous for its brutal persecution of political activities. With the full knowledge of the evil they are confronting, the Iranian people have taken to the streets to fight for a better future.

My office has been inundated with calls and emails from members of the Iranian Australian community who have been watching the events in Iran in horror and anguish. My message to them and to everyone in my community is that I commend the bravery of the Iranian people as they stand up for their dignity and their fundamental rights. I strongly condemn the killing of protesters, arbitrary arrests, intimidation and the use of excessive and lethal force by the Iranian regime against its own people. Too many lives have been lost, and we continue to stand with you at this horrifying time.

The Albanese government is part of the international call on Iran to protect the rights of its citizens to peaceful protest and to cease the killing of protesters, the use of force, arbitrary arrests and telecommunications blackouts. They have to stop. Our government has taken strong action to hold the Iranian regime to account. We have sanctioned more than 200 Iran linked persons and entities, including more than 100 IRGC linked individuals and entities. We bolstered our autonomous sanctions framework to enable us to target those involved in oppression inside Iran, including against women and girls. We took the unprecedented step to expel Iran's ambassador to Australia and withdrew Australia's ambassador to Iran. The government listed Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, as a state sponsor of terrorism. We are at the forefront of efforts to remove Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women and co-sponsored the successful UN Human Rights Council resolution establishing an independent investigation into human rights violations in Iran.

Just last week, on 3 February, we imposed further targeted financial sanctions on Iran in response to the regime's horrific use of violence against its own people. We've taken this action in coordination with our partners, including the UK and the EU, to ensure these sanctions have the greatest impact. The 20 individuals and three entities sanctioned include senior officials and entities of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who are complicit in oppressing the Iranian people, violently suppressing domestic protests and threatening lives both inside and outside of Iran. These sanctions build on the Australian government's listing of the IRGC as a state sponsor of terrorism and our comprehensive framework of sanctions against Iran.

My thoughts continue to be with people in Iran as well as the Australian Iranian community, particularly my friends in Deakin, including Masoud and Emily from Radio Neshat, who continue to be strong advocates for their community—a community that, even in Australia, continues to live in some fear of the reach of the IRGC and the Iranian regime, which continues to attempt to intimidate diaspora communities around the world to try and silence dissent and to try and undermine efforts to tell the truth about what's going on in that country. I commend the principle and bravery of the many members of our Iranian Australian community in Deakin who continue to stand up to tell their stories, to tell the stories of other Iranians and to make sure that we, as members of parliament, are aware of what is going on and that that regime continues to be held to account.

I share the horror with other members of this parliament of what we are seeing from the Iranian regime and will continue to stand with the Iranian people and Iranian Australians as they continue speaking up for freedom and fighting for what is right in Iran. The people of Iran deserve to live in peace, they deserve to live in freedom and they deserve to have all of us stand up with them. I'm pleased to say that, across the political spectrum in Australia, we do just that.

Helen Haines (Indi, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak in support of this motion and to acknowledge the deeply concerning reports that continue to emerge from Iran. I stand in solidarity with Iranians everywhere. In December last year, Iranians gathered to protest economic and political conditions in their country. They were exercising their right to peacefully assemble and express their views. The Iranian regime's response was to murder its own people. There is credible evidence that, since December, the regime has killed thousands of Iranians and detained many more. At the same time, it has implemented nationwide internet and telecommunications blackouts to limit visibility of its actions. Eyewitness accounts gathered by Amnesty International suggest security forces aimed rifles and shotguns loaded with metal pellets at the heads and torsos of protesters. Tens of thousands of people have been detained, including women and girls, university students, human rights advocates, lawyers, journalists and members of ethnic and religious minorities. Authorities are refusing to provide information about detainees' whereabouts to their families. There are reports of ill treatment and torture.

These developments are deeply, deeply distressing to Iranian Australians, especially those with friends and family back in Iran, and they should trouble every single one of us. As a constituent from Wodonga in my electorate of Indi wrote to me this week:

Such practices contradict the principles of justice, human dignity and the rule of law. A peaceful and secure world can only be sustained through accountable and equitable governance.

Australia must categorically reject any actions that suppress democratic freedoms and must affirm our commitment to upholding human rights whenever and wherever they are threatened.

Australia has expanded its existing framework of sanctions in response to recent events, and I welcome this. Earlier this month, the government announced further sanctions on individuals and entities complicit in violent suppression of domestic protests and threatening lives both inside and outside of Iran. I urge the Australian government to continue to take appropriate diplomatic steps in partnership with the EU, the UK and other international partners because we must use all available channels to promote accountability for these crimes—because that is what they are.

This motion affirms our solidarity with the people of Iran. Their pursuit of freedom and democracy deserves our respect and it deserves our continued laser-like attention. In standing with the people of Iran, we stand for human rights and the rule of law. We support those who bravely advocate for these values under the most perilous, difficult and dangerous circumstances.

Debate adjourned.