Monique Ryan (Kooyong, Independent) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'd like to share with this House an email from Dr Babak Farr, a constituent of Kooyong, who, like many others, is concerned about recent harmful and alienating public rhetoric against Iranian Australians and other immigrants to this country:

Dear Dr Ryan,

I am writing to you as one of your constituents in Kooyong, a fellow medical professional, and a proud member of the Iranian Australian community. I wish to express my profound disappointment regarding recent comments made by Mr Angus Taylor and the broader trend of targeted policy affecting our community.

I arrived in Australia 20 years ago with my wife. Since then, we've both dedicated our careers to the Australian healthcare system—my wife as a General Practitioner and myself as a Rehabilitation and Pain Medicine physician. Every day, we care for Australians and work to improve our community. We have built our lives here on the promise that this is a nation where people are judged by their contribution and character, not by their place of birth.

Mr Taylor's recent remarks labelling Iran a "bad country" and suggesting that individuals from such backgrounds represent an inherent "higher risk" are deeply biased and reductive.

I would add that the member for Hume is not the only coalition member who has adopted this harmful label; his deputy leader, Senator Jane Hume, has also repeatedly used divisive and hurtful rhetoric against immigrant communities. I'll continue with Dr Farr's letter:

To categorise an entire diaspora in this way is the very definition of prejudice. As physicians, we rely on evidence and individual assessment; to see a national leader use such rhetoric to alienate a specific community is both hurtful and dangerous to our social cohesion.

Equally concerning is that this rhetoric is also mirrored in policy. The current Labor government's recent decision to implement an Arrival Control Determination, effectively barring thousands of Iranian visitor visa holders from entering the country, is a distressing example of this. Such broad-brush restrictions punish individuals who have acted in good faith, paid fees, and sought only to visit family or escape the very regime Australia claims to oppose. It is disheartening to see the rights of one nationality curtailed so specifically, regardless of which side of politics holds the pen.

I acknowledge that "bad people" can come from any nation, and Iran is no exception. We share the frustration when individuals linked to the regime—such as the children of Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf or senior IRGC commanders—are granted visas to Australia. However, these are the very people that the majority of the diaspora have fled from. To conflate the victims of a regime with the regime's own beneficiaries only compounds the injustice we face.

Iranian-Australians are your doctors, engineers, and neighbours. We are not "risks" to be managed; we are integral threads in the fabric of this country. As my representative, I ask that you stand up for the values of inclusion and respect, and raise these concerns in Parliament to ensure our community is not targeted by divisive rhetoric or discriminatory policy.

I sincerely thank Dr Farr and his wife, and I thank and acknowledge other Iranian Australians for their contribution to our country.

In Kooyong alone. I'm fortunate to represent more than 1,050 individuals who have Persian heritage. Around 800 were actually born in Iran and speak Farsi at home. When public speakers like the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Leader of the Opposition label entire nations and entire peoples as bad, they divide, they discriminate, they demean us all, they legitimise prejudice and they entrench hate. That hate damages the very fabric of Australia's proud multicultural society. I put it to the House that there are no bad countries but there are, sadly, bad politicians who act in bad faith.