Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Two years ago, Mahsa Amini was killed in the custody of the Iranian state. She had been arrested by the morality police for not complying with Iran's strict and sexually based dress code. At the time, her death appeared to mark a watershed in Iranian political life. Young people, elderly people and people from the cities as well as from rural and non-urban areas took to the streets demanding that the state at last respect their dignity and their fundamental human rights. Chants of 'Women, life, freedom' echoed through the streets of Tehran and other major cities in Iran. Mothers protested alongside their daughters, and farmers alongside university students. It was a period of immense optimism, and the courage shown by those who took to the streets to defy the heavy hand of the state remains an admirable study in courage.

But I'm sad to say that two years later—two years to the day after the death of Mahsa Amini in custody—that small candle of hope that burned for a time in Iran has been extinguished. We have seen at least 551 people killed during those protests. We've seen thousands arrested. We've seen at least 10 that we know of executed in connection with the protests. And the heavy hand of the Islamic Republic of Iran has come down mercilessly on those who simply sought to protect their own freedoms. The morality police are back on the streets enforcing the dress code. The future of Iran's people remains as hopeless as ever. Iran continues to support terrorism and to foment instability in the region. Iran continues to funnel weapons to terrorist groups such as Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis in Yemen—even to Russia, in its war with Ukraine. And Iran continues to execute people at a simply barbaric rate. According to international reports, there have been 345 executions in Iran already this year. There were 853 people executed in 2023. This is industrial-scale use of the death penalty. Iran is one of the most flagrant abusers of the right to life—one of the most excessive users of the death penalty.

It's indicative of a state that is bereft of any moral legitimacy or moral authority. It is a state for whom the instilling of societal fear is the only way for the regime to hold on to power, because the promises of the Islamic revolution have simply not been met. Iran's people are frustrated. They are denied economic opportunity. They continue to be discriminated against on the basis of their gender, their ethnicity or their religion. And they continue to be denied basic and fundamental freedoms and human rights.

There are chilling reports, even now, of family members of those who were killed or executed or punished during the protests now themselves being harassed, arrested and punished by the regime to perpetuate intergenerational trauma, if you like, on people who were only standing up for their basic civil liberties—Mashallah Karami, for instance, the father of Mohammad Karami. Mohammad was executed in January 2023, aged 22, for his involvement in the protests. His father, Mashallah, who has simply campaigned on the behalf of his son's memory, was sentenced to six years in jail in May, and then, in August, sentenced to another term of nine years.

This, frankly, is a rogue regime. Iran cares nothing for the welfare of its people. It cares nothing for its neighbourhood. It is a repressive regime that uses the tools of terror, fear and intimidation to keep control of its society.