Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Hansard source

I seek to address the horrific rise in state violence in Iran over the past month. Since late December, a population crushed by economic despair and bereft of hope has sought to assert its basic dignity, and the response of the Iranian regime has been nothing short of medieval. On 8 January, Tehran implemented a complete telecommunications blackout—a measure designed to shroud a massacre. While the numbers since have been difficult to verify, the UN special rapporteur Professor Sato warned the Human Rights Council last week of a staggering discrepancy between official figures and credible reports. These credible reports suggest the deaths that have occurred in Iran because of state sponsored violence have been in the many thousands—as many, perhaps, as 20,000. In other words, they suggest a massacre—a massacre of civilians.

This is not merely an internal matter, because the Iranian regime's behaviour towards its own citizens mirrors its external malignancy. While it executes its own youth in the streets of towns like Tehran and Shiraz, it also continues to export instability and conflict across the Middle East and beyond—indeed, even as far afield as Australia, as we have learned in recent months. I welcome the announcement this morning of new sanctions against IRGC linked individuals, but I note as well that there remain credible reports of family members of senior sanctioned IRGC generals residing in Australia. This is something that we must address. We cannot ignore the fact that Australia remains one of the largest importers of refined oil products with no requirement or assurance that the crude oil that feeds these refineries is not supporting the war and oppression machines of Iran and Russia. This is a loophole we must act to close. (Time expired)