Penny Wong (SA, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

 We received this information on Saturday night. I was briefed. I engaged with my counterpart the foreign minister of Israel. We were up very early because, obviously, briefings occur. We had a National Security Committee of the cabinet. We set up the consular crisis centre. We made announcements. You would have seen, I hope, some of the press conferences around that to ensure Australians were informed, and, obviously, the Prime Minister and senior ministers again met last night. So, if the opposition had wanted a serious discussion about a war that is going on, they could have done us the courtesy of saying so.

Because, Senator, the government was focused on two things. The first priority is to keep Australians safe. We have 115,000 Australians in the region, and, with respect, my priority is those Australians; it is not the opposition. If the opposition had said to us, 'We want—'

An opposition senator interjecting—

Senator, I'm so sorry—I know, you're a senator, and I respect the role. But we have 115,000 Australians in a region which is currently seeing casualties across the region. We have seen Dubai airport hit. It is a very challenging situation, and I want to start by making clear to the Senate our first priority is to keep Australians safe, and we are working around the clock to do that.

Now I have some general comments about what we have seen. People would have seen the Prime Minister's and my statements Saturday night with the Deputy Prime Minister, then in the media yesterday and also this morning. I want to make clear that Australia stands with the brave people of Iran. They are struggling against oppression. The Iranian regime has been a destabilising force, including through its ballistic missile program, its nuclear program, its support for armed proxies and its brutal acts of violence and intimidation. Australia has consistently called for the Iranian regime to uphold the human rights and fundamental freedoms of Iran's citizens. We know that the regime has instead initiated a brutal crackdown that killed thousands of its citizens.

We have said that we support the action taken by the US and Israel to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and to prevent Iran from continuing to threaten international peace and security. We have also made clear that Australia did not participate in these strikes, but obviously we are in contact with our international partners. We have said we don't want to see further regional escalation. We know the consequences of that, and we are seeing some of that now. We urge the protection of civilian life, and, going forward, there will need to be a resumption of dialogue and diplomacy. And we join with our other partners in calling for all parties to adhere to international humanitarian law.

I also want to make some comments about the indiscriminate attacks that the Iranian regime is currently making against party countries, not only Israel—and we mourn the loss of life on all sides—but countries who are not a party to this conflict, like the United Arab Emirates, with whom we have a very close relationship, and the countries

of the region who are being affected even though they are not parties to the conflict.

In relation to Australians overseas, we are working around the clock, as I said. It will be a challenging period—a very challenging period. I've made clear that Australians requiring urgent consular assistance can contact the emergency centre on 1300555135 in Australia or 61262613305 from outside Australia. I made clear publicly that there are about 115,000 Australians in the region. They are my priority, not Senator Cash's motion. And people would be aware of the traffic through the region. I think it is about 11,000 people a day coming in and out of Australia utilising Etihad, Emirates or Qatar. That gives the Senate chamber some indication of the scale of the disruption.

We have opened the registration portal for all Australians in Israel and Iran. That was a decision on Sunday. This morning I directed that we open that registration portal, given what had happened overnight, for the UAE and Qatar as well. At the moment, communication is patchy and the situation is very distressing. We will continue to provide what information we can, as quickly as we can. Our focus at the moment is to provide that information and to continue to work with the airlines to try to ensure that we have availability on commercial flights as they become available. We hope we will see that in the near future.

I would also make this point to the Australian Greens: this issue didn't start with the strikes over the weekend. Iran has oppressed the human rights of its citizens for four decades. Very little is said by your party about that.

You are supposedly an antinuclear party, united in trying to prevent the Iranian regime from obtaining a nuclear weapon. But I haven't seen the Greens say anything about the games Iran has played, including preventing the International Atomic Energy Agency from conducting independent inspections. That's because it doesn't fit your narrative. It's very selectively loud.