Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Hansard source

I would like to thank the Australian Senate for allowing the diverse views that exist in this chamber, that the Australian people have sent to parliament, to have the debate this morning, to not be silenced at what is such an extraordinary time globally. I rise also to acknowledge the steadfast efforts of the United States and the State of Israel in preventing the Islamic Republic of Iran from developing a nuclear weapons capability. Their cooperation over recent years has been central to limiting a threat that long cast a shadow over the Middle East and global security. I note the foreign minister's immediate response yesterday was exactly the same as her response post the October 2023 massacre in Israel. It was to call for a de-escalation. The fact is Australia has consistently supported international efforts to ensure Iran never acquires the capacity to build or deploy nuclear arms. We reaffirm that position today without hesitation.

The Iranian regime under the late Ayatollah Khamenei has presided over decades of repression, violence and destabilisation in the region. His rule was marked by unimaginable cruelty to his own people and hostility towards nations in the region and beyond. We hope his death marks a turning point.

The reach of the Islamic republic's influence was not confined to the Middle East. Its intelligence networks and proxies extended far beyond the Middle East, including here at home in Australia. Individuals linked to the regime have supported extremist activity, targeted Jewish communities and fuelled antisemitic incidents on our own soil. Let's stop deluding ourselves. The actions were deliberate and planned attempts to infiltrate anti-Jewish groups, inflame communities and cause physical harm to Jews in Australia. And yet we witnessed the appalling scenes of prominent Australians marching behind posters of the Ayatollah at the now infamous harbour bridge march. It was a moment that caused deep distress to our Jewish community and, yes, to Iranian Australians, who fled the very brutality that those images represented. Iran's proxies have inflicted violence and instability across the region—in Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain, Kuwait and, of course, Israel. Their actions targeted civilians, undermined governments and threatened the security of countless families who simply want to live in peace. And, yes, the overwhelming number of people killed under this regime since 1979 have been Muslims. The regime's victims include Kurds, Arabs, Yazidis, Sunni and Shia Muslims, political dissidents, protesters and ordinary citizens.

Today, above all, we express solidarity with the Iranian people, including many Australians who were born in Iran or have family still living under the regime's grip. They have endured decades of censorship, surveillance and fear. Iranian women in particular have faced systematic oppression, forced dress codes, violent crackdowns and imprisonment for the simple act of demanding basic rights, and that's to say nothing of the degradation and appalling treatment of the Iranian gay community—something I don't hear those on the progressive left mention enough in this chamber. But it is absolutely appalling what gay men in particular are subjected to under that regime. Yet those who claim to champion women and gay rights elsewhere fall silent when it comes to those cohorts in Iran. I call out the hypocrisy of the Greens and Labor left—absolute hypocrites to talk about the rights of women and the gay community and not do anything substantial to help them in this particular time. Their courage, particularly that of the women, deserved far more from the international community and from Australia than it received.

Australia stands with the Iranian people in their pursuit of freedom, dignity and democratic self-determination. What happens next is very uncertain, but we can only hope that the end of this brutal regime will presage a better life for the Iranian people and, indeed, for the region.

The pathos and moral chiding of the Foreign minister that we saw earlier were instructive. The Foreign minister has the great privilege of representing our country at times like this. Labor won the election, and being Foreign minister of a country like ours is a tough and challenging role. To come in here and school us as if we've been naughty children in wanting to debate an historic, extraordinary event, despite our different views in this chamber, says a lot about that Foreign minister and how she views her role.

The opposition today, under the shadow Attorney-General and our leader, has moved a motion to have the debate and to commend our allies and the Iranian people, and that is an appropriate response for an opposition in an Australian democracy to take at a time like this. I am very concerned that the Foreign minister felt she could treat us like schoolchildren in that moment.

As we've debated around the chamber, I want to comment briefly on Senator Shoebridge's outrageous remarks, which were really just an anti-Trump spray instead of actually saying anything substantive about the plight of the Iranian people and our hopes for their self-determination and about how the rights of women and the gay community will be better as a result of the changes to that regime. I commend the motion to the Senate and hope the Senate supports it.