Michaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate:

(a) congratulates the United States of America and the State of Israel for their sustained efforts to prevent the Islamic Republic of Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon, acknowledging the long-standing threat posed by Iran's nuclear and ballistic missile programs to regional and global peace and security;

(b) welcomes the death of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, a brutal dictator who has oppressed the Iranian people for decades, as a result of the American and Israeli attacks;

(c) reaffirms Australia's rejection of any future Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons capability, recognising such an outcome would severely destabilise the Middle East and pose unacceptable risks to international peace and security;

(d) condemns in the strongest terms the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for its sponsorship of terrorism globally, including its role in orchestrating antisemitic attacks targeting Jewish Australians on Australian soil, acts which represent a direct attack on our social cohesion and national security;

(e) condemns the Government of the Islamic Republic of Iran for its use of state-directed violence and its support for proxy militant groups engaged in terrorist activities in multiple regions, undermining peace, stability and the rule of law;

(f) deplores the recent attacks by Iran on civilian infrastructure in Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates, including the suspension of operations at Dubai's major airports due to regional hostilities, and condemns the IRGC for targeting civilian populations and civilian facilities; and

(g) expresses strong support for the Iranian people in their ongoing struggle against the IRGC.

In speaking to the motion, I have to say, quite frankly, that I think that the Minister for Foreign Affairs has shown that she is not prepared to put Australia's position on the record. All that she could contribute to the debate this morning were cheap political scoring points. I was a little surprised that the government were not going to move a motion today to the effect that the coalition has. As I said, this is one of the most historic moments history will ever record—one of the most historic moments. We come in here this morning, and not only is there silence by the government; more than that, they do everything they can to shut the Senate down from properly debating this motion. The Senate, though, has rightly agreed to suspend standing orders. Now we debate this motion at a moment, as I said in my suspension speech, that will be recorded as a turning point not just in modern Middle Eastern history but globally.

Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is dead. For decades, he was the supreme authority of a regime that imprisoned dissenters, crushed protests, slaughtered Iranians at home, empowered the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and oversaw the systematic repression of the Iranian people. His leadership entrenched a theocratic system that exported terror abroad—we are well aware of that here in Australia—whilst denying, as we have been watching now for months and months and months on TV, freedom at home.

Let me be clear on behalf of the coalition, who put forward this motion and supported the suspension of standing orders so that the Australian Senate could clearly record its position on the death of the ayatollah and what it means. He was the architect of decades of repression. He is gone. This is the figure who presided over violent crackdowns on students, on women, on journalists, on ordinary citizens demanding nothing more and nothing less than respect and dignity. He is gone. This is not insignificant, as Senator Wong would want us to believe; it is, quite frankly, historic. In saying that, the coalition will acknowledge the moral clarity, the resolve and the decisiveness shown by the United States of America and the State of Israel.

For years, Iran advanced its nuclear capability, expanded its ballistic missile program and strengthened a web of violent proxies across the region, all under Khamenei's watch and all within the operational muscle of the IRGC. The United States and Israel did not ignore that trajectory. They undertook sustained efforts to degrade Iran's nuclear infrastructure. They targeted the command-and-control structures that enabled escalation. They made it clear that the acquisition of nuclear weapons by the Iranian regime would not be tolerated. They have also acted to prevent a regime that openly called for Israel's destruction from acquiring the ultimate weapon that could do so much global devastation. For that, for drawing a line against nuclear proliferation and regional destabilisation, the coalition is grateful—grateful for the decisive action taken before a nuclear threshold was crossed, grateful that our allies were prepared to shoulder the burden of confronting an escalating threat, grateful that the message has been sent to the international community that we will not be paralysed in the face of existential danger.

A nuclear-armed Iran would have shattered regional stability. It would have emboldened Hezbollah, Hamas and other proxies. It would have accelerated proliferation, it would have placed existential pressure on Israel, and it would have severely undermined the global non-proliferation regime. That matters profoundly to us here in Australia. We are a trading nation, dependent on secure sea lanes and stable markets. We have Australians living and working throughout the Middle East. We have communities here at home who fled that violent repressive regime. They know because they experienced. So many of us sat with the communities and listened to their stories of, quite frankly, living in hell. They experienced the consequences of Iranian linked extremism.

But this is a moment that is not only about strategy; it is, as we have now seen on our TV screens, about freedom. For decades the Iranian people have lived under repression. It was Iranian women who marched, demanding basic rights—rights that we have here in Australia and we live with each and every day. It was Iranian students who filled the streets, calling for liberty. It was Iranian workers who protested corruption and economic mismanagement.

Do you know what the response was from that vile, repressive Iranian regime? It was the IRGC that answered them with batons, bullets and prison cells. This motion rightly condemns the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC. They are the hardline security apparatus that has dominated Iran's political system and has brutalised, slaughtered, tortured, murdered its own citizens. It is the IRGC that, on our television screens you could see, were crushing peaceful protests; it is the IRGC that oversaw imprisonment and the execution of dissidents; it is the IRGC that violently enforced the repression of women and girls; it is the IRGC that funds and arms proxy groups across the region; and it is the IRGC, as Australians—in particular, Jewish Australians—know, that has been linked to extremist and antisemitic activity affecting Jewish Australians here, right here in Australia, on our home soil. When foreign directed networks seek to intimidate Jewish Australians, that is not a distant geopolitical issue. It is a direct challenge to our sovereignty, our social cohesion and our national security.

With Khamenei's death, a door has opened to the possibility of a different future for Iran: a future where nuclear ambition does not eclipse prosperity, a future where the IRGC does not dictate political life, a future where women are not beaten for defying the strict religious dress codes, a future where young Iranians are not imprisoned for demanding, again, what we as Australians live and breathe each and every day—basic freedoms. We should say it plainly: freedom is what we all want for the Iranian people. We don't want chaos. We don't want anarchy. What we want for them is the freedom to determine their own destiny without the fear of the IRGC.

The motion also, though, expresses deep concern at the recent Iranian attacks on civilian infrastructure in the United Arab Emirates, including the disruption of operations at major airports in Dubai and other places. Targeting civilian infrastructure is reckless escalation. It endangers innocent lives, including Australians'. It destabilises aviation routes and threatens regional security. It underscores precisely why the IRGC's conduct cannot be normalised.

The coalition's position is clear, and that is why we wanted the suspension of standing orders today, as this historic moment is unfolding. We reject unequivocally any future Iranian acquisition of nuclear weapons capability, we condemn the IRGC sponsorship of terrorism and destabilisation, we condemn attacks on civilian infrastructure by the IRGC, and we stand firmly against antisemitism and foreign interference on Australian soil. The death of Khamenei marks the end of an era of impunity for a regime that believed it could oppress at home and destabilise abroad without consequences. That era of impunity is now over.

Of course, as commentators spoke about over the weekend, what comes next is something that we all hope for: we want the Iranian people to finally be able to chart a freer path. The coalition is very, very clear on where it stands. We stand with freedom. We stand with those in Iran who have risked everything for dignity, who have risked everything for the basic freedoms that they have been denied now for so long. We, of course, stand against nuclear proliferation and we stand against terrorism. But we also stand with our allies—and that's why the first paragraph of the motion is so important—when they act to prevent existential threats from materialising.

As I said, the Senate was right—despite the opposition by the foreign minister and the government—to suspend standing orders. Again, I record my sincere disappointment that, at such a pivotal moment in history, when the Ayatollah, one of the most evil people in history, has been killed, and where a door is opening—a door that hopefully signals freedom for the Iranian people—the government did not think this motion was important enough to actually stop the business of the Senate and suspend standing orders. The Senate, though, was right to suspend standing orders; silence at this profound moment would have been abdication.

This is a moment of consequence for regional stability and for global security but, more than that, for the Iranian people themselves. This chamber I hope will send a very clear message: 'no' to nuclear weapons in Iran, 'no' to the IRGC's campaign of repression and terror, 'yes' to freedom, 'yes' to security and 'yes' to solidarity with the Iranian people. I thank the Senate, without the government, for allowing us to debate this important motion, and I do commend the motion to the Senate.