Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you. At the heart of what I'm saying is the need for military oversight at this time more than ever, and so I think it is entirely relevant to the discussion that is being had.

If anyone believed that the era of imperial interventions was behind us, that illusion has well and truly evaporated. We cannot be clearer—the Iranian people have endured decades of repression under a brutal and totalitarian regime. Women have been beaten and imprisoned for demanding basic rights. Protesters have been silenced, journalists jailed, minorities persecuted—the struggle for Iranian liberation is real and it deserves solidarity. But you do not bomb your way to peace. You do not drop explosives on a country and claim to speak on behalf of its people. Regime change imposed from the sky is not liberation; it's chaos.

The United States does not have the interests of the Iranian people at heart, and that is becoming increasingly clear. An administration that cannot uphold human rights within its own borders cannot credibly claim to be the guardian of rights overseas. In the US, we have seen migrants brutalised, families separated and state violence excused when politically convenient. Human rights observers have been executed by ICE. This is not a government that gives any thought to, let alone acts upon, humanitarian principles. It is a government that acts solely for its own interests and those of its powerful allies and corporations.

Israel's government, which is still committing an active genocide, is hardly a credible force for democracy.