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

Every day in the Senate for the past sitting week, I have risen to speak on the current conflict in the Middle East and to update on the ongoing hostilities, the situation for Australians in the region and the efforts taken by the government to keep Australians safe in the region and secure at home.

The first priority of the Albanese government is to keep Australians safe. When the initial strikes were conducted by the United States and Israel on Iran, the question we in the government asked ourselves was, 'How do we best protect Australians? How do we best keep Australians safe?' and the judgement the government made was that it was in Australia's interests for Iran not to be able to obtain a nuclear weapon and for Iran to be prevented from continuing to disrupt international peace and security. I've said we are not in a position to determine the legal basis of the decision that the US and Israel have made. What we can do is make a judgement about what is in our national interest and what we support in order to keep Australians safe. We've supported action aimed at preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and from continuing to threaten international peace and security. We have also said that the principles of the Geneva conventions on international humanitarian law continue to apply in this current conflict.

Iran has flouted international law for decades, and the international system has not been able to hold Iran to account and to take appropriate action. We see this now, as Iran attacks 12 countries in its region and continues to threaten international peace and security. This follows decades of Iran sponsoring terrorism in the region. Iran has killed countless people in the region with impunity. Iran has consistently failed to comply with its international obligations in relation to nonproliferation and nuclear safeguards, and we will never forget that Iran chose to conduct antisemitic terrorist attacks here in Australia, on Australian soil.

Colleagues, Iran's reprisal attacks continue at a scale and depth we have not seen before. We have seen multiple countries in the region, which have not been attacking Iran, being attacked by Iran. The UAE alone has been forced to shoot down more than 1,700 Iranian ballistic and cruise missiles and drone attacks. We have seen Gulf countries throughout the region consistently attacked. I have had the opportunity to speak to my counterparts in Gulf countries over the period since the war began, and all are dealing with persistent Iranian attacks in civilian areas and on civilian targets. I'll repeat that—in civilian areas and on civilian targets. These dangerous and destabilising attacks put civilian lives at risk, including Australian lives. As the chamber would have heard me say, we have approximately 115,000 Australians in the region.

The government has made the decision to take defensive action to support our partners' efforts to keep Australians safe, deploying a E-7A Wedgetail to the Gulf and providing advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles to the UAE to help protect and defend Australians and other citizens. These deployed assets will operate according to Australian law and policy and Australian directives. We will also notify the UN Security Council of relevant actions taken under article 51 of the charter. Our government has been clear: we are not taking offensive action against Iran and we are not deploying Australian troops on the ground in Iran.

We are also working around the clock to support Australians to safety. More than 27,000 flights to and from the Middle East have been cancelled since 28 February, and there were an estimated 4.4 million airline seats removed from schedules. I'm pleased that, as of this morning, more than 3,200 Australians have returned, on 23 flights, and further services are scheduled in coming days. We've worked around the clock to support Australians in the region, through the 24-hour crisis portal and through deploying crisis response teams to the region, and we have worked with partners to offer bus routes to Australians in Kuwait and Bahrain. I've been advised by airports and airlines that the overwhelming majority of stranded Australian passengers have now left, but there are many more who are still in the Middle East. We would encourage those who do wish to leave to do so now, whilst commercial flights, however limited, remain available.

Finally, one heartwarming moment through this conflict has been the moving way in which Australians have taken the Iranian women's football team into their hearts. Some of players will make Australia their home. This is a beautiful thing. Australia continues to stand with the brave people of Iran in their struggle against oppression.