James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Ever since the revolution in 1979 the Islamic Republic of Iran and the ayatollahs who run it have been at war. They have been at war with their own people, they have been at war with their neighbours in the region and they have been at war with Western democracies. In the 47 years since there have been many breaches of international law and convention by the Iranian regime, and the international community and international institutions like the United Nations have failed to hold them to account for their behaviour. It is long past overdue that the international community take decisive action to address these breaches of international law and these destabilising actions of the Iranian regime. That's why the coalition is unambiguous in its support for the actions taken by our friends and allies the United States and Israel against the Iranian regime.

Iran have struck Australia. They have sponsored terror acts on our own soil against our own citizens. They've interfered with our democracy. They have intimidated the Iranian Australian diaspora and sought to weaponise antisemitism to divide our country and terrorise the Jewish community.

Iran has sought and continues to seek nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in defiance of international law and conventions and resolutions of the United Nations. It is the world's No. 1 state sponsor of terrorism. It sponsors terror proxies and directs their activities, including Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and others. It does so both overtly and covertly against its rivals in the region, and it has done so for most of its 47 years.

It has obviously repressed its own people in the most brutal and devastating fashion. Tens of thousands alone in the last few months were murdered for peacefully protesting against the regime. In recent years the repression against women in Iran for failing to live up to the religious dictates of the regime has been particularly brutal, most devastatingly demonstrated by the murder of Mahsa Amini and most courageously demonstrated by the 'Woman, Life, Freedom' movement that was stood up by the Iranian people in response to that.

Even now, Iran continues to indiscriminately attack its neighbours who are not parties to the conflict. At the most recent media reporting, 12 non-participant regional neighbours of Iran have been struck by Iranian missiles and drones.

While Australia is not a direct party to this conflict, we should be unambiguous in our support for the actions of the United States and Israel against Iran, and it is entirely appropriate that the Australian government has now provided defensive ADF capabilities to assist our friends and partners in the region, including the United Arab Emirates, to deal with these attacks from Iran. We do so for three reasons. The first is that gulf states like the UAE are friends, and when friends ask you for help you should provide that help. The UAE has provided a base for Australian operations in the Middle East, at Al Minhad, for decades. When they ask us for help we should do so. The second reason is that it is in our interests. It's in our interest that the waterways in the gulf, particularly the Strait of Hormuz, are reopened to international shipping traffic so that oil can resume its flow and prices can come down, which will have benefits for the Australian economy and the global economy. Finally, it's because we will learn very important lessons from this deployment.

Ukraine has demonstrated and Iran reminds us that we are in an age of missiles and drones. Antidrone and antimissile warfare is an area in which the ADF has much to learn. It is, as we've been warned by Sir Angus Houston and others, not inconceivable that we have conflict in our own region in the near future, and we have a lot of work to do to learn how to combat this modern form of warfare. The deployment of an E-7A Wedgetail surveillance aircraft to the region to help interdict these missiles and drones against non-participant gulf states is an important and valuable learning opportunity.

Australia must always stand up for its values. We must always stand up for our friends. This one is not a difficult one. The Iranian regime is no friend of the Iranian people; it's no friend of Australia. If this is the end of it, we will be the better for it.