David Shoebridge (NSW, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

I listened carefully to Foreign Minister Wong's justification for Labor's support for this illegal war by the United States and Israel. It was a masterclass in doublespeak and hypocrisy. Foreign Minister Wong commenced by saying that the first priority of the Australian government is to keep Australians safe. Well, isn't it remarkable that Labor has not once mentioned the tens of thousands of Australians in Lebanon right now who are seeing a barrage of Israeli bombs and missiles destroying neighbourhoods, killing hundreds and driving 700,000 Lebanese into homelessness? There has not been one word from Labor about those Australians. Apparently, those Australians aren't an obligation of Labor to keep safe.

We heard Foreign Minister Wong say:

We've supported action aimed at preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon.

Well, not one credible expert has said that Iran was anywhere near getting nuclear weapons, and Labor's great mate Donald Trump said only weeks ago that he'd obliterated Iran's nuclear weapons program. Why the silence from Labor, the coalition and One Nation—the three war parties—on Israel's nearly 200 illegal nuclear weapons? Why won't Labor sign the treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons? It's hypocrisy that we get from Labor. I heard Minister Wong say:

Our government has been clear: we are not taking offensive action against Iran.

Again, Australians see through this deception. Labor is dragging us into this war based on deception and lies.

Just look at the AWACS aircraft that we're sending into the war zone—a rare asset in a war zone that is overwhelmingly an air war zone. When Australia sends the AWACS aircraft in, it frees up other US military assets to be used in their illegal war against Iran. Yes, the AWACS aircraft picks up incoming missiles. It can direct outgoing weaponry and missiles. It picks up where the missiles originated from, and it will be sending that targeting information to the United States as part of their illegal war. You also see Australian troops embedded in US nuclear submarines that are sinking Iranian vessels on the high seas—and hundreds more throughout the US military, Pine Gap and North West Cape. Labor, AUKUS and the war parties have dragged us right into the centre of this illegal war, and no-one buys anything different.

We then had Foreign Minister Wong say one heartwarming moment in this conflict was the moving way Australians have taken the Iranian football team into their hearts. Yes, Australians do have warm and open hearts and, yes, Australians want to see our government protect Iranians—Iranian women and others. But, on the very same day that Labor reached out to protect a handful of brave Iranian football players, they shut the door to 7,200 other Iranians that have passports to come to Australia for business and tourism. Why did they shut the door to those 7,200 Iranians with another piece of ugly legislation? Because they didn't want any other Iranians to have the opportunity that the Iranian women's football team had. They've given asylum to five, and they shut the doors to thousands more. Labor back this illegal war. They back this obscene war which is creating the refugees, which is driving people to seek asylum, and in the same breath they shut the gate. The hypocrisy is obscene.

Labor say—Senator Wong says—Australia continues to stand with the brave people of Iran in their struggle against oppression. Do you know what Labor are supporting? Labor are supporting a US missile strike on an Iranian girls school that killed over a hundred schoolgirls in the first few hours of this. Labor say nothing about Donald Trump's lies about it—Donald Trump's latest lie that the Iranians stole a US Tomahawk missile and fired it at the school themselves. They say nothing about Donald Trump's lies, nothing about the schoolkids and nothing about the reign of fear that is all across Iran. The Greens have condemned the Iranian regime and the violence of the Iranian regime, but we condemn the illegal violence of Israel and the US too.