Leah Blyth (SA, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Defence Infrastructure) Share this | Hansard source

The current conflict in the Middle East has brought into sharp focus a truth that many free nations have too often been reluctant to state with sufficient clarity. The regime in Tehran is not a misunderstood regional actor. It is a dictatorship. It is authoritarian, antisemitic and deeply repressive. For decades, it has brutalised its own people, armed terrorist proxies, spread instability across the region and directed hostility not only towards Israel and the United States but towards the values of liberal democracy itself. It has backed Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis; pursued military strength beyond its borders; and supported Russia's war machine in the Ukraine. It has also been linked to hostile activity and interference well beyond the Middle East, including two acts of terror right here in Australia.

When Australians consider this conflict, we should begin with moral seriousness. The Iranian people are not the regime; they are its first victims. Brave men and women in Iran have lived under censorship, intimidation, imprisonment, death and violence. This conflict has demonstrated that the global order is forever changed and that the constant appeasement, tolerance and befriending of terrorists is finally over. That is why one of the most powerful images of this conflict has not come from the battlefield; it has come from young Iranian women right here on our own soil. During the Women's Asian Cup in Australia, members of the Iranian women's football team refused to sing the regime's anthem, and they were denounced as wartime traitors on Iranian state television. Some have now sought refuge and protection in Australia because to return home would be certain death. That fact alone tells us everything we need to know about the nature of the regime they were fleeing. The images of one of the players being pulled by a teammate to get onto a bus to go to the airport I found personally heartbreaking and a stark reminder of what she is to return to.

Australians noticed something else. In a free country, one of the first acts of some of these women escaping the grip of that regime was to cast aside the compulsory symbols of their oppression. That was a profound statement about agency, dignity and freedom. When women are finally safe, they do not reach instinctively for a hijab; they reach for liberty. Those in this country who are forever eager to excuse, sanitise or relativise the oppression of women under Islamist authoritarianism should reflect on that. Those who speak fluently about women's rights at home but grow strangely hesitant when confronted with the misogyny of the Iranian regime should reflect on that too. And those who reduce compulsory veiling to a matter of neutral personal expression without acknowledging the force and fear that stand behind it in places like Iran should listen more carefully to the women who have risked everything to escape it.

Australia's duty in this crisis is to the safety of Australians, and there are around 115,000 Australians in the broader Middle East. Labor's delay, confusion and mixed messaging are not minor administrative failures; they carry real consequences for frightened people and their families, and the families should have been notified earlier. Australia should stand by partners who stand by us, and Israel has a right to defend itself. We should support defensive actions in the Middle East that stabilise, secure airspace and secure maritime routes. This is in our national interest. The deployment of Australian capabilities to assist in that task reflects a simple principle that we will stand with our democratic allies, but we need to learn how we can combat modern warfare—missiles and drones—and we need to make sure that we arm our defence forces with the modern tools of war.

Evil regimes should be named plainly, and democratic nations like ours should not lose their nerve. The cause of freedom is only advanced by defending our values, the rule of law and Western democracy. As Australians, we should never forget that the fights for the freedoms we have were also hard fought.