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

I rise on behalf of my party, the Greens, to oppose this legislation, the Migration Amendment (2026 Measures No. 1) Bill 2026. Time and time again, it's Labor governments that bring in the nastiest and meanest laws to attack people seeking asylum, and again Labor has done it with this legislation.

This, I think, is a new low, even for Labor. The world is looking in horror at the conflict in Iran. Maybe not everybody is looking in horror at the conflict in Iran. People like Donald Trump, his 'secretary of war' and others seem to be taking glee in the violence they see and celebrating the killing and violence—one of the many reasons why the Greens say we should be distancing ourselves from that rogue regime as quickly as possible. But, across this country, I know that the pulse of the Australian people is to be appalled by what they're seeing happening in Iran and to feel a deep sense of empathy and concern for people across the region. What does their government do on their behalf, or purportedly on their behalf? They bring legislation in here, at the commencement of this awful conflict, to ensure that 7,200 Iranians, who have valid visas, cannot come to this country and seek protection from their regime, from Israeli bombs, from US missiles and from the acid rain and black rain that's falling as a result of Israeli and US bombing. They shut the door and say, 'You can't come here, and you can't seek protection.' It's the same minister, Minister Burke, who rushed to Brisbane to seek to make political capital from helping a handful of brave Iranian women's football players, and then, literally on the same day, he, as the minister, introduced this bill to shut the door on 7,200 other Iranians.

What does the legislation do? It gives the Australian government the power to block temporary visa holders from travelling to Australia, and the bill does it by basically allowing the minister to declare any class or group to be subject to an order if there's some international circumstance or development that's happened. I can see that this bill is going to pass, because the war parties, Labor, the coalition and One Nation clearly all support this legislation. They've never seen a nasty attack on people seeking asylum that they haven't wanted to join. Normally it's the three of them together, because the politics of Labor, the coalition and One Nation are so close. Their politics on the war are so close; their politics on cruelty to people seeking asylum are close. It's basically the three war parties coming together here to do this.

I can't tell you how grateful I am to not be a part of any of your parties but to be a part of my party, the Greens, who will always stand up for decency in this space. That's how I see this party. It's one of the reasons I'm a member of this party. I'm sure there are people of good conscience in the Labor Party and the coalition. I can't imagine how it must crush you as a person every day to come in and vote for this kind of vileness. The answer to that is to leave the party or speak out about it publicly. When you vote for this stuff, you're complicit in it. I can't tell you how grateful I am to not be a part of those dysfunctional, appalling political parties that are voting for this bill.

What's likely to happen is that, once this bill passes, Minister Burke, who went up and got the political cover by helping five brave Iranian women's football players, will immediately pass a provision that says anyone who's holding an Iranian travel document will be subject to this. We know that that's 7,200 people, and that means they can't come to this country, they can't seek asylum and they'll be stuck in the appalling war and conflict that Labor also supports.

There is a tiny exemption if people have a direct family member here, but it's a limited number of family members. If somebody has a visa and their partner is an Australian citizen or permanent resident, they're not subject to the ban. If they are the parent of a dependent child under 18 here, then they're not subject to the ban, or, if they're a dependent child under 18, they're not subject to the ban. But everybody else in that 7,200 is covered.

The government then says, 'Oh, but don't you worry, because these 7,200 Iranians can make an offshore claim.' Well, we know that that's not going to happen, because, if you're in Iran and you make a humanitarian application to Australia, the making of that application makes you a target for the regime, and it just doesn't happen. So all of that is just plain nonsense.

We know what this is about. This is about Labor being frightened about being outflanked on cruelty and racism by One Nation. You're responding to the Islamophobia of One Nation. You're seeing the Iranian people as just utterly expendable in this, and we won't be any part of it. I've made multiple contributions about why this bill should never, ever pass this chamber, and I just say again that when I look at my colleagues and I think about the way in which my colleagues approach this legislation on the basis of principle and decency, and when I look at the way the war parties approach it on the basis of racism, political advantage and Islamophobia, I am so glad I'm not you.