Dave Sharma (NSW, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities and Treasury) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Earlier today the Australian public and the Australian parliament heard frankly alarming news about the hostile acts of a foreign power directed against Australia and Australian national interests. In comments by Director-General of Security Mike Burgess, he made clear that ASIO's formal assessment is that the Iranian government directed at least two, and quite possibly more—quite likely more—attacks on Jewish interests in Australia.

This has included the attack on Lewis' Continental Kitchen in part of Sydney that I know very well, in Bondi, and also the Adass synagogue in Melbourne. I cannot overstate the severity and the gravity of what has been unfolding here in Australia over these last several months, and I cannot overstate the severity and gravity of a foreign nation acting like this on Australian soil.

We have all been alarmed in Australia about the deterioration in social cohesion and social harmony. We have all been alarmed in Australia about the rise in antisemitism. We have all been alarmed in Australia about the increasing hostility turning into property damage and firebombing directed against a particular group of Australians. To now learn that a foreign power was orchestrating those, directing those and supporting those and doing all it could to fan the flames of social discord in Australia is a shocking discovery indeed.

I want to commend the work of our security officials, ASIO and others, for their painstaking investigation to uncover this. And I want to commend the government for the firm steps they have taken at least in the response to this initially. It is right and proper that the Iranian ambassador be expelled from Australia, declared persona non grata, sent packing and sent home. It is right and proper that the Iranian revolutionary guard corps, an arm of the Iranian regime and state, is added to our sanctions list and designated—and it is only prudent that Australian officials stationed at our embassy in Tehran are evacuated for their own safety.

But let's be very clear about the sort of government we are dealing with here—a regime, more properly—in Iran. Not only do they repress their own citizens at home, not only do they persecute minorities and women, not only do they execute gay people, and not only do they hound civil society to the point of extinction; this is also a regime in a country that has done a huge amount to destabilise the world, that has been responsible for exporting terror across its region and now we find as far away as Australia. This is a country, a regime, an ideology, that nurtured, created, funded and supported Hezbollah, the terrorist organisation that has basically rendered Lebanon in a state of failure, a state of chaos, for the past two decades. This is the same country that funded, supported, armed and trained the Houthis in Yemen, again, having now rendered Yemen an ungovernable state, threatening commercial shipping all across the Red Sea. It is the same group—the same country, rather—that funded, supported and egged on Hamas, including for Hamas's terrorist attacks on 7 October 2023, which have done such awful damage to the Middle East, which have unleashed unbelievable chaos and unbelievable suffering, including on the Palestinian people of Gaza. Iran's hands have been in all of this.

Now, we learn that Iran's tentacles have spread even as far as Australia. We have maintained diplomatic relations with Iran for several decades. No, we have not agreed on any number of things, but I thought we were at least bound to respect the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations and other underpinnings of formal relations. To learn that Iran has perpetrated hostile acts on Australian soil, directed against the Australian people, directed against the Australian community, is shocking indeed.

I would say that I commend the government for the strong steps it has taken, but I think more needs to be done. I do believe the government should be orchestrating an international campaign of condemnation and making sure that the rest of the world knows that the Iranian regime is doing this. If they're doing it in Australia, you can bet they are trying to do it or perhaps are already doing it in places like Canada, in places like the United States, in countries like New Zealand, in countries like the United Kingdom and all across western Europe. Australia needs to make sure that this terrible regime is held to account for their aggression against our nation.