Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to take note of the shocking revelations today of the involvement of the Iranian regime in relation to terrorist acts in Australia, including the firebombing of the Adass Israel synagogue. First, I acknowledge the contribution that my dear friend Senator Sharma made and his advocacy over quite a period of time in relation to matters involving the Iranian regime and the proposed listing of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a prohibited terrorist organisation.

My thoughts are with Australia's Jewish community at this point. My thoughts are also with those wonderful members of the Iranian disapora—many of whom came to Australia on humanitarian visas or are still going through processes to have their refugee status resolved—who have been so courageous in standing up publicly against the human rights abuses of the Iranian regime.

On a number of occasions in this place, following representations from the wonderful Queensland Iranian community, I've made statements calling for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be listed as a prohibited terrorist organisation. I did it on 27 March 2024, I did it on 1 July 2024, I did it on 8 October 2024, I did it on 9 October 2024 and I did it on 21 November 2024, in a conference room in parliament, in this place, where I met with representatives of the opposition to the Iranian regime.

Following that meeting on 21 November 2024, when I again put on the record my dismay at the human rights abuses—atrocities—being committed in Iran and I called for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be listed as a prohibited terrorist organisation for the simple fact that it is a terrorist organisation, I received a letter. I want to quote from that letter, dated 4 December 2024 and addressed to Senator the Hon. Paul Scarr, today. The writer of this letter referred to the parliamentary session I attended on 21 November 2024. He said:

Among other things, there were also some accusations against Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a recognized sovereign armed force. IRGC does have a brilliant record in safeguarding the Islamic Republic of Iran's territorial integrity …

The writer of this letter happened to be the ambassador of Iran, who was today declared persona non grata and expelled from this country—as he should have been months before, I should say, when he made egregious antisemitic slurs on social media.

Further, the Islamic Republic of Iran's ambassador said:

I would be more than glad to meet you for a fair and balanced informative discussions on different subjects of your interest on the Islamic Republic of Iran and our bilateral friendly relations with the Commonwealth of Australia.

Sincerely yours,

Ahmad Sadeghi

Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran in Australia

Two days after the Iranian ambassador wrote me that letter, the Adass Israel Synagogue of Melbourne was firebombed, with the direct involvement of the embassy of Iran. What a disgrace. What an absolute disgrace. It is fit and proper that he be declared persona non grata and he be expelled from our country.

On 19 August 2025, I was delighted to attend a multicultural career and job expo in Logan, which I consider to be one of the most successful multicultural cities in the whole of Australia. I take this opportunity to commend the mayor, Jon Raven, and his whole team in relation to the great job they do. This multicultural career and job expo was hosted by Multicultural Mailer Inc., which is a wonderful grassroots multicultural organisation. This was the fourth time this event had been held, and more than 1,400 jobseekers attended this event from a whole raft of multicultural communities. More than 60 potential employers were in attendance at the jobs fair, and I have no doubt that many people obtained jobs through this wonderful multicultural jobs fair.

I'd like to place on the record my heartfelt thanks to the executive committee: Dr Zakaria Amin, Travis Windsor, Peter Hodges, Paul Bailey, Simon Nicholls and Matthew Perry. Thank you so much for everything that you did. I'd also like to congratulate the expo team: Laura Windsor-Cahill, who was the expo coordinator and whose outstanding leadership and commitment was central to the success of the expo, and also Nasreen Noorudeen, Stephen Gang Yu, Nurul L Mulyaningtyas, Amber Anjum, Sajjad Hossen Naeem and Sameera Mahmood. Thank you so much for everything that you did. It was an amazing event, and it just shows the positive things that happen when grassroots multicultural communities are empowered to help people in the community. Thank you very much for everything you do.

On 12 July 2025, I was delighted to attend the St Mary and Archangel Michael Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church for a very successful ninth annual pilgrimage and the grand opening of the renovated church and youth culture centre. This is a congregation that has grown from 60, originally, to 400. The St Mary and Archangel Michael Eritrean Orthodox Tewahdo Church has been growing at a great rate, and it was truly a wonderful event. We were blessed with the presence of His Grace Bishop Shinoda. We were also blessed with the presence of the senior reverends of the church, Reverend Ghebreberhan Fiseha and Reverend Paul.

I want to thank all the members of the building committee of the church in particular, who did an amazing job raising nearly half a million dollars to renovate the church and add a youth centre, which is doing really important work in the community. I want to place their names on the record. Dr Tuquabo Tesfa-Michael, Mr Kibreab Abraham, Mr Kibrom Woldai and Dr Michael Habte: thank you so much for everything that you do for the Eritrean community. Our Eritrean community is a great blessing for our beautiful country.

On 19 July 2025, I was delighted to attend the opening of the Mskaye Hizunan Tigrayan Orthodox Tewahedo Church in Ipswich. We have a wonderful Tigrayan community in Queensland. Many members of that community have been through a great hardship and ordeal, and the church is so important to their wellbeing. They obtain spiritual support and sustenance from the church, and I heard stories when I attended the opening of the church of how important the church is to their lives. Thank you to Father Sahlemariam Tessema and his congregation for inviting me to the event. At the opening of the church, we had His Grace Archbishop Efrem, the Tigrayan Orthodox Tewahedo Church's Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Europe, in attendance. We also had Archbishop Sinouda from the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church and a number of other special guests. There were a number of people who were recognised because of their involvement in the Tigrayan church and I want to place their names on the record this evening. Deacon Kinfe Hadgu, Deacon Tesfamichael Desta and Deacon Tesfalem Beyene were all recognised and they were all given certain titles in recognition of the wonderful contribution they've made to the church. Again, I would like to place on the record what a blessing our wonderful Tigrayan community is to my home state of Queensland.