Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim has submitted a proposal, under standing order 75, today, which is shown at item 15 of today's Order of Business:

That the US and Israeli attack on Iran is contrary to international law, that Australia is in breach of international law both by supporting this war and permitting US bases in Australia to support this war, and that as a middle power Australia must work with like minded countries around the world to uphold international law.

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

More than the number of senators required by the standing orders having risen in their places—

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

At the request of Senator McKim, I move:

That, in the opinion of the Senate, the following is a matter of urgency:

That the US and Israeli attack on Iran is contrary to international law, that Australia is in breach of international law both by supporting this war and permitting US bases in Australia to support this war, and that as a middle power Australia must work with like minded countries around the world to uphold international law.

We hear a lot from the Albanese government and from Foreign Minister Wong about international law and breaches of international law when it's countries other than the United States and Israel breaching the law. You can go back barely a week ago and Minister Wong clearly called out Russia's attacks on Ukraine and pointed out that, for four years now, Russia has been in breach of international law in its attacks on Ukraine. She's right when she says that. But, astoundingly, when it comes to the illegal war by Trump and Netanyahu on Iran, we have Minister Wong—the same minister who can call out the illegality of Russia's invasion—say, 'The legal basis of this is for the United States and Israel to explain.' What a duck and cover! What an avoidance strategy that is from the Albanese Labor government! They obviously would never say that about Russia, because that would be an obscenity to say. Are you going to let Russia decide whether or not its attack on Ukraine is in breach of international law? We don't. We say it loudly. We say it clearly. But the Albanese government is so scared of their so-called ally Donald Trump and so scared to offend Benjamin Netanyahu that they won't even engage in it.

All the while, we see the US making it clear that this war is illegal. Not even 24 hours ago, the US Secretary of War said in relation to their illegal war on Iran:

No stupid rules of engagement, no nation-building quagmire, no democracy building exercise, no politically correct wars. We fight to win, and we don't waste time or lives.

He's saying it clearly. The war is being engaged in illegally. We know it's based on a lie—the so-called threat to the US and the lies about the imminent nuclear threat. It's the most blatant lie, and, unlike with the war in Iraq, there's not even been a vague effort from Donald Trump or Benjamin Netanyahu to try and pretend this is legal.

Then we get told that Australia has no part in it. We know Australia has hundreds of ADF troops stationed with the US right now across different US commands. There's not a single word from the defence minister about instructions being given that they're to be pulled out of the line and that they're not to be used in this US war. We also note—because the Albanese government has been trumpeting it—that there are scores of Australians currently serving in frontline duties on US nuclear submarines, including ones that are engaged in missile strikes in Iran. Why will the government not tell us the truth? Because it is embarrassing and inconvenient for them to point out it's an illegal war and Australia is in it up to its neck.

Then we get the doublespeak on Pine Gap. The constant refrain from the Albanese government, like the coalition and One Nation, is that the Australian public should know nothing; they should be mushrooms when it comes to finding out what happens in Pine Gap. We get this specious line of argument that Australian troops are not directly involved in the war through Pine Gap. But Australian troops and personnel keep Pine Gap running. Pine Gap runs as an integral part of the US's global war-making machine, and Pine Gap is being used right now to target bombs and killing in Iran. Anything the government says to the contrary of that is a plain, bold faced lie. Be honest with the Australian people.

The Albanese government should say they don't care whether the war is illegal or not and don't care if the rules of law and engagement are being breached, because Donald Trump has told them to do it, and they're just going to meekly follow. What a disgrace—what a betrayal of the national interest.

James Paterson (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to briefly put on the record again the coalition's position in relation to this issue. I understand the Greens have a principled and consistent position which is antiwar. Nonetheless, I thought a significant omission from Senator Shoebridge's five-minute speech was that he didn't even attempt to wrestle with the difficult choices required when making decisions about whether to go to war or not and didn't even contemplate for a second on the public record the crimes of the Iranian regime.

The crimes of the Iranian regime are significant. They are crimes they have committed against their own people, crimes they have committed against their neighbours and crimes they have committed against Australia. Let's start with Australia because this is the Australian Senate and we're concerned with Australia's national interest. We now know, courtesy of assessments of our own intelligence agencies, that the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Iranian regime is responsible for at least two acts of state sponsored terror on Australian soil targeting our Jewish community. The firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne plus the attack on the Lewis' Continental Kitchen in Sydney have been assessed to be the responsibility of Iran. Our intelligence agencies say that at least those two attacks were masterminded, paid for and coordinated by the Iranian regime but that many of the other attacks over the last two years in this country targeting the Jewish community might have also been the responsibility of the Iranian regime. That's one reason why Australia should be supportive of the US and Israel's action against Iran.

Of course, Iran is a destabilising actor, particularly in the Middle East. It is the world's largest state sponsor of terror. It has used proxies like Hamas, Hezbollah and the Houthis to do incredible damage across the Middle East, including to civilian targets. It is responsible for countless civilian deaths across the Middle East carried out by its terror proxies, which it arms, equips, trains and directs. This is a significant crime of the Iranian regime.

But perhaps the worst crimes of the Iranian regime are the crimes they perpetrated against their own people. In their 47 years of history they have engaged in horrific repression of their own people—horrific repression of ethnic and religious minorities, horrific repression of political dissidents and horrific repression of women. It is very significant that much of the protests in recent years in Iran have been under the banner of the Woman, Life, Freedom movement, which was started in response to the horrific killing of Mahsa Amini, a woman who refused to be veiled, contrary to the Islamic dictates of the ayatollah's regime. She was brutally and violently murdered for the crime of refusing to wear a headscarf, and thousands if not millions of Iranians have marched in her name ever since.

We know that, in recent months, tens of thousands of those people have been, according to credible media reports and human rights organisations, cruelly and coldly murdered by that regime, the IRGC in particular, and by other religious enforcers of that regime. This is a despicable regime and one that does not deserve any sympathy at all from any Australian, much less from the Senate, and I would have thought that, in a contribution about international law and the rights and wrongs in this war, Senator Shoebridge would at least mention that, as some of his Greens colleagues have in the past, recognising the horrific crimes that have been perpetrated against the Iranian people.

I think it's also significant, if you look at the reaction from the Iranian diaspora in Australia—it is not uniform, but it is almost uniform, almost unanimous—that they have reacted with unprecedented joy and celebration at the Israeli-US strikes against this regime. Look at the protests in the streets. Any senator who's received any correspondence from the Iranian community in Australia would know that overwhelmingly they welcome the strikes on the regime. They are very clear. These are the people who've had to live under this regime. These are the people who have had to flee this regime. These are people who've had to find a home in our country. And they that say it is a good thing that the United States and Israel have taken this action, that it is a good thing that the Ayatollah and his henchmen have been removed from power.

I think we have an obligation to listen carefully to that community, to listen carefully to those voices, particularly when they are so unanimous and so overwhelming. There are difficult choices to be made by nation states in times like this. I think it is the right thing—and that is even before we get to the degradation of the nuclear and ballistics program of this regime.

Varun Ghosh (WA, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The armed conflict underway in the Middle East and in Iran creates a number of matters of urgency, both in that region and around the world. It is our hope that the people of Iran are able to reclaim their country and begin the process of rebuilding and recovery from the monstrous reign of Ayatollah Khamenei, who was part of an Iranian regime that engaged in oppression, atrocities and murder around the world.

Ayatollah Khamenei brutalised the people of Iran for decades. The brutality of that regime was evident in the systemic mass killing of protestors in the early part of 2026, with estimates of tens of thousands of people killed by that regime. Those crimes were broadcast all over the world, and they shocked the world. But they were emblematic of what this regime was willing to do to its own people in order to stay in power. Unlawful and mass killings were a common tool of the regime. It was a regime that killed protestors during the Woman, Life, Freedom protests in 2022, with reports of hundreds killed. The regime had used live ammunition against protestors before. In November 2019 it cracked down on protestors who were seeking their own freedom, seeking relief from the oppressions of the regime itself, and the estimated death toll on that occasion was more than 300.

In addition to the use of violence, the regime has cut off communications and internet access to millions in Iran to try to hide their atrocities and try to limit the ability of people to protest against the regime itself. The regime has tortured and abused prisoners, including political prisoners. It has deliberately blinded and maimed Iranian citizens and has routinely executed those it regarded as its opponents, those it took into custody as political prisoners, and an array of others who were arbitrarily selected for violence by this regime.

The regime has created a culture of fear within Iran, and its citizens have not known freedom for generations. The regime has also sponsored and fomented terrorism and violence around the world, including here in Australia. Senator Paterson referred to the two attacks, including that terrible attack on the Adass synagogue in Melbourne, a result of the activities of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who were implicated in that attack, an antisemitic attack and an act of state sponsored terrorism.

As Prime Minister Albanese has said, the Iranian regime has shown in recent days why it remains a threat to peace and stability in the region. It has engaged in a series of almost endless attacks, including against residential areas, areas frequented by tourists, and airports, which reduced the ability of people to leave those areas. We've seen it on the news. It's almost unthinkable, the extent to which they are arbitrarily and indiscriminately firing on different parts of the country and a range of different countries in the region.

The strikes against Iran were initiated and conducted by the United States and Israel, and the government supports acting to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and from continuing to threaten international peace and security in the region. The world has long recognised that Iran's nuclear program poses a threat to international peace and security and that Iran can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon. That would be a disastrous outcome from a humanitarian and security perspective. We know that Iran has contravened its nuclear non-proliferation and safeguards obligations a number of times.

The government's priority is to keep the 115,000 or so Australians currently in the region safe. That is what the government's focus is. That's from the Prime Minister, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade and the ministry down. We do not want to see a further regional escalation, and we condemn the attacks on civilians that the Iranian government has undertaken. As a good and active middle power, Australia is in contact with our international partners, including in the region, and is using every effort to help Australians who are stranded get back home.

We stand with the brave people of Iran in their struggle against an oppressive regime. Our thoughts are with all Australians impacted by those events, particularly those who have family and loved ones in the region, including me. We say that there are matters of urgency at stake here. Peace in the region is a matter of urgency. The end of a tyrant and the end of a repressive regime is a matter of urgency, and so is improving prospects for peace around the world.

Barbara Pocock (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the question be put.

Richard Colbeck (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question is that the motion as moved by Senator Shoebridge be put. There being a division required, we'll defer that vote.