Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator McKim has submitted a proposal under standing order 75 today, as shown at item 13 of today's Order of Business:

The need for the Government to rule out deploying Australian military personnel in the Middle East as part of the US and Israeli illegal war with Iran, noting that the Australian public does not support joining another US forever war, and the growing global concerns about its dangerous escalation.

Is consideration of the proposal supported?

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

With the concurrence of the Senate, the clerks will set the clock in line with the informal arrangements made by the whips.

Larissa Waters (Queensland, 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:

The need for the Government to rule out deploying Australian military personnel in the Middle East as part of the US and Israeli illegal war with Iran, noting that the Australian public does not support joining another US forever war, and the growing global concerns about its dangerous escalation.

Today's announcement from Labor really beggars belief. Does Prime Minister Albanese have no shame? When he was in opposition, he opposed sending Australian troops to illegal wars. Now that he is the Prime Minister, he is sending Australian troops, missiles and aircraft to an illegal war. The government of Australia under Mr Albanese, backed by the coalition and One Nation, is now America's deputy sheriff and a partner in Trump and Netanyahu's illegal war. The deception from Labor is fooling no-one. We give billions of dollars of our people's money to the US for weapons under AUKUS. We send deadly weapons to Israel in the two-way arms trade. Labor hosts their leaders and joins their wars. Labor, the coalition and One Nation back their crimes while acknowledging that there is no legal justification. Australia is now complicit. We are involved, and it is wrong. Enough!

The people of Australia do not want this war. We want an independent foreign policy. We don't want our policy set by weapons manufacturers. We don't want our foreign policy objectives determined by access to fossil fuels. This war isn't just illegal; it's immoral. We know that it is civilians in Iran and across the Middle East who will pay the price—women, children and families. We want no part of Israel's or America's war crimes. We demand justice. You can have a safe future, but not if we follow Trump blindly into war.

From being the first country to support this illegal war, to allowing the US aircraft to refuel on our soil, to having Australian personnel on a US warship while it bombed an Iranian vessel, to now sending warplanes, missiles and deploying Australian personnel, it's now clear that, when Donald Trump says, 'Jump,' Mr Albanese asks, 'How high?' Now, they are taking a leaf out of Trump's visa-freeze book and rushing in laws to block Iranians with legal visas from entering Australia, right when they most need it—a government backing and resourcing a war killing civilians and then shutting the door to people suffering from that war. It is morally bankrupt.

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

Here we are again. It's the third time today the Greens have tried to weaponise a foreign conflict for political benefit here at home, just as they have done so shamefully over the last 2½ years since 7 October terror attacks in Israel and the disgusting antisemitism that we've seen in the country ever since. You would think they would have learned from recent years for the consequences of their behaviour that were visited on them at the last election when voters delivered them a very strong message—and us too. We're very humble about our election results, and we've owned that on the public record. I've yet to see a single green own up for the fact that the positions that they took on antisemitism and the Israel-Gaza conflict resulted in them losing three out of their four lower house seats across the country, where voters rejected the way in which they sought to weaponise a foreign conflict for political benefit. It is very, very clear that there is no level to which the Greens are unwilling to stoop when it comes to taking advantage of these foreign conflicts.

Let's remember the famous words of the former Greens leader Adam Bandt at a closed party conference of the Greens which was leaded to the media and reported in the media, which he probably thought would never see the light of day but which really, really illustrates the depths to which the Greens are willing to go. Mr Bandt said, at the time that 'if we don't win seats from the Labor Party at the next election, then they will get away with bombing Gaza'. On what planet is the Australian Labor Party involved in bombing Gaza? On no sane planet among no sane people is the Australian government involved in that in any way, shape or form, and yet that's exactly what the Greens sought to propagate in the community. They sought to propagate it particularly in lower house seats in Melbourne, like in Wills, where they targeted Peter Khalil, reprehensively and dangerously, which resulted in his office and his staff being regularly harassed by extremists in the community who had been whipped up by the Greens for partisan political benefit. And here they are again, spouting complete mistruths—total misinformation—about Australia's involvement in this conflict or lack thereof, as the case actually is, seeking to put up social media videos to whip people into a frenzy and get them agitated about this foreign conflict and try to bring it here. Australian do not want foreign conflicts imported to Australia, and yet the Greens, at every single opportunity, seek to do exactly that. We are not a party to this conflict. Australia is not involved in the strikes against Iran, but sensible people in this place recognise that the Iranian regime is not one that deserves defending, like the Greens have been running interference for over the last week or so. The Iranian regime has killed tens of thousands of its own citizens, including women for the crime of failing to veil themselves in public. This includes Mahsa Amini, who was bashed to death by the IRGC and the Basij of the Iranian regime for the crime of not wearing a headscarf. The Greens, as supporters of women's rights and feminism, should not want to associate themselves in any way, shape or form with a regime like that, and yet here they are and that is what they do.

Let's not forget this is a regime that has struck Australian soil and that has perpetrated terror attacks against Australian citizens, including the attack on the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne, in my home state of Victoria. A regime that thinks it's okay to sponsor terror attacks on Australia is not a regime that deserves defending. This is a regime which also sponsors terrorism across the world. It is a primary financier and organiser of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and many other terror organisations that have struck across the world and killed innocent civilians. They attempted to sow those sorts of attacks here against our community. There was not just the attack in Melbourne against the Adass Israel Synagogue but also the attack at Lewis' Continental Kitchen in Sydney.

I would have thought a political party dedicated to peace and nonviolence would be highly critical of a regime like that. I would have thought they would consistently apply their concerns about international law. I don't remember hearing their concerns about international law when Iran was directing its proxies to launch strikes on Tel Aviv to kill innocent civilians in Israel. That's against international law. I don't remember the Greens asking questions about that in question time. I don't remember the Greens moving an urgency motion or holding a press conference about Iran's breaches of international law over the last 50 years, as they've attempted to acquire nuclear and ballistic weapons in defiance of international sanctions and resolutions of the United Nations. The Greens are not concerned about that because the Greens just want to run and peddle an anti-American and anti-Israel line for domestic political benefit. They've been exposed for that. There are political consequences of that that they should own up to.

Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The responsibility of being in government is to act in the national interest, not to act in one's political interest. That national interest is protecting Australians and keeping them safe.

When we talk about Iran, let's not pretend we are talking about a benign actor. We are talking about a regime that has threated international peace for years, and, in 2024, was responsible for at least two antisemitic attacks on Australian soil, in Sydney and Melbourne. At that time, Australia took the unprecedented step of expelling Iran's ambassador from Australia, suspending our operations at our embassy in Iran and listing the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a state sponsor of terrorism. The Iranian regime has systematically violated human rights and brutally repressed its own people. It has repeatedly contravened its international obligations.

The Prime Minister held a press conference this morning and he made it very clear that Australia is not deploying troops for offensive operations. Limited Australian assets have been deployed, in a defensive capacity only, to protect Australians and our interests. There are 115,000 Australians in the Middle East, with around 20,000 in the UAE, who need our support. Australia will deploy an E-7A Wedgetail to the gulf to protect and defend Australians. The Senate will recall that the E-7A Wedgetail was deployed to Europe as part of Australia's assistance to Ukraine. We stand with our partners in the gulf and, critically, to protect Australians in the region.

Our first priority will always be the safety of Australians, so it is deeply disappointing to the see the Greens, once again, put their own political interests above the national interest of our nation. This is a moment when Australians rightly expect all political leaders to speak with unity. This is not a moment for the Greens to chase headlines. The Australian government has been working around the clock to support Australians in the region. DFAT has activated its Consular Emergency Centre and is providing 24-hour, around-the-clock consular support. Australians needing support can contact 1300555135 in Australia and +61262613305 from overseas. Registrations have opened, through the crisis portal, for Australians in Bahrain, Kuwait and Lebanon, in addition to Iran, Israel, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. We continue to advise Australians to not travel to Iran and to leave Iran as soon as possible if it is safe to do so.

We do not want to see further escalation, but we must protect Australian interests. But it is also important that we remember the human dimension of what is happening inside Iran. The presence of the Iranian women's football team in my home state, on the Gold Coast, was a powerful reminder that we fight for equality for the people of Iran on what is happening in Iran right now. Five members of the Iranian women's national football team have sought and have been issued humanitarian visas here in Australia. They had been due to return home soon, but fears were raised for their safety after the team declined to sing the Iranian national anthem before a match and after the widespread reporting on Iranian state television attacking the players for this action. I am proud that the Albanese government acted so decisively. As the Prime Minister said, these women are safe here, and they should feel at home in Australia.

When this Labor government talks about women's rights, it's not just rhetoric; it is action. It is the $4 billion we're investing to tackle gender based violence. It's the introduction of 10 days of paid domestic violence leave. It is stronger workplace protections and a historic investment in women safety. We are closing the gender pay gap, lifting wages in female dominated industries and investing in women's health. This is real progress. This is what leadership looks like.

So, while the Greens want to frame this debate through the lens of politics—

Larissa Waters (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

You're the one doing that.

Corinne Mulholland (Queensland, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

this government's position is clear. We will stand with our allies in defending Australians in the region. We will prioritise the safety of Australians, of whom there are 115,000 in the Middle East, many of them desperate to come home and scared for their lives. We will continue to act in the national interest, not in the political interest.

Raff Ciccone (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Again I remind senators that interjections are disorderly. Thank you, Senator Waters.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We so often hear the cost of war reduced to the talking points of the war parties, detached from reality and stripped of humanity. They seek to defend the indefensible—shredding international law, with blatant breaches of international law. Men in suits talk up the weapons being deployed. Their strategic narratives are tweaked. These are the things that dominate the headlines and too often dominate debate in this chamber.

But, for most people sitting at home, these things feel disconnected. What is too often pushed aside is the human cost of war. It is babies, children and women. It's families. While commentators debate markets and economics, parents are sifting through rubble in anguish. While analysts discuss alliances and strategy, mothers are burying their children. Reports indicate that more than 1,000 civilians have already been killed in the illegal war in Iran, among them more than 150 schoolgirls. A parent should never have to endure the horror of identifying their child beneath the rubble of an air strike. This is what war does. It kills people who had no say in the decisions made in war rooms thousands of kilometres away. While families bury their children, others are counting their profits. From Washington to Tel Aviv—and, yes, here in Canberra—there are those who profit from this violence: gas companies watching prices surge and weapons manufacturers signing new contracts. That is the brutal truth of war—some people making money while others count the loss of family lives.

Today, instead of stepping away from this violence, Australia is striding into it further, sending military personnel, a surveillance aircraft and missiles to the gulf, and dragging Australia deeper into Trump and Netanyahu's illegal war. At the same time, the government is moving to shut the door on people fleeing that violence, with a bill clearly aimed at people from Iran seeking safety here. Shame on you! The killing of a single child should stop us in our trucks. Human lives must never be reduced to collateral damage.

Lisa Darmanin (Victoria, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Albanese government has been very clear on this issue. We are not taking offensive action against Iran and we are not deploying Australian troops on the ground in Iran. It's not often that I agree with comments from those opposite, but I do with what Senator Paterson talked about earlier around misinformation and the peddling of misinformation in this debate. It is unhelpful at best, is contributing to the enormous unease and fear across the Australian community and is simply incorrect.

Let's clarify the facts. The first priority of the Albanese government is and always will be to keep Australians safe. The actions that we are taking are framed around this purpose and this purpose alone. Right now, as Senator Mulholland said earlier, there are around 115,000 Australians in the Middle East—around 24,000 in the United Arab Emirates. For those Australians and for their families here at home, this is an incredibly difficult and uncertain time. More than 2,600 Australians have now returned home with the assistance of the government, but significant challenges remain, and further work is underway to support those that are still seeking to leave. That includes working closely with partners across the region, deploying DFAT personnel as part of the crisis response teams and providing consular support.

But helping Australians also means helping the defence of countries where Australians live and travel. What we have seen is unprecedented. Iran has launched attacks on 12 countries across the region, from Cyprus to the gulf. Dubai airport has been under fire from Iranian missiles and drones. Since 28 February, more than 27,000 flights to and from the Middle East have been cancelled, with an estimated 4.4 million airline seats removed from schedules. These developments are serious, and the scale and reach of these attacks are contributing to an increasingly volatile security environment in the region.

Australia supported action aimed at preventing Iran from getting a nuclear weapon and preventing Iran from continuing to threaten international peace and security. Our position remains that we do not want to see the conflict continue to escalate, and we call on all parties to uphold international humanitarian law and protect civilian life. The situation is deteriorating, and it may well get worse before it improves. The growing wave of dangerous and destabilising attacks from Iran puts Australian lives and interests at risk. That is why the government has taken the decision to deploy defensive capabilities to the region to support the protection of civilians and Australian nationals.

In responding to the request from President Mohammed bin Zayed, of the United Arab Emirates, and others, in response to armed attacks on the territory of gulf nations by Iran, Australia will deploy a E-7A Wedgetail to the gulf to help protect and defend Australians and other civilians. As Senator Mulholland outlined, Australians may remember that the E-7A Wedgetail was recently deployed to Europe as part of Australia's assistance to Ukraine. As it did in Ukraine, the E-7A Wedgetail will provide long-range, critical surveillance, communications and early warning capabilities, which will help secure the airspace above the gulf. The aircraft and its supporting Australian Defence Force personnel will be leaving Australia today, and it is expected it will be operational by the end of the week. The deployment will initially operate for four weeks in support of the collective self-defence of gulf nations. In addition, the Albanese government intends to provide advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles to support the UAE's defensive capabilities. As always, deployed ADF assets will operate according to Australian law, Australian policy and Australian directives.

Let me be very clear. All these measures are about the defence of gulf nations and, most importantly, the protection of Australians. In accordance with our international obligations, the government will notify the United Nations Security Council of relevant actions taken under article 51 of the United Nations Charter. At a time of growing instability in the region, the government's focus remains exactly where it should be—protecting Australians, supporting regional stability and working to prevent further escalation. We must unite and lead on this one.

Penny Allman-Payne (Queensland, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

To every Australian out there who feels like they are being gaslit by our current government: we feel the same. To stand here and listen to members of the government telling us that they are sending troops and missiles to the UAE to protect Australians feels like Orwellian doublespeak.

The justification is that there are hundreds if not thousands of Australians in the UAE. Well, there are also thousands of Australians in Lebanon. Israel and the IDF are dropping bombs on them, and we have not heard a peep out of you on that. It seems that there's no red line that can't be crossed—and with the opposition and PHON just cheering you on. You're quick to condemn the strikes on the UAE, but, when we saw the illegal strike by the US on Iran that started this war, you were the first out the gate to support it. There's been no condemnation of the ongoing strikes by the IDF in Lebanon.

We see a government minister who was really happy to pose with Iranian soccer players who we're giving asylum to but was quite happy to see the US and the IDF continue to drop bombs on their families and friends, and now we hear that you're going to block the visas of Iranians who are trying to escape the disaster that is before them. We see a PM who states his support for women on International Women's Day but comes out straightaway in support of the bombing of a girl's school. I feel like we are living in a dystopian parallel universe.

You might have been able to get away with this stuff in the past, but every Australian can see it on their screens—schools and schoolgirls bombed, rivers of fire, acid rain, hospitals destroyed and aid workers killed. It seems that your hypocrisy and your doublespeak know no bounds, and it is appalling.

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

Hear, hear! Labor has put their hand up to be Trump's deputy sheriff. This is how forever wars begin. First, we blindly endorse our allies and leave it up to the bullies and the criminals in charge in the US and Israel to decide whether their own strikes are legal, and then we get involved. We heard this morning that Australia will deploy surveillance aircraft, weapons and 85 Australian troops to the UAE. Labor has gone from supporting this illegal war politically to having Australian personnel on US military submarines to now putting troops in harm's way. Australians remember the massive failures and the mission creep of Vietnam, of Iraq and of Afghanistan—wars that cost millions of civilians their lives.

We know that civilians, especially women and children, pay the biggest price in war. We stand against the war parties opposite us—Labor, the coalition and One Nation—and against a war that will have untold long-term consequences. It's a war that, like all wars, will have only one big winner: huge profits for defence corporations, whose share prices are through the roof today. You can't bomb your way to democracy and peace. The Greens stand with millions of Australians who are watching with horror as Labor delivers for Trump, a madman, in the US and for Netanyahu, a war criminal. If we want to protect people in the region, the best thing the Albanese government could do is call for an end to war, withdraw support, stop all military engagement and end AUKUS in favour of independent foreign policy.

Today, Labor has introduced a cruel migration bill—unbelievable—that seeks to prevent people from fleeing places like Iran and finding refuge in Australia. It's absolutely shameful. Time and time again, it's Labor that treats refugees with the most cruelty. Today, they've hit a new low. If you ever thought this war was about protecting the people of Iran, then this is the clearest example of why this is a lie. The war parties create refugees and then come together to shut the door on them. It's obscene. Do not send Australian troops to Trump and Netanyahu's illegal forever war.

Nick McKim (Tasmania, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We well remember how Australia got sucked into the Iraq war based on the massive lie of weapons of mass destruction. We all remember the catastrophic, calamitous consequences of that war: countless people dead, injured, dismembered, buried alive, impoverished and poisoned. And now Australia is being sucked into another war in the same region—again, on the basis of a big, fat lie. This time it's not from a coalition government but from a Labor government. It is lying to the Australian people about our involvement in this war. The latest lie that Labor is telling the Australian people is that the military assets and the personnel that we have committed into the war theatre today are only going to be used for defensive purposes. The Greens are here today to call out that lie because those personnel and those assets will be used in such a way to boost capacity for the United States and Israel to continue to rain down horror on the Iranian people—to continue to bomb schools and hospitals in Iran, to continue to destroy the natural environment and to continue to mass murder Iranian people. While this is going on, the war parties in this place—the Labor Party, the Liberal Party, the Nationals and One Nation—are cheering these horrors on.

Remember that Labor was the first government anywhere in the world to cheer on Trump and Netanyahu's illegal war. It was embarrassing and mortifying watching Prime Minister Albanese obsequiously toady his way onto the international stage while the war criminals, Trump and Netanyahu, committed war crimes. And now you've even got US president Donald Trump suggesting that the Tomahawk missile that bombed an Iranian school, killing over 150 Iranian schoolgirls, was stolen from the US by Iran, which apparently dropped it on its own school! Aren't you embarrassed? This is the guy you've hitched us to at the hip. He is a fascist, a war criminal and a fantasist, and you have hitched our country at the hip to him through AUKUS and through your obsequious toadying. You have hitched our country to the illegal war of the war criminals Trump and Netanyahu. It's humiliating, embarrassing and degrading for our country.

Of course the women from the Iranian football team that are here in Australia deserve asylum, and the Greens are very happy to see that that asylum will be granted. But we have to point out that—on the same day that the government announced that those women will, quite rightly, be granted asylum—the government is slamming the door in the face of countless other Iranian people who could have sought protection in Australia and will now not be permitted to do so. What that means is that every time a Labor politician claims that they care about women in Iran, every time they claim they care about human rights abuses in Iran, we will remember that you slammed the door in the face of countless women and other Iranians who've had their human rights abused. You slammed the door in their faces with your draconian visa laws introduced into this parliament today that will prevent countless Iranian people, many of whom already hold valid visas, from seeking asylum. The hypocrisy is rank and it stinks. It stinks like Labor stinks. I say to people who voted Labor in the last election and who thought better of the Labor Party that it is now time to re-evaluate your political choices. The Greens are here, and we will also always defend human rights and we will always stand against war and for peace.

Steph Hodgins-May (Victoria, Australian Greens) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The time for the debate has expired. The question before the chair is that the urgency motion moved by Senator Waters be agreed to.