Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am pleased to add my voice to the condemnation by this parliament and, indeed, by the Australian government of the Iranian regime. I am in awe of the courage of the Iranian people, standing up for democracy and human rights, often at grave risk to their own lives and livelihood and those of their families, despite the direct threats. The regime's disregard for human rights or human life is shocking to all decent Australians and the civilised world. Nowruz, the Iranian new year, which has been celebrated for 3,000 years as it's the ancient Persian new year, is tomorrow. It's a huge event in my community for people from Iran and Afghanistan. It's a day and a time of celebration, but I know, for so many in the diaspora community in Australia, it's also a time of deep worry and concern for their family and friends in Iran and Afghanistan.

I want to tackle head-on the hypocrisy of the opposition. I'm very fond of the member for McPherson—I shouldn't say that; it might wreck our reputations—on a personal level. But this is a sad and desperate politicisation by the opposition of this appalling situation in Iran. Let's be clear: the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps is a malignant actor. They're a threat to the Iranian people and to peace in the region and, as you rightly pointed out, to the world, through their cyberactivities and elsewhere. But for 10 years the Liberals did nothing on Iran. They failed to do anything. I put to the House: which was the last government until now that did anything on Iran? Was it the Morrison government, the Turnbull government, the Abbott government? No, it was the Gillard government, in 2010. You do not have a monopoly on the morality of this situation; indeed, your record condemns you.

There was 10 years of nothing, no sanctions. It was those opposite who sat by, said nothing and did nothing, while Iran was voted on to the UN Commission on the Status of Women. Penny Wong was the foreign minister and has been at the forefront of moves to kick them off that commission. It was the Gillard government that imposed broad based sanctions. This is the opposition's special party trick; they don't have any policies, but they have this one party trick that they do: they call for actions that they failed to take for 10 years. But now they're engaged in this tawdry partisan exercise to incite the Iranian diaspora in Australia, hoping to scrounge a few votes in a few seats—we know where they are—by calling for something that they know perfectly well is not going to happen. It's a good trick. In one sense, I'm doing exactly what you want by making this speech. But to list the IRGC under the Australian Criminal Code as a terrorist organisation, as the Attorney-General's Department has said, is not going to happen, because terrorist listings under the Criminal Code apply to non-state actors, not state actors like the IRGC. The opposition well know this.

But I'll go a little further. This is my view. I've said it before. I've said it in the intelligence and security committee, which we both sit on, and I've said it externally. In your words, the listing of such would be a 'powerful signal'. They were your words. The listings here have almost no practical effect. They are symbolic. Politicians for decades have danced around and listed things as terrorist organisations in a way that has little to no practical effect in the real world. I'm sure al-Shabaab in Somalia are deeply terrified that they've been listed as a terrorist organisation! The things which hurt these people are the sanctions that matter, the things that Labor did when last in government and that Labor's doing now: financial sanctions, broad-based sanctions and targeted Magnitsky sanctions like those the government has consistently imposed. Sanctions were imposed last year on six individuals and two entities, including Iran's famed morality police; in February, sanctions were imposed on one entity and 16 people, including senior officials; and today 14 individuals and 14 entities have been made subject to financial sanctions, with the individuals also subject to travel bans. That's the stuff that actually makes a difference and matters, not stunts like this.

We've imposed targeted sanctions, with partners, on people and individuals selling Iranian drones to Russia to kill people in Ukraine. We've been muscling up to the Iranian regime generally, with diplomatic pressure—through written correspondence, calling in the ambassador and having our ambassador see the government in Iran—and along with the international community. We've co-sponsored the independent Human Rights Commission investigation into human rights violations and, as I said, moved to kick Iran off the Commission on the Status of Women.

All of a sudden, we see the Liberals' new-found interest in human rights in Iran, after 10 years of doing nothing and sitting quietly by. It is appalling. They were on the body that could have acted for the last 10 years, but they did nothing, and we're not going to be lectured to by them.

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