Aaron Violi (Casey, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Firstly, I genuinely want to congratulate my good friend, the member for Solomon, my co-chair of the Parliamentary Friends of AUKUS, on his new role as the Special Envoy for Defence, Veterans' Affairs and Northern Australia. Congratulations to him. It's been nice to work closely with him on the Parliamentary Friends of AUKUS, and, in his new role, I hope he continues supporting not just AUKUS but also Ukraine, because the coalition does stand in support of the government when it comes to better targeting Russian assets and putting more effective sanctions on Russia.

We've always said from the start of this invasion that we would offer full bipartisan support to the Labor government in implementing all possible mechanisms that aid Ukraine's self-defence, so I congratulate the member for Solomon and look forward to continuing to work with him on AUKUS and also to ensure we support Ukrainian people. The abhorrent, illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine by Russia has tested us as a Western democracy. It has tested the global response, and so far we have stood up—led, obviously, by the Ukrainian people—but there is more that we need to continue to do. Across the world we are seeing a global struggle for freedom and democracy as authoritarian regimes flex their muscles. Whether it's in Ukraine, the Middle East or Iran, we're seeing these challenges.

I'm very lucky in Casey to have a strong Iranian diaspora. They have been devastated to see the political death-penalty murders of many of those who have fought for freedom in Iran. Just last week, Reza Rasaei, a young man, was executed for standing up for his political beliefs. The member for Menzies and I, as political sponsors, both sponsored Reza to do what we could to ensure his freedom, but, unfortunately, he was executed last week.

The Woman, Life, Freedom movement that was established in Iran after the abhorrent killing of Mahsa Amini has not stopped. There are many in Iran that have continued to agitate and work under the radar for freedom and democracy in that country. There are many in the Iranian community in Australia that have supported them, risking their own lives and the freedom of their family back at home who are continuing to protest and continuing to work every day to ensure democracy and freedom comes to the Iranian people. We need to continue to stand with them and support them at this tough time. I was proud to sign as a political sponsor and I'll continue to stand with the Iranian community in Australia as they fight for their democracy and their freedom.

We're seeing this struggle across the globe, and in many cases the Ukrainian people are on the front line of that challenge—that battle of ideologies and beliefs. We, as a parliament—the Australian government and the opposition—need to do everything we can to support them. There are many different ways, through official channels but also through private business, that Australia as a country is helping. One organisation that's received coverage and is doing a great job is SYPAQ, a Melbourne company out at Port Melbourne. They have developed cheap and efficient cardboard drones that are being utilised by the Ukrainians to ensure that they can not only keep Ukrainian people safe but also start to turn back the invasion.

There are many ways we can continue to support organisations like SYPAQ. It was wonderful to see, about two weeks ago, that they were successful in a process with the Department of Defence, receiving funding to continue to ramp up drone production, for Australia's use and also for use in Ukraine. What we've seen in this battle between Ukraine and Russia is a change in warfare, moving to a drone based system, and that has fundamentally changed how we go about these battles. The implications are profound for many in the community, particularly as we look at artificial intelligence and how we control these drones and target different areas of opponents and enemies while keeping civilians safe.

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