John Williams (NSW, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the huge significance of the uprising in Iran as well, along with Senator Paterson, Senator Singh and probably Senator Moore as well, which began on 28 December 2017. Millions of ordinary Iranians bravely risked their lives to join mass public protests against the repressive regime that has held power in Iran for the past 39 years. People have taken to the streets in more than 140 cities across Iran. Demonstrators chanting slogans like, 'Death to the Islamic Republic' have shown this is an uprising against the regime itself. They're sick of their wealth being looted to fund proxy wars and terrorists throughout the Middle East. Massive strikes and worker protests, huge farmer protests and open rebellions by Kurdish, Arab and Baluchi minorities continue to this day.

Much of the Western media has either failed to report the uprising at all or initially reported that the mass demonstrations were simply based on Iran's dire economic situation. The Western media doesn't seem to comprehend why 80 million beleaguered Iranian citizens could possibly rise up and demand regime change. The current mass demonstrations have shaken the dictatorship despite the deadly crackdowns, the torture, the death of at least 17 arrested protesters and the detention of over 10,000 citizens. While the protest movement has used social media to mobilise, the regime has countered with cyberwarfare.

Leading members of the regime have admitted their fear and vulnerability to regime change and have acknowledged the role and the growing support for the main democratic opposition movement, the People's Mujahedin of Iran. The clerical regime appears now to be on its last legs, and its demise may be inevitable. The people of Iran are charting the next necessary steps to restore peace, democracy, human rights and women's rights in their own country—I think we'd all support peace, democracy, women's rights and human rights—while bringing the perpetrators of crimes against humanity and terror to face justice. We should support them. It is time we woke up to the fact that, as long as the mullahs remain in power, there will be no possibility of peace. The mullahs will always be a major problem. They can never be part of the solution.

This Senate and the whole democratic world should express solidarity with the Iranian people and their resistance in their bid for democratic change. Now is the time for us to speak up. Australia should use its respected voice at the United Nations Human Rights Council and work with its allies at the UN and in other international forums to increase pressure on the Iranian regime and its leaders to release all political prisoners, abolish the oppression of women, guarantee freedom of speech and assembly and refer the government's abysmal human rights record to the UN Security Council.

This Saturday, the grand rally for Iranian democracy will take place in Paris. It will be attended by well over 100,000 people, including many hundreds of elected MPs and political dignitaries from Europe, North America and around the world. I wish them well. Our peace, our democracy and our freedom of speech are things that we probably take for granted in Australia. Come election time, probably all of us in this chamber are handing out 'how to votes'. When people walk up and say, 'Oh, I've got to vote again,' I say, 'Don't complain about it; many countries never get the opportunity.' Let's hope that they can get the opportunity for democratic change in Iran and rights are returned to women, who deserve exactly that—human rights. I wish them well in their protest and I hope there's a change very soon.