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

I rise in strong support of this motion today, and on behalf of the Australian Greens we stand with all of the women and girls and people of Iran. They have a government that is killing them. It is unfathomable to privileged people like us here in Australia where, whilst our democracy has its problems, we are essentially safe from being shot at by our own government. This is an extremely, deeply distressing issue, and I appreciate that the Minister for Foreign Affairs has made some representations to the ambassador and made some appropriate remarks by Twitter a month or so ago. But it is not enough. If you feel it—and I think you do—you've just got to follow through with some action.

As has been said by many of the previous contributors to this discussion, most of the world has already done this. It's not like we're daring to go out on a limb and lead here, which wouldn't be such a problem if we were. But everybody else has already imposed sanctions. They are already taking really strong action and sending a really strong message that it is not acceptable to tell people—to tell women—what they can or cannot wear. And it's certainly not acceptable to arrest people and then kill them because they haven't got their headscarf on properly or their pants are too tight. It is inconceivable that our government is not doing more to stop this sort of treatment of people in another nation. There are so many things that could be done. My colleague and many of the other speakers have gone through the Magnitsky-style sanctions that could be employed. But, frankly, we should also be declaring the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organisation. We should be immediately moving to withdraw the Iranian regime from the Commission on the Status of Women. These are concrete measures that could and should be taken by the Australian government and that we would not be alone in taking.

I was so proud to stand at a Brisbane rally—and I give a massive shout-out to the strong Brisbane Iranian community who are holding successive rallies, as I'm sure is happening right around the country. These people are strong and determined. They deserve safety in their own country, and they deserve a government that they have the right to vote for and vote out. I hope that this strength and resilience and sheer bravery and courage of the women, girls and people of Iran will ultimately lead to a democratic system for them, and I want the Australian government to do everything it can to send the message that we are with you. That is what we want for you too, that you get to make your own decisions about your own lives and your own government. I don't think that's too much to ask.

Again, I was so proud and privileged to stand with those people in Brisbane. I now have a beautiful little plaque that says, 'Women. Life. Freedom' that I have put with pride in my parliamentary office. It reminds us of the job we have to do here to stand up for the rights of women, girls and people everywhere, not just in our own nation.