Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

It has been a year since the death of Mahsa 'Jina' Amini, and Iranians continue to face terror and violence under the current regime. Now, this is not a new behaviour for the Iranian regime. In 1988 Iranian authorities acting under the orders of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini summarily and extrajudicially executed thousands of political prisoners across the country. They executed between 2,800 and 5,000 prisoners in at least 32 cities across the country. Today, over 10 people are put to death each week in Iran. Think about that: 10 families ripped apart at the hands of a brutal state, often for doing no more or less than speaking up for democracy, speaking up for freedom. In 2022 alone, 582 people were executed. This year there have already been 474 executions—and those are only the ones that we know about.

This is a regime that, while it perpetrates terror upon its own citizens, is also supporting Russia in its illegal war against Ukraine, including with the supply of drones, which Russia is then using in the commission of war crimes.

Too many innocent Iranians have lost their lives, have been repressed, have been silenced, and too many families have grieved and felt loss and pain under this regime. The endless persecution of peaceful protesters continues as we sit here in the Senate. Iran's so-called 'morality police' still arrest women for not acting in accordance with their interpretations of the law. They still place people within environments that lead to their torture and their murder.

Now, let us look with a clear eye upon the actions of this government in relation to Iran. This government will often proudly claim that it has done more on Iran than any previous government. Well, when the bar is as low as that set by the last mob that is nothing to crow about. The reality of the Albanese government's response to the humanitarian disaster in Iran and the persecution of the Iranian people is that it was too slow, it was grudgingly enacted and it has continued to fail to keep pace with the contemporary evolutions on the ground. It has been months since the foreign minister has made a statement about Iran. In fact—and they've recently been called out for this publicly—the foreign minister has not criticised Iran since she last condemned the May execution of Majid Kazemi alongside other democracy activists. That condemnation was overdue, but since then there has been nothing—absolutely nothing.

We have not expanded our Magnitsky sanctions against Iran since March of this year. This is not a fair reflection of the urgency with which the Iranian community is lobbying the Australian government for action. Every day Australian Iranians across the country are working—they are giving their time, labour and energy—to ensure that the cause of democracy, freedom of women and life in Iran is something with which this government has to contend. In that continual work the Australian Greens are with them, proudly in solidarity. The government must stop resting on its laurels here. It should get up off the mat and get to work alongside this movement for women, for life and for freedom.