Paul Scarr (Queensland, Liberal Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Multicultural Engagement) Share this | Hansard source

I have spoken on this issue a number of times. I congratulate Senator Chandler for her advocacy in this matter. I want to take issue with two points that were raised by the minister. First, he described the IRGC as a 'malignant actor'. That was the phrase he used in his statement—'malignant actor'. It is a terrorist organisation. The IRGC should be declared a terrorist organisation because it is a terrorist organisation. If there is some legislative impediment then talk to the opposition. We have made our view s abundantly clear in this regard and we will cooperate to amend the law if that is what is required to have the IRGC declared a terrorist organisation. Members of the crossbench will also co-operate, I'm sure, because this is an organisation that engages in terrorist operations all over the world.

It appears we came so close in January 2023 to nominating it as a terrorist organisation. There was even a statement of reasons prepared to nominate it and then nothing—crickets! Nothing. The US has declared it a terrorist organisation. The European Union parliament has almost unanimously called on its member states to declare it a terrorist organisation. But this government describes it as a 'malignant actor'. I wonder who crafted that phrase? It is not a 'malignant actor'; it is a terrorist organisation.

I want to give people listening to this debate some sort of insight into what this organisation does. I am reading from an article here that was written by Matthew Levitt, Wednesday 8 February 2023. It's entitled: 'The EU can and should designate the IRGC is terrorist group'. These are some of the examples he gives:

Beyond Europe, the latest evidence of Iranian terrorist plotting abroad came out last Friday, when senior U.S. officials gathered for a press conference to reveal the indictment and arrest of three criminals charged with the attempted murder-for-hire of an American-Iranian journalist in New York.

That is what they do. This is a terrorist organisations that targets Iranians dissidents who are shining a bright light on the almost unbelievable human rights abuses that are occurring in Iran.

The three were part of an organized criminal organization based in Eastern Europe with ties to Iran. The leader of the group, who was based in Iran, was enlisted by Iranian agents in 2022 to assassinate the victim in the United States.

Another example:

In August, the U.S. Department of Justice indicted IRGC personnel behind assassination plots targeting former senior U.S. government officials in the United States, among others. In 2019, two Iranian operatives pleaded guilty to charges stemming from their surveillance activities targeting Iranian dissidents and Jewish targets in the United States.

How is this? More recently, this is what the IRGC, the organisation described as a 'malignant actor', did: they agreed to pay an assassin $300,000 to kill John Bolton, who used to be US representative on United Nations. More recently, the IRGC agreed to pay an assassin $1 million for the assassination of the former secretary of state Mike Pompeo. This is the organisation we are dealing with. The United States has declared it a terrorist organisation. The EU parliament has overwhelmingly called for its member states to declare it a terrorist organisation, not a 'malignant actor'.

The Australian-Iranian diaspora is looking to this parliament to take action to declare this terrorist organisation a terrorist organisation, and all we get from the government are mealy-mouthed excuses as to why they can't. Their lack of good faith in this matter is indicated in the fact that they refuse to engage in constructive discussions with the coalition and the crossbench to address any legal impediments that would prevent the IRGC being declared a terrorist organisation. The IRGC should be declared a terrorist organisation because it is a terrorist organisation.