Tim Ayres (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Trade) Share this | Hansard source

The government's not in a position to support this urgency motion, and Senator Chandler could not be more wrong. The opposition is well aware of the interest that the Australian government is seeking to manage in its diplomatic relationship with Iran. We maintain diplomatic relations with Iran because it's in Australia's national interest to do so, and it is in the interests of our closest strategic partners.

I say that in an opaque way because that's as much as can be asserted here. But Senator Chandler knows all this, because it's not just Senator Birmingham and Senator Paterson who have been briefed by the government in relation to these issues. We paid Senator Chandler herself the respect of briefing her directly. She knows what the position is, yet she continues with the most grossly irresponsible approach on these questions. I suspect this is because it means a fleeting amount of attention and a fleeting amount of political advantage for her. She knows all these questions because she has been briefed. The fact that she continues in this vein is contemptible. For somebody who seeks future leadership roles in foreign affairs and geostrategic affairs to continue with this line of argument while they have been briefed is utterly irresponsible.

There is a letter from the foreign minister to the shadow minister for foreign affairs, urging the opposition to not proceed today with this motion. Why? It is because politicking—crass, base partisan politics—around this question undermines the Australian national interest. Yet Senator Paterson, again, enables the far right in the Liberal and National parties, who are utterly reckless about the national interest, to continue with this proposition. Fine.

We all agree with some of the propositions that Senator Chandler has advanced. I don't think anybody across the chamber would disagree that Iran plays a profoundly destabilising role—that's the kindest way of putting it—in the region. But there is a set of reasons that go to Australia's security and the security of our partners, and it is utterly reckless for Senator Chandler to continue with this. Lives are in the balance. The Australian government's approach on these questions is mobilised by the national interest proposition, not pandering to some section of the community, which has characterised 100 per cent of the Liberal and National parties' approach on these questions.