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

What the Senate chamber is being asked to deal with here is not the question about the shameful behaviour of the dictatorship in Iran. It is really being asked to deal with the question of the national interest versus the partisan interest, and what qualifies or disqualifies an alternative party of government from having that role is: are you prepared to put the national interest ahead of the partisan interest?

If we're going to go to the issue of performance, the previous government had nine years to take a hard line about these questions. There was not one sanction and not one piece of meaningful action. Iran was appointed to the Human Rights Committee, and there was no noise from the previous government. It is all just bluster and hot air, and it's hot air that undermines the Australian national interest almost every time they open their mouths on a foreign policy question.