Good afternoon my fellow Australians, it’s wonderful to be here with you today. It’s a particular honour to be here with you as the Federal Member for Berowra who represents the fourth largest Persian community in this country and someone who right throughout my parliamentary career has stood with Persians here in Australia and around the world.

Persians are wonderful people. You are an ancient civilisation with a modern liberal outlook. There are nearly a hundred thousand Persian Australians in this country. I see them in my community involved in absolutely every imaginable activity from P & Cs to sporting clubs to the doctors and nurses at Hornsby Hospital, the engineers, the IT professionals, people involved in the arts and in small business. You make wonderful Australians and while I’m delighted that Persian Australians are making a wonderful contribution to this country, I know for many they are here in Australia because for the best part of half a century a regime has been in power in Iran which has made the lives of the people of Iran a living hell.

Persian Australians are carrying the pain of watching loved ones in Iran live under a despotic regime, a criminal regime that abuses women and minorities, a regime noted for its abuse of human rights at home and its export of terror abroad including to our own country Australia. A criminal regime whose long arm follows people abroad and even intimidates the Iranian diaspora in this country. I’ve been calling out Iran for a decade that I’ve been in parliament for its abuse of the human rights of the Baha’i, for its abuse of its women, for its human rights violations and its terrorist proxies.

For six years I sat on the Joint Committee on Intelligence and Security. My proudest moments on that committee were the listing of the Iranian proxies Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist organisations.

In February 2023, three years ago following the murder of Mahsa Amini as the Shadow Attorney General of Australia, I stood up in the Parliament, and I called for the listing of the IRGC as a terrorist organisation. And three years ago, I offered the Coalition support for any measures to make that happen.

When I hosted Claire Chandler, Senator Claire Chandler who did a brilliant inquiry into human rights abuses in Iran in my constituency in 2023, people told me that they were afraid to come. They were afraid to come because of the long arm of the Embassy and the long arm of the IRGC in our own country.

And so, in October 2023, I called for Australia to sever diplomatic relations with Iran. And I am ashamed that even despite the human rights abuses, even despite the export of terror, that Labor luminaries like Bob Carr lined up for happy snaps with the former Ambassador.

Our government’s Middle East policy is a shambles. Australia has spent too much of the last four years condemning Israel rather than standing up against Iran when they were warned by Persian Australians and by the Jewish community of the danger that Iran posed to our country. And finally, after they were dragged kicking and screaming, they booted the Ambassador and passed legislation to prescribe the IRGC. But it took at least two regime-coordinated attacks on Jewish Australians on our own soil, attacks on the Lewis continental deli and attacks on the Adas Israel synagogue for this government to take action. Rather than playing catch up, Australia should be leading the global efforts to bring the criminal regime in Iran to justice.

So, what do we see in Iran today? We see a regime that has shut down the internet. We see a regime that has murdered at least 30,000 of its own people. I know front of mind for all of us are the protests that are spread across cities and town. Millions of ordinary people finding the courage to stand up and demand change. Thousands paid for their lives. Many more have been injured and assaulted and tortured and left with trauma that they will carry for their lifetimes.

I want to talk about some of the heroic people who lost their lives.

Sholeh Sotoudeh, a mother of two young children from Langarud who was pregnant with her third child when she and her unborn baby were killed on January 10 when forces opened fire on a crowd she was in.

Ziba Dastjerdi, 33, who was shot and killed in front of her 8-year-old daughter at a protest in Nishapur.

40-year-old Soran Feyzizadeh who died because of torture he was subjected to while being held following his arrest on January 7. Reports say that “his body was barely recognisable due to the extent of injuries caused by repeated blows.”

15-year-old Taha Safari is believed to be one of the youngest victims of the protests. He was detained by authorities, with his body handed to his family 3 days later.

28-year-old Negin Ghadimi was shot, with live ammunition leaving her body from her stomach. Unable to get to the hospital, she died in the hands of her father. 

I’m sorry to be graphic, but we need to tell these stories. We need to tell these stories so that Australians listen and so that we take action.

Two people, one child, were sexually assaulted while being arrested. An individual close to the child’s family described how forces touched their bodies with batons. They beat and applied pressure to the anal area with a baton through their clothing.

We know that sexual violence is rampant.

An Iranian-born journalist said in recent days, no women’s bodies are turning up, and that’s because according to eyewitness accounts, they’re being raped, their uteruses are removed, their scalps are being ripped off along with their hair and their bodies covered in cigarette burns.

These accounts should make any decent person, regardless of their background, sick to the stomach. And we know Iran has Australia in its sights. Radical Islamist extremism has no place in this country.

When I spoke in the parliament recently about radical Islamic extremism and its role in the Bondi massacre, I spoke specifically about Iranian Australians in my community, who for years have stood up to the mullahs of Iran and against all extremism. While your community has stood up, there are others in this city who protest every week about women’s rights, but they are selective in the women’s rights that they want to stand up with.

Let me tell you, I am completely consistent. I will stand up for those people seeking freedom against radical Islamist terror, whether it is in Israel, whether it is in Iran, whether it is the Kurdish people. It is time we looked the Ayatollah in the eye and said enough. Let me applaud your strength and your courage, I am honoured to be here as a member of parliament to stand with you.

I want to let you know that tomorrow I am going to stand in the Australian parliament and condemn the Iranian regime and its abuse of human rights at home and its export of terror abroad. I want people across our great country Australia to know that the Persian people will not be ignored.

And so today I am here to honour Mahsa Amini. I am here to honour Reza Pahlavi. I am here to honour all those who speak up and who want Iran to live out its destiny as a free democratic nation, not a pariah state under a brutal criminal dictatorship. I want an Iran where the Iranian people freely choose their future, far from the jackboots of a police state.

I want an Iran where women have the same rights and freedoms that they enjoy in this country, Australia. I want an Iran where women and girls can live free and without fear, where they can dress as they choose, where they can pursue an education, where they can build a career, where they can make choices to shape their own futures. I want an Iran where children can go to schools and learn and grow, not to be subjected to political or religious extremism and indoctrination, and where families can live their daily lives in peace.

To everyone here today, I say thank you for standing up for what is right, for standing with friends, with loved ones, with family, with strangers in Iran. With all of us who hope that one day the people in Iran will be as free as the people in Australia.

To those who are protesting in Iran, I say as I’ve said before, you may live under the sword of fear, but you are the champions of liberty.

We see you, we hear you, we stand with you, and we will not be silent.

Thank you.