Penny Wong also spoke on the same program and was asked about the expulsion of the Iranian ambassador and said:

We took from the ASIO assessment a very clear understanding that is we have a foreign government who was working to engage in and orchestrate violent attacks on Australians on Australian soil.

So we have made an unprecedented decision which is to expel an Ambassador for the first time since World War II. Now, we retain diplomatic relations with a lot of countries we don’t agree with it. We do it for our interests and also because of Australians in those countries as well as the capacity to engage with them. This crossed a line. That is why we’ve taken this unprecedented decision. We’ve also closed… suspended our operations in Tehran and removed Australian personnel there.