Sussan Ley adds her support to those comments on indulgence (when the house allows you to speak off-schedule)

Ley:

I rise on indulgence to associate the opposition with the prime minister’s remarks. We are all disgusted to learn of the serious and chilling foreign interference which has been perpetrated by the Islamic Republic of Iran on Australian soil.

As the Director-General of security explained today, the Iranian government has been confirmed as having directed at least two attacks against Australia’s Jewish community, including the fire bombing of the Adass Israel synagogue.

To Australia’s Jewish community, our message has been abundantly clear through this period of heightened anti-Semitism, all Australians have a right to practise their faith free from persecution, free from violence and free from fear.

These acts of egregious foreign interference are brazen attempts to cleaver apart our social cohesion, to turn neighbour against neighbour and Australian against Australian. I therefore want to make itabundantly clear from the opposition, while we sit opposite the government in this chamber, we’re entirely united on the measures announced today to expel the Iranian ambassador and list the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has a terrorist organisation.

Brace yourself. Question time has begun. I think we all know what the topic is going to be.

Sussan Ley:

Moments ago, Australians learned the most egregious acts of foreign interference against our nation. The expulsion of the Iranian ambassador from our country and the listing of the IRGC as a terrorist organisation are entirely necessary actions the Coalition has previously called for, and supports. Can the Prime Minister update the House on these developments and the actions the government is taking in the national interest?

Albanese:

I thank the member for her question. And for the parliamentary bipartisan support for the actions that we have taken. We know that since those terrible events by the Hamas terrorists on October 7 we have witnessed a number of appalling anti-Semitic attacks against Australia’s Jewish community.

We have been clear that these attacks have no place in Australia. And the government asked ASIO and the AFP to investigate as a priority, and I do want to thank the extraordinary work that has been done to get – to get to the bottom of what is – has been quite a complex issue.

ASIO has now gathered enough credible intelligence to reach a deeply disturbing conclusion, that the Iranian government directed at least two of these attacks. Iran has sought to disguise its involvement through the use of criminal elements being paid here in Australia. ASIO assesses that apart from these two attacks, it is likely there are more as well.

These were extraordinary and dangerous acts of aggression orchestrated by a foreign nation on Australian soil. They were attempts to undermine social cohesion and sow Discord in our community. And it’s totally unacceptable and the Australian government is taking strong and decisive action in response. The Iranian ambassador is being expelled. We were briefed by ASIO yesterday.

We went through our appropriate processes and ensured that the Australian diplomats who are based in Tehran were able to get safely to a third country before these revelations became public because of concern for their safety and I confirm that that has occurred and we have suspended operations at the embassy in Tehran.

The government will legislate so that we can list Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, has a terrorist organisation. The actions of my government send a very clear message to nations like Iran, who seek to interfere in our re, that — in our country, that your aggression will not be tolerated. As we face those who seek to do us harm, Australia must stand together. We briefed the premiers of Victoria and New South Wales, as well as I spoke with Rabbi Khanh of the Adass Israel synagogue. We also spoke with the restaurant in the member for Wentworth’s electorate as well that was impacted by this.

There is more investigations going on, I must say. So there will be a limit to what the information that the ASIO Director-General and the officials will give. Obviously our priority is making sure that the perpetrators of this direct and indirect are brought to justice and we don’t want to engage in any talk that potentially disrupts the investigations which are ongoing. As I said, ASIO is very clear, the Director-General, there’s at least two accounts the government has been briefed and certainly the – I would hope that the Leader of the Opposition and appropriate people take advantage of a briefing as well. This – this is the case that this is the most serious response that any Australian government has given.

We don’t expel an ambassador lightly because of the consequences of that. But we do think that it is an appropriate response given the extraordinary behaviour and the direct link they’ve been able to draw through a direct chain to individuals and to the IRGC.

Before question time, Anthony Albanese and Sussan Ley welcomed the Australian of the Year Neale Daniher to the parliament.

Mike Bowers caught a meeting between the pair earlier in the day:

Albanese:

It’s a great honour to welcome our 2025 Australian of the Year, Neale Daniher. I was able to meet with Neale, a wonderful evening at the arboretum, where Neale was designated as a very worthy Australian of the Year.

Since Neale was diagnosed with MND in 2013, he has inspired all Australians with his battle against what he calls ‘the beast’. Neale, I know you are fond of saying when all is said and done, more is said than done.” What you have done is truly extraordinary.

Through fight MND, those iconic beanies and the famous big freeze slide on the King’s Birthday at the ‘G, $117 million has been raised to fund research into a cure.

I know this whole Parliament is proud to support those efforts as governments from both sides have over many years. Neale, yours is a message of hope, a message of courage and a message of determination. It’s touched the lives of so many Australians. You lift us all up, welcome to our Parliament and thank you, mate, for what you do.

Spare a thought for skills minister Andrew Giles who was giving a speech at the National Press Club at the exact time the government announced it was expelling the Iranian ambassador after accusing Iran of direct involvement in anti-Semitic attacks in Australia.

Just a bit of overshadowing there.

When Defence Minister Richard Marles arrives in  Washington  for meetings with Trump administration officials this week, he is likely to face pressure from both sides of America’s political isle to commit to joining the US in any potential war against China. The AUKUS deal is again being used as a bargaining chip.

Yesterday, the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a bipartisan US think tank, released a report co-authored by Abraham Denmark, who was an AUKUS advisor in the Biden Administration. It calls for “a robust contingency planning process that incorporates Australian SSNs [nuclear-powered attack submarines]” to give Washington “more concrete reassurances that submarines sold to Australia would not disappear if and when needed”.

In plain terms, the authors want to ensure that, in the even of a war, Australia’s nuclear submarines would be functionally part of the American fleet.  

Of course, Trump has already effectively made this official policy. In July, his defence official in charge of the ongoing AUKUS review, Elbridge Colby, pressed Australia and Japan to commit to sending their forces to fight China over Taiwan.

To its credit, the Albanese Government stuck to its guns (or in this case, its refusal to brandish the guns) and maintained the long-standing Australian policy that any decision to dispatch forces would be made by the government of the day. But the new report suggests that Australia will continue to face this pressure from the USA, regardless of which party is in government.

Losing the sovereignty to make decisions about going to war is a high price to pay for a few submarines, and that’s in addition to the eye-watering $368 billion price tag. That’s if the submarines are delivered at all.

Importantly, the ANZUS pact—the document enshrining Australia’s alliance with the US—does not compel either country to automatically come to the military aid of the other.

That means Australia can say “no” to joining a war that it does not see as in its interests. When John Howard signed Australia up to the US-led “War on Terror”, it was not because of any treaty obligation, and we know how well that ended. If Australian Government is going to commit to even closer ties with the US military through the AUKUS deal, the Australian public at least deserves a chance to properly scrutinise this arrangement, though a parliamentary inquiry.

Just a reminder that in December, Benjamin Netanyahu blamed the Albanese government for the Melbourne synagogue attack (which has now been linked by ASIO to Iran).

Netanyahu said that it was “impossible to separate this reprehensible act from the extreme anti-Israeli position of the Labor government in Australia, including the scandalous decision to support the UN resolution calling on Israel ‘to bring an end to its unlawful presence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, as rapidly as possible’, and preventing a former Israeli minister from entering the country” in remarks which were widely reported.

Just as a reminder.

Well, that was a lot to take in.

Here is what we know.

Yesterday, the prime minister and cabinet received a report from ASIO that alleged concrete links between Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and recent anti-Semitic attacks in Australia, including the Adass Israel synagogue in Melbourne and a foiled alleged attack in Sydney.

Foreign affairs staff were immediately activated in pulling out Australian diplomatic staff from Iran and relocating them to third countries.

Once that had happened, Australia informed Iran’s ambassador to Australia that their diplomatic status had been revoked (known as persona non grata in diplomatic speak) and they had seven days to leave the country. That all happened just after midday.

Australia will now take steps to register the IRGC as a terrorist group under Australia’s terrorism register.

There are more cases being investigated, and while criminal elements are suspected of having been involved, ASIO boss Mike Burgess says he does not think organised crime is involved in the attacks, and instead some people have been paid to carry them out.

The allegation (some of this is still in front of a court or may end up in a court, so it is all alleged at this point) is that Iran paid some Australian based people to carry out the plans.

So yeah. Bit on.

Q: Just stepping back a bit, your government has faced calls in the past from the opposition to list the IRGC as a terrorist outfit and to expel the ambassador, and you have resisted it on the grounds it’s important to have diplomatic relations with Iran, if only for the intelligence benefits through the five eyes. Is now the case what happened has outweighed that imperative, no more diplomatic relations as long as the IRGC remains in power in Iran?

Anthony Albanese:

It’s the case that having received this information yesterday, we went through our formal channels and made decisions that were in Australia’s national interest. Based upon this changed information.

Q: Is Iran the major player when it comes to the anti-Semitic attacks?

Mike Burgess:

If you go back to the 7 October 2023, we saw the rise in tension and emotion and we saw protest, most of that our great country was peaceful, but some threatening intimidating actions at that time. But it was on October 24 that we saw that transition. I’m on the record as saying this, from threatening and intimidating behaviours to direct targeting of people, businesses and places of worship. Iran started the first of those. But not all of those are directed by Iran in our view.

Q: Is the government in any way considering this to be an attack from the nation of Iran on the nation of Australia? Or is it more considered to be an attack on the Jewish community, an act of terrorism?

Anthony Albanese:

Any attack on our social cohesion is an attack on Australia. We are proud of the country that we’ve built. A country where people can live overwhelmingly side by side of different faith, of different background, in harmony. We cherish it. We protect it. We defend it. And that’s what we’re doing here today.

Is it criminal gangs?

Mike Burgess:

Not in my view. These are cut-outs all the way through. That was offshore. But they have connections to Australia, obviously.

Does Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu owe Anthony Albanese an apology for claiming that Australia was not doing enough to combat anti-Semitism?

Albanese:

I’m not interested in personal issues. What I’m interested in is making a difference. Making a difference for Australia’s social cohesion, adopting a position which is principled. Which is in line with what Australians want to see.

The Iranian ambassador was informed half an hour ago that they were being expelled.