CONSTITUENCY STATEMENTS

Mr LEESER (Berowra) (10:06): One of the great privileges of being the federal member for Berowra is representing the third-largest Persian community in Australia. Persian Australians are wonderful Australians. They're the doctors and nurses at Hornsby Hospital.

They're the lawyers, the engineers and the teachers. They run small businesses in our community. They're the soccer mums and the netball dads.

We are so enriched by their presence. But they've come to be in Australia because their homeland, Iran, has been run for nearly 50 years by one of the world's worst criminal terrorist regimes that commits human rights abuses at home, in particular, against women, ethnic and religious minorities, political dissidents and sexual minorities. And, of course, they export terror around the world.

They back the Houthis in Yemen, they back Hamas and Hezbollah in Israel and Lebanon and they back the destruction of property and terrorist acts in our own country. On at least two occasions, this dreadful regime has attacked our people. I want to say that it's the coalition who has constantly stood with the Iranian people both in Australia and abroad.

We dragged the government, kicking and screaming, to list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation. We called for the listing back in 2022. It took the government two years to do the right thing.

Two years before they booted the ambassador, we called for the ambassador to be booted from this country. We should not be having relationships with this terrible regime. This morning I experienced something in my parliamentary career that I will always remember.

For months now I have been calling for Reza Pahlavi, who is a figure of unity in the Persian diaspora both here and abroad, to visit our country and to speak in our parliament. This morning, senior coalition shadow ministers and other members, including myself, had the opportunity of having a virtual meeting with Reza Pahlavi. When I was sitting and listening to Reza Pahlavi, I was thinking of the Persian community in my electorate, who for so long have called on me to be a voice to bring Reza Pahlavi to Australia.

We look forward to him visiting Australia in the future. Reza Pahlavi reminded us of the brutality of the regime that executed 40,000 of its own people over the Australian summer, that arrested 100,000 people and that murders people every single day in public executions. He offers a vision for an Iran that is prosperous, peaceful, democratic and part of the broader world.

That is a vision that I hope for. Persians across the world and in this country have shown extraordinary courage. They continue to believe that Iran can be something better, and so do I.

I believe Iran can again be a country where people can speak and worship freely, as they can in Australia. I believe the darkness will lift, and when it lifts the Persian people will remember that I stood with them, that the coalition stood with them and that Australia stood with them. The Persian people deserve democracy, and they deserve to hear the voice of Reza Pahlavi in our country.