Matt Gregg
Deakin · Australian Labor Party · Australia
“Now, let's talk about the challenges faced by the Australian people: a quadrupling of house prices over two decades, unresolved by the Liberal Party in government; and we had 4.1 gigawatts out of baseload energy, unresponded to by the coalition government.”
“This is a government focused on the future and focused on actually resolving the challenges faced by the Australian people rather than whinging about them and going on template tirades which solve absolutely nothing. The coalition then have the gall to say, 'Oh, look, the coalition's less popular.”
“We are going to confront them on behalf of the Australian people, to make sure that they can be optimistic that the future is going to be better. We make absolutely no apologies for that. Today, 1 July—despite me sounding a little angry—is actually a very good day. It's a very good day! Every taxpayer is getting a tax cut.”
“Change is what the Labor government is delivering. We are making difficult decisions that actually address the challenges faced by Australians. We don't just sit here proud of the status quo; we come here to make a difference. It's very easy to come in and make statements. What is difficult is change.”
“Then, suddenly, they come into this chamber as if all challenges faced by society came out of nowhere and are all Labor's fault. It's complete nonsense. We are responding to the issue of energy shortages by developing a 21st-century grid, because we know that energy is the key to future productivity and success.”
“Where do I begin? We start with the member for Goldstein making up quotes to be outraged by, reciting tired old campaign lines from a party fast approaching the abyss.”
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“With artificial intelligence changing the world of work, many of us will have to adjust to a new career. Often, when it's time to make a career transition, we're not carrying a wallet brimming with cash. Sometimes it happens suddenly and unexpectedly. To now have the option of being able to reskill and enter a new career, a new workforce, is now more important than ever before. We're seeing the rewards of this across different sectors desperate for skills. When I talk to employers, they often say they're struggling to find skilled workers to fill their vacancies. We have a low unemployment rate, but we need to make sure that our workforce has the skills industry needs in order to provide the essential services we all rely upon, and free TAFE is an enabler of that.”
“I rise to proudly support the motion brought by the member for Dunkley. Free TAFE has been an incredibly important program in the state of Victoria, helping to train the next generation of enrolled nurses, people assisting with literacy and numeracy in the classroom and, of course, tradies. Students at Swinburne TAFE in Croydon, where I visited as recently as last week, are learning those essential skills. We're seeing free TAFE make an enormous difference to individuals' lives, enabling people to gain initial skills after leaving school or to reskill midlife. In an economy where there is so much transition going on at the moment, the ability for all of us to equip ourselves with new skills, mid-career, mid-working-life, has become more important than ever.”
“They could see the potential of this new facility to provide a place where our young people can be brought in, can be safe, can connect—not only with one another but with other groups in our community—can engage with community policing and other government services and where they will have supports to engage in pro-social activities and use their time in exciting and productive ways. I'm incredibly excited for the community. I congratulate Principal Gilbert for her wonderful advocacy. This is just part of the work we're doing in Croydon. We're spending millions on infrastructure in Croydon, and I can't wait to speak about that in the coming days.”
“This is a perfectly located facility, right over the road from the shopping centre where we often see young people hanging around and causing a little bit of concern. But it actually provides us with an opportunity to run programs that engage them in sporting and pro-social activities, to actually intervene and make a difference to their lives while addressing concerns in our community as well. It's win, win, win, win—and that is ideal when we invest in a piece of infrastructure. It's great to see that, when we invest in schools, we're also investing in the community more broadly, and the benefits of this facility are going to be massive. We had representatives of the Chin community from Burma, or Myanmar, there also. They were thrilled by what they saw.”
“It certainly tested the limits of my own ears, but it was just a thrilling moment with such powerful energy in the room. After the assembly, Principal Gilbert took us for a more thorough tour, and it was amazing to see how genuinely proud and thrilled she was of the new fantastic facility—just beaming the entire time. And she was right to be proud because she had engaged in long-term advocacy for years and years and years. This was a discussion we were having back in 2021. It was a long-held plan. It seemed like mission impossible, and to see a project like that come to life is so thrilling. It also showed the power of a community neighbourhood public school as a hub for community resources.”
“This was a significant investment in their futures. It showed that our community cared about them and was invested in their future. It showed that were listening to community leaders who were begging for the infrastructure to run these programs as well. They had the plans, they had the ideas, they had the grassroots engagement, support and volunteers, but they just needed a space. Finally, we were able to open up a first class location for this wonderful community to continue with their important work. The students were so excited and, I have to admit, encouraged by the Minister for Education, to test the acoustics of this fantastic new facility. I'm pleased to say that the windows were able to withstand that pressure of that uniquely high-pitched screaming you get from someone around the age of six or seven.”
“I was still thrilled to be driving past Croydon Primary School being built over the years. It was always a thrill to see it begin, and one of my first stops after being elected was to see the work being done on the primary school gym which was under construction, which I was able to do with my friend the Minister for Education, the honourable Jason Clare. It was amazing to see it coming to life, and, only just a few weeks ago, even more thrilling to join the Minister for Education once again and walk into a brand new gym, seeing the faces of the excited staff and students at the school who were absolutely thrilled with their magnificent new facility. I am not a crying person. Those who know me would say that. But I can say that I did shed a tear that day because what it meant to those young people and to those parents was jaw-dropping.”
“We needed a piece of infrastructure through which we could run programs to engage these young people, and I'm so proud that we finally have it. The Principal of Croydon Primary School, Julie Gilbert, was a fierce advocate for this proposal from day 1, and she made an incredibly convincing case. As a teacher, I could see the massive difference it would make to the school community and to the community more broadly. I was thrilled to announce back in 2022 that the government would build a gym if the Albanese Labor government were elected, and I think it's fair to say the school community was pretty excited at the time. Of course, history tells us that I did not win the 2022 election, but I'm pleased to say that the Albanese government honoured its promise nevertheless.”
“When I first ran for parliament in 2022, I quickly got used to all sorts of requests being made, all good ideas. As someone who became interested in politics wanting to make the community a better place, I loved all the ideas, but the reality is that not all can be funded. The hard decision is: which do we choose? Which can we support? Which are the really good ideas, and what needs to be given priority? In 2022, one idea stood out to me. Croydon Primary School was calling for a gym not only to support their wonderful student community during the day but also as a piece of essential infrastructure after-hours to help engage what we found to be a bit of a disengaged group of youth in the area, hanging around in shopping centres and getting into a bit of mischief. We needed a hub.”
“He's really dedicated himself to helping young people find their path, whatever that might be. He also played an instrumental role in setting up the Billanook College, a private school out in Mooroolbark—the member for Casey would be well and truly familiar with it—and he's been a lifelong education advocate. I, again, congratulate him on his achievement of being awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia. Finally, Reverend John Taylor has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia as well. He was the inaugural CEO of OzChild. He has been a great leader in governance in the not-for-profit sector and has really lifted the quality of services provided for vulnerable children and young people. Congratulations to Reverend John Taylor for his Medal of the Order of Australia.”
“He has done electrical testing and inspections for the op shop and for local events, has served on a range of working groups and committees and is just the kind of person you see always pitching in. And his service continues. Rob has been a real pillar of the community. I congratulate him for his service—not only for Rotary but for our community more generally—and, obviously, for his great achievement in winning a Medal of the Order of Australia. Lionel Parrot has also been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia. He has used his lived experience to help improve and promote educational outcomes. He began his career as a careers adviser having noticed, through his own life experience, that sometimes it's very difficult to find that pathway to future success at the end of your school life or in university.”
“In addition to her recent award, she has been recognised as the Australian Performance Automotive Council's Australian of the Year. She remains heavily involved in the business, along with many others in her family. She's done an incredible job in our community, for the motorsport community in general, for local business entrepreneurs and, as I said, for local manufacturing. I am in awe of all that Margaret's achieved and congratulate her on her recent honour. Robert Edwards has also been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia, for his service as a Rotarian. He's been involved in Rotary's Warrandyte Donvale branch for 42 years now. He's been president twice, as I understand it—once in the early nineties and once very recently. He's done every job that it is possible to do within a Rotary club.”
“I rise today to warmly congratulate four incredible individuals in Deakin who have made significant contributions to our local community and who have been recognised recently as part of the Australia Day awards. Margaret Dymond has been awarded a Medal of the Order of Australia for her services to motorsport. She's known in many circles as the owner of Penrite Oil, which makes a great locally manufactured set of products for vehicles and which her family has owned since 1979. That's an awfully long time. She's worked incredibly hard in supporting the motorsport industry and has been a huge supporter of young up-and-comers in motorsport. She's often seen at local car shows and events and has been a pinnacle member of the motorsport community. She's also led a great Australian manufacturer.”
“My question is to the Treasurer. How is the Albanese Labor government helping with the cost of living and boosting retirement incomes? What are the alternative approaches to cost-of-living relief and superannuation?”
“It builds on an existing rebate system, increasing support without adding any complexity to the system. It's a measured adjustment within a well-understood framework. This isn't about sweeping change. This is not a radical bill. It's about making systems work better for the people who interact with them every day. It strengthens superannuation, one of Australia's great policy achievements, and improves clarity and confidence. It reinforces trust in systems. For those reasons, I commend the bill to the House.”
“Another way of doing it is for some charities that might not neatly fall into one of those legislative boxes to be defined in tax legislation, and that enables them to collect donations—as I was saying, with a tax deduction if that donation is above $2. It is an important thing. It adds several new charities. It extends some listings, because they are defined by period of time, and also removes some organisations—the common reason being that some of the money is used other than for the purpose for which that DGR status was given. It is a regular practice, and it's very important that we maintain up-to-date registers to ensure that good charities are being supported. Schedule 6 adjusts the existing wine rebate framework. It increases the maximum wine equalisation tax producer rebate from $350,000 to $400,000 per year from 1 July 2026.”
“This treaty reduces those risks while preserving Australia's strong anti-avoidance framework. It follows international best practice, strengthens cooperation between tax authorities and provides clearer rules for resolving disputes. It is about certainty where certainty is needed and integrity where integrity must be protected. Schedule 5 is about supporting philanthropy with integrity. It updates the list of specifically prescribed deductible gift recipients. In layman's terms, if you donate more than $2 you can reduce the amount of that donation from your taxable income—so it is a very important means by which charitable organisations get support. Generally, there's a whole lot of categories which you need to strictly be aligned with in order to be defined as a deductible gift recipient.”
“This is a fairly standard tax measure that happens with a lot of large-scale sporting events, essentially exempting them from income tax and withholding tax over a defined period of time—a very standard procedure that we've seen with other events before. It's not only common Australian practice; it is international practice. Nevertheless, it is important to clarify that tax treatment. Speaking of the clarifying of tax treatment, schedule 4 goes to an arrangement with the Portuguese Republic, or Portugal. It gives domestic legal effect to Australia's first tax treaty with Portugal. For businesses operating across borders, uncertainty is costly and we certainly don't want to see double taxation because it can deter investment, complicate planning and increase compliance burdens.”
“They could have completely abolished advertising, which would mean that those businesses would face higher costs, because they'd suddenly have to pay for platforms they're currently getting for free. But we also want to make sure the high risks and financial risks are minimised through these reforms. These are quite balanced and proportional, and very much designed with the interests of businesses as well as the interests of employees in mind. Australians should be able to trust that, when they engage in superannuation at the start of a job, the system is there to serve them, not to sell to them. Schedule 3 looks at the supporting of the Rugby World Cup, both men's and women's; the Men's Rugby World Cup is in 2027 and the Women's Rugby World Cup is in 2029.”
“At the moment, if a new fund is chosen through that process, all those stapling provisions don't apply. The employer is under no obligation and has no reason to seek information about your other fund details. So it has eroded the purpose underpinning that 2021 set of reforms. Schedule 2 sets a fairly clear boundary. You can't advertise non-MySuper accounts where the results haven't been audited in line with processes that have been around for awhile now. It's designed to promote only simple, regulated defaults and not any of the ones with bells and whistles or high-risk-tolerance ones. It's not anti-choice; it is just preventing the pushing of higher-risk superannuation plans, knowing that that was a balance of competing possibilities.”
“Superannuation works best when decisions are made deliberately, not under pressure, persuasion or commercial influence. Starting a new job is not a shopping experience. It is not the right moment for sales tactics, particularly when the product in question will shape someone's financial future decades down the line. As I was saying earlier, evidence has shown that some online platforms have been using that moment to promote what some would consider higher-risk superannuation products that most would objectively say are not in someone's financial benefit to sign up to. And as we've heard before, getting that superannuation account right, choosing the super fund with the right risk tolerance, is incredibly important. To use those kinds of tactics undermines the trust the system relies on.”
“For businesses it means fewer errors, fewer delays and a greater certainty that super contributions are really going to the right place from the get-go. Choice is preserved. People can still choose whatever fund they want and change over time, and if they really want to have multiple accounts they can. But the standard form choice still needs to be given and the choice still belongs to the employee under this regime. What changes is the quality and timing of information in the process. As Australia moves towards paying super close to payday, this becomes even more important. Having accurate fund details early means that contributions flow sooner, more reliably and with fewer compliance headaches. This is good for workers and it's good for employers, and that is how a strong system becomes an even stronger one.”
“But it's something that should attract support, because it really is building on something that has for a very long time been politically uncontroversial in Australia—that multiple accounts are bad for workers. Schedule 1 essentially enables employers and their agents to access stapled fund details earlier—as I was saying before, a stapled fund is a worker's existing superannuation account—and to provide that information to employees at the point when choices are actually being made by those workers. For workers, it means recognising that they already have a super account—it's clearly set out in front of them—and that they can choose with confidence whether to stick with their current fund or, if they really want to, take on a new fund as well. They might want a change, entering a new industry or the like.”
“But it doesn't nominate a superannuation fund such that the employee can find out whether an existing account exists. This has created an administrative burden and has also sometimes resulted in undesirable outcomes. The very purpose of stapling is to make sure money is not being put into new accounts all the time to the detriment of workers. But it is now being undermined by advertising that we are seeing in an increasing number of online onboarding platforms. That is something that wasn't intended. I'm not being begrudging of the reforms made in 2021 by the coalition government. I think many of them were very good. It was back when the coalition were focused on governing, not on other things.”
“It means less money left over time to benefit from that magic of compound interest. I think it was Albert Einstein who called compound interest 'the eighth wonder of the world'. So we need to make sure that workers are enjoying the benefits of that magic as much as possible when it comes time to retire. We know timing matters. Under the current rules, that information about an employee's existing superannuation account is brought to their attention only after all the forms have been sent out and the process is towards the end on onboarding. This enables that information to be obtained at the start of the onboarding process, rather than a form being handed out and the information being received only when the form comes back.”
“The issue is if someone, through that advertising, selects a superannuation fund, including one that might not be in their interest, might not be as secure as a MySuper product or another conservatively invested one. We know that about 325,000 workers select an advertised superannuation product when they're using that onboarding software. We need to make sure that they are protected from inadvertent decisions, from inadvertently creating multiple funds, and that they are not signing up to something that is not in their interests at a time of high pressure and with a lot going on at that point in time. This bill is really quite focused on addressing some of those challenges. We know that each additional account means extra fees. It means extra insurance premiums.”
“Stapling was introduced in 2021, and, again, that is essentially the requirement that, if someone doesn't choose a fund, their money, where possible, is put into an existing superannuation account rather than creating a new one, which leads to that duplication that has cost workers for such a long time. We need to make sure that the policy intent behind that isn't undermined by recent phenomena. As I was saying before, 2.9 million people start a job every year. About 2.5 million of those are onboarded through an online onboarding process, and we've seen a proliferation of advertising in those onboarding systems, which are often offered to business without charge but include advertising. That advertising is for super products that sometimes are not suitable.”
“It was built on a simple idea that workers should share in the prosperity that they have helped create. But over time we've seen that workers starting a new job, experiencing that great moment of change, have found themselves under pressure—pressure to make a whole lot of decisions in very quick succession. One of the things that can pop up is a suggestion of changing funds. We also know it's a stressful time for business getting a lot of things done right quickly—payroll, tax, super and other compliance, making sure that people are ready to get onto the job, making sure the OH&S induction is done and all sorts of things that need to be overcome. It is a busy time, so we need to make sure, to the extent that superannuation policy kicks in, that it is helping people and not hindering.”
“For workers, superannuation represents security for the future. For businesses, it's a core part of paying people properly and meeting their obligations. For the country, it is a system built on trust. This bill is about protecting that trust and strengthening a system that already does a great deal right. But, as we've seen, some flaws have emerged. We need to address those and we also need to ready the system for other reforms that will come. The reforms in this bill are, again, fairly—I would have thought—technical and uncontroversial, but apparently controversy has been found in these times where picking a political fight is the go-to position. Alongside the payday super bill, which we've already introduced and passed, this is a piece of promised legislation.”
“We understand that superannuation account decisions are not at the forefront of every worker's mind at every point in time, but we've got to make sure the settings are there so the default position is one where people's money can be looked after to the greatest extent possible. Australia's superannuation is one of Australia's quiet success stories. It has helped millions of Australians retire with dignity, it has reduced long-term pressure on the age pension and it has turned the savings of working people into a long-term investment that supports the broader economy as well. Superannuation isn't just an abstract; it's not theoretical. It is, at the end of the day, deferred wages—money earned week by week, job by job, and set aside so that retirement is not defined by uncertainty or hardship.”
“In general terms, you've got schedule 1, which is about streamlining the choice-of-fund process for businesses so that they can find out the account information of their workers from the get-go. Then schedule 2 amends corporations law, which goes to the advertising of superannuation products at the time of onboarding. As we've heard in other contributions, we know that there are super funds which are not high-quality, low-risk funds that have been signed up to, to the great detriment of workers, so it limits advertising to their existing accounts or to MySuper and well-secured superannuation products.”
“It goes to superannuation, and they're fairly technical amendments which I'll go through in more detail shortly. It goes to a particular international tax arrangement, philanthropy and some sector-specific tax settings on wine. While the measures deal with different parts of the law, they share a common purpose and that is really just making the systems that we rely on work better in practice. This isn't about a high-level ideological argument. This is very practical reform that is included in this bill. It's really where the law and the policy meet in real life—how they work for workers, how they work for businesses and how they work for the community more broadly.”
“It's there to help fulfil the intention behind the stapling reforms that were brought in in 2021 and, obviously, to support the context where payday super is introduced, so as to ensure that businesses are given the flexibility they need to be able to comply with those rules. The benefits also go to supporting businesses through having a more methodical onboarding process. We know, as other colleagues in the House have said, that there's a lot going on during the onboarding process, so making it as simple and straightforward as possible for businesses to be able to comply with those obligations and support employees in selecting their funds so they can get on with business is very important. As has been mentioned, this bill brings together a set of targeted and practical reforms.”
“It essentially ensures that duplicate accounts weren't being created to the financial detriment of workers, something we saw for a very long time. Schedule 1 of this bill is a fairly modest addition which extends the stapling provisions—which, by the way, were introduced by the coalition for the very purpose of preventing duplicated funds—so that employers can help facilitate this through the onboarding process by identifying the fund that belongs to the worker, not just after they've been given paperwork and returned it without filling in a choice of fund but from the beginning of the relationship. It ensures that workers are able to have clearly outlined what their options are, including their existing fund, should they have one.”
“I rise in support of the Treasury Laws Amendment (Supporting Choice in Superannuation and Other Measures) Bill 2025. I rise somewhat surprised that there seem to be expressions of controversy and outrage to the contents of this important bill. The bill might not be the thing capturing the excitement of the media right now, but it is nonetheless an important part of the business of governing. In 2021 superannuation law was reformed to enable a stapled plan to be a key component. When someone changes jobs—we know that 2.9 million Australians change jobs every year—in circumstances where they're unable to nominate a new fund, the employer would then go and find their existing fund and put their money into that.”
“We share a desire to ensure that we have the best operating environment for small business, and I'm proud to be part of a government that is doing the real work.”
“It also needs to be complemented by a dedication to training, making sure that the workforce has the skills it needs to increase the productivity of our business sectors. We also need to be honest within government and make sure that we are being as productive as we can, and that's why I'm so pleased to see the work being done by the Minister for Finance in continuing to review all of our regulations, making sure that businesses don't have to provide the same piece of information more than once—unnecessary inefficiencies that don't go to any of the policy positions of any side of politics. Sometimes it's easy in politics to attack a regulation that is really going towards a policy ambition of your opponents. You say, 'Anything that they want is bad regulation,' but there are sometimes regulations that don't serve a public-policy purpose.”
“The work being done to ensure that small businesses are getting a fair go vis-a-vis dominant players in the market is actually incredibly important work. But a lot of the regulatory reform that I've heard proposed from the other side is really just code for cutting the wages and conditions of working people. That is an experiment that has been tried and has failed for a decade. We saw, again, in the lead-up to COVID, a reduction in competition and productivity results that really began a long-term program of being very low. We've got to do everything we can to increase competition and productivity within our sectors. The focus is not only on evening the playing field for small businesses vis-a-vis larger businesses.”
“We need to ensure that we have a competitive environment where small business can thrive—that we have more competition, because it is competition that has brought in higher productivity over the years. It was noted in an RBA article last year, the fact that we had such a reduction in competition, and the reduction in the number of firms dominating different sectors has probably cost us activity of around one per cent to three per cent a year. That is directly undermining the mission we have to increase productivity and competition. Competition is going to be key for us increasing productivity. As I'm sure our friends in the coalition would agree, it is a fundamental part of capitalism that competition is a good thing, and we need to encourage that as much as possible.”
“We need to make sure that we address unnecessary complexity that arises from the federation, with state and federal regulations and regimes sometimes causing unnecessary difficulties for small businesses just trying to have a go. Also, there are our efforts to reduce the cost of energy by including them in the solar batteries program and actually getting on with the job of transitioning our power grid. We're looking at the franchising code to, again, deal with that power imbalance. We have tax cuts that have been extended to 1.5 million sole traders, which are also very important businesses doing a lot of work as part of our local economy. Small businesses in our country account for the employment of about 5.16 million Australians. That is well over 30 per cent of the workforce relying on small businesses.”
“We're currently working on reforms to extend unfair-trading policies to small businesses as well. That's in addition to all the work being done in the National Small Business Strategy cutting regulation. We've already seen the beginning of that, with the omnibus act, and there's more work being done to review around 400 more opportunities to improve regulation for small businesses, cutting that red tape as well as looking at another phenomenon, white tape, which is the bureaucracy and challenges that sometimes large businesses impose on small businesses. There are challenges to the operating environment, and I think across the board we share a desire to create an operating environment where small business can thrive. There are clear roads for us to get there. We need to get rid of nonsense red tape.”
“The same is true of some other businesses that go into administration. I've been involved over the years with many deed-of-company relaunches, and it is not always the end of the road. But the underlying truth of what's raised needs to be discussed. It is a difficult time for many small businesses, including in my community. My home, Deakin, has about 16,000 businesses in it, the vast majority of which are small businesses. It is a challenging time, and they do deserve further support. We saw, in the decade leading up to COVID, an increased reduction in competition and market power concentrating. The Albanese government has been bringing forward a lot of initiatives going to that very issue. We've got changes to unfair-contracting laws helping to balance the relationship between small and large businesses.”
“I note that the member for Forrest has encouraged the government to carefully read the insolvency statistics. One thing I would note about those statistics is that insolvency does not equate to the closing of a business. For example, in 2021 the coalition government introduced small-business restructuring, a debt management regime which now accounts for about 20 per cent of insolvency data. To be a nerd, section 95A of the Corporations Act includes in the definition of insolvency those on small business restructuring, the vast majority of whom actually don't stop trading. They continue to be under the control of their existing directors and continue trading. It's a way of managing the debts of small businesses which have come to a form of trouble over time. Many recover.”
“I commend the principle and bravery of the many members of our Iranian Australian community in Deakin who continue to stand up to tell their stories, to tell the stories of other Iranians and to make sure that we, as members of parliament, are aware of what is going on and that that regime continues to be held to account. I share with other members of this parliament the horror at what we are seeing from the Iranian regime and will continue to stand with the Iranian people and Iranian Australians as they continue speaking up for freedom and fighting for what is right in Iran. The people of Iran deserve to live in peace, they deserve to live in freedom and they deserve to have all of us stand up with them. I'm pleased to say that, across the political spectrum in Australia, we do just that.”
“These sanctions build on the Australian government's listing of the IRGC as a state sponsor of terrorism and our comprehensive framework of sanctions against Iran. My thoughts continue to be with people in Iran as well as the Australian Iranian community, particularly my friends in Deakin, including Masoud and Emily from Radio Neshat, who continue to be strong advocates for their community—a community that, even in Australia, continues to live in some fear of the reach of the IRGC and the Iranian regime, which continues to attempt to intimidate diaspora communities around the world to try to silence dissent and to try to undermine efforts to tell the truth about what's going on in that country.”
“We are at the forefront of efforts to remove Iran from the Commission on the Status of Women and co-sponsored the successful UN Human Rights Council resolution establishing an independent investigation into human rights violations in Iran. Just last week, on 3 February, we imposed further targeted financial sanctions on Iran in response to the regime's horrific use of violence against its own people. We've taken this action in coordination with our partners, including the UK and the EU, to ensure these sanctions have the greatest impact. The 20 individuals and three entities sanctioned include senior officials and entities of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps who are complicit in oppressing the Iranian people, violently suppressing domestic protests and threatening lives both inside and outside of Iran.”
“The Albanese government is part of the international call on Iran to protect the rights of its citizens to peaceful protest and to cease the killing of protesters, the use of force, arbitrary arrests and telecommunications blackouts. They have to stop. Our government has taken strong action to hold the Iranian regime to account. We have sanctioned more than 200 Iran-linked persons and entities, including more than 100 IRGC-linked individuals and entities. We bolstered our autonomous sanctions framework to enable us to target those involved in oppression inside Iran, including against women and girls. We took the unprecedented step to expel Iran's ambassador to Australia and withdrew Australia's ambassador to Iran. The government listed Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, as a state sponsor of terrorism.”
“With the full knowledge of the evil they are confronting, the Iranian people have taken to the streets to fight for a better future. My office has been inundated with calls and emails from members of the Iranian Australian community who have been watching the events in Iran in horror and anguish. My message to them and to everyone in my community is that I commend the bravery of the Iranian people as they stand up for their dignity and their fundamental rights. I strongly condemn the killing of protesters, arbitrary arrests, intimidation and the use of excessive and lethal force by the Iranian regime against its own people. Too many lives have been lost, and we continue to stand with you at this horrifying time.”
“I rise to support this important motion brought forward by the member for. Menzies. As the members for Menzies and Chisholm have already outlined, we have a wonderful Iranian community in Melbourne's east. They've been deeply concerned about the policies of the Iranian regime for some time, but this concern has only sharpened since the horror and outrage of the events we've seen since 28 December last year. The regime has massacred thousands of Iranians while attacking and arresting many thousands more for participating in peaceful protest. It has imposed nationwide internet and telecommunications blackouts in an attempt to conceal the scale of their brutality. The bravery of the Iranian people cannot be overstated. They have taken part in political action against a regime infamous for its brutal persecution of political activities.”
“But we are in an environment now where it is about time that we update these laws. The world is very different to what it was in 1968. The world has changed fundamentally. I commend this bill to the House. I'm so glad it's supported across the chamber, and I look forward to seeing this become law.”