Thursday 28 August 2025

Senator Claire Chandler

The Daily Telegraph

When Mahsa Amini was murdered in September 2022 by Iran's so-called "morality police" for violating oppressive laws requiring women to wear a hijab, the world watched in horror.

In the days and weeks that followed, the Islamic Republic of Iran regime brutally attacked and suppressed the uprising of brave Iranians taking a stand against an authoritarian government they can hardly call their own.

Here in Australia, our own Iranian diaspora mobilised. In rallies across the country, they told us what they knew: that the Islamic Republic of Iran's reach extended far beyond Tehran, that members of the diaspora were being stalked, surveilled, and intimidated by operatives here in Australia, and that their families in Iran were being harassed and attacked by the regime in an attempt to silence dissent.

The demands of the diaspora were not unreasonable, nor were they disproportionate to the risk the regime posed. They pleaded with the Albanese government to take seriously the countless and credible reports of Iranian-Australians being threatened for speaking out about the regime.

They asked for the government to take real action to hold the regime to account for abusing the human rights of its own citizens. And they demanded that the government list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, the brutal arm of the Iranian regime responsible for repression at home and terror abroad, as a terrorist organisation.

In October 2022, as the chair of the Senate Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade References Committee, I initiated an inquiry into the recent violence and human rights violations in Iran. In February 2023, that committee recommended to the Senate, among other things, that the IRGC should be listed as a terrorist organisation as a matter of urgency.

Later that month, the then-Home Affairs Minister Clare O'Neil publicly attributed the IRI regime with conducting foreign interference operations in Australia.

And yet, it's taken two and a half years for the government to finally take action.

We now know that the IRGC wasn't just intimidating and surveilling people in our own community; it was orchestrating violent attacks on Australian soil. As ASIO chief Mike Burgess said this week, Iran directed the arson attack on a kosher restaurant in Sydney and the firebombing of the Adass Israel Synagogue in Melbourne last year. These were not random acts of hate. They were calculated, foreign-directed assaults of abhorrent anti-Semitism.

A foreign dictatorship carried out terrorist attacks in our cities. But it took the government until now, after years of warnings, after the diaspora's pleas, after the Coalition's repeated calls, to finally move to list the IRGC as a terrorist organisation and expel Iran's ambassador - the first time this has occurred since World War II.

By failing to act earlier, lives have been put at risk, the regime has continued to spread fear in our community, and our local Iranian diaspora has been shaken to the core.

This is not just a failure of national security. It's a moral failure.

The Coalition has long called for the IRGC to be listed as a terrorist organisation. We've pushed for stronger protections for diaspora communities, particularly for Iranian-Australians. We've demanded that the IRI regime be held to account for its dangerous behaviour. And we will continue to do so because Australians deserve to live free from foreign interference, intimidation, and violence.

We have to remember, the IRGC is not just a domestic enforcer of the IRI regime's authoritarian rule: it is a global actor in repression, terrorism, and foreign interference. Its operations extend across continents, targeting dissidents, journalists, and diaspora communities through surveillance, intimidation, and violence.

The IRI regime and the IRGC actively support terrorist groups including Hamas, which has caused destruction in Israel. Why shouldn't we be clear-eyed in calling these atrocious entities out for what they are?

I welcome the fact the government has finally realised what so many have said for so long that the IRGC should be designated as the terrorist organisation we all know it is. But it should have taken days, not months and years, for our government to act.

The Iranian-Australian community has shown extraordinary resilience in this fight. Despite the risks, it has organised rallies, met with MPs, and shared its stories. Its courage stands in stark contrast to the government's hesitation.

The signs were clear. The threats were real. And we cannot afford another failure.

* This opinion piece was also published in the following newspapers on Friday 29 August 2025:

• Northern Territory News,
• Toowoomba chronicle,
• Townsville bulletin,
• Cairns post, and
• Gold Coast Bulletin