Statement: To the Iranian-Australian community in WA

While I can’t be with you today, I wanted to send this message of support, especially to Iranians here in Western Australia who are carrying the pain of watching events unfold in a place that still feels like home.

I’m speaking as a Christian and as a member of Parliament, but first and foremost as someone who believes that every person has inherent value and worth. That dignity doesn’t come from governments, and it’s not something regimes get to take away when people become inconvenient.

Freedom of belief, freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, and good governance aren’t optional extras. They are essential foundations of a just society, and they are exactly what must be restored.

Over recent weeks, the world has once again seen the Islamic Republic of Iran respond to peaceful dissent with force. Protesters shot. Thousands detained. Reports of torture and executions following deeply flawed court processes. This isn’t a sudden crisis, and it isn’t an anomaly. It is part of a long and well documented pattern of repression.

I know how personal this is for many of you. Years ago, I worked alongside an Iranian woman who was Baha’i, one of the most capable and compassionate managers I’ve ever known. She would speak quietly about family members and friends who were imprisoned, livelihoods stripped away, and lives lived under constant fear. Not for crimes committed, but simply for beliefs held.

Her story is not unusual. Christians, Baha’is, women, journalists, students, anyone who dissents, have faced severe persecution in Iran for decades. Many of you here today carry similar stories, whether spoken aloud or held quietly.

And let’s be honest: the world has known about this for a long time. Yet too often, governments, including those that speak confidently about human rights, have chosen caution, convenience, or silence instead. Ordinary Iranians have paid the price for that silence.

Where are the protesters?

Where are the walks on the bridge?

That’s why what you’re doing here matters. It keeps the focus where it belongs. It reminds governments and institutions that this regime’s actions are deliberate, ongoing, and deeply unjust.

And it tells families here that they have not been forgotten.

My hope for Iran is a future where people are not punished for what they believe, where people do not live under coercion, and where the law exists to protect people.

Change may not come quickly. But history shows that systems built on repression eventually lose their footing.

The international community must stop managing this regime and start confronting it, by cutting off its enforcers, isolating its leaders, and standing openly with the Iranian people until the system can no longer sustain itself.

To those of you with family and friends in Iran: you are not speaking into a void.

And as long as I have a voice in public life, I will use it to say what needs to be said. What is happening is wrong, it is unjust, and it cannot be ignored.

I look forward to meeting with key representatives from your group in the months ahead, but please know:

I stand with you. And Australian Christians stand with you.

Sincerely,

Hon. Maryka Groenewald MLC