‘Lazy words’ around Iran show Anthony Albanese and Penny Wong side with the wrong team

The military campaign targeting Iran shows, once again, our government responding with exceptional weakness to a significant threat.

'Cringe-inducing': Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong talk of 'de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy'.

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I have a simple question that I’d like everyone to stop and consider: What will it take?

What will it take for Australians to wake from what seems to be a never-ending slumber about the challenges facing Western democracies and values? What will it take for us to truly understand the history-altering impact of the October 7 massacres in 2023 and where our country sits in this complex environment?

When you live in blessed isolation about as far away as you can get from where the action is, it’s so easy to park these things to one side. It’s not as if Australians don’t have plenty to consider already. A ruinous energy policy, for starters; a housing crisis; cost of living out of control (see point one, energy). At the top the tree, a Prime Minister whose words and actions more closely resemble a basset hound on Xanax with each passing day. It’s just really weird and bloody hard to make sense of.

Anthony Albanese and Foreign Minister Penny Wong’s delayed, insipid response to the military campaign against the evil Islamic Republic of Iran has been cringe-inducing. Every time I hear the Prime Minister or Wong use the carefully curated phrase “de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy” I wonder how they can be so disconnected from the reality of the situation. It’s almost as if they know they’ve become internationally irrelevant.

It’s important to remember they have form. Remember that when the rest of the world was recoiling in the horror at the mass slaughter, rape and kidnapping of innocent Israelis, Wong took her sweet time to make a comment and, when she did, it was simply to tell Israel to dial it down a little. Show some restraint, she said.

Me? I recoil in horror at the insensitivity of those words. The emptiness of them and yet how much they revealed.

The response to the Iranian issue? Lazy words. Meaningless words. Words that carry no weight, no authority and no leadership. Words that also say: this is not our problem, we don’t expect it to ever be anything more than an electoral challenge for Australian Labor on a domestic front.

It shows, clearly and undeniably, that our current government is asleep at the wheel.

Six months ago, ASIO warned that there likely would be a terror attack in Australia within the year. Read the advice for yourself. It’s quite confronting.

It describes in significant detail how a terror attack is more than 50 per cent likely to happen. That it will be deliberate, co-ordinated and significant. Probable, is the word it uses. ASIO says its advice ensures “the threat level accurately reflects the current threat environment in Australia”. Translation? The extremists are not playing.

ASIO’s advice says the attack is likely to be low cost, involving knives or vehicles and explosives and firearms that are able to inflict maximum damage for minimum cost. Little to no warning. Crowded spaces.

Reading the advice, it’s not at all difficult to connect the dots, and if you’re feeling cross at me for spelling this all out, take it up with ASIO. This information is all free and available on its website. I honestly didn’t expect to find so much detail; I was simply wanting to understand the Australian context. Kudos to ASIO for being so blunt.

Our government has responded with exceptional weakness to every significant threat event (and worse) that has taken place in other countries that are not only Australia’s historic allies but share our freedoms and Western beliefs and cultures. They are countries where social cohesion has been deliberately attacked. Many intelligence sources have been reported as saying: with money from the Iranian regime.

I thought the response to October 7 was the low point but the “cup of tea and a chat” response to the Middle East escalation was shocking. People whose whole reason for living is wrapped in immovable, insane ideology do not say: yes, let’s talk.

I imagine it must be terribly confusing for many on the political left who, as a consequence of their blind hatred for Israel, find themselves in the same corner as a regime that hangs gays, allows little girls to be raped under the guise of marriage and openly calls for extermination of the Jewish people.

What a dilemma for you! You lot started with “all eyes on Gaza” and now find yourself criticising Israel for drawing a line in the sand and refusing to sit by and let supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei nuke the country out of existence.

You’ve got such status anxiety that you can’t say with a sober mind: yes, the Iranian regime is pure evil and despite what I think of the Israeli government I find calling for the extermination of Jews abhorrent, and we would all be safer if the Iranian regime were dealt with by the international community swiftly and decisively.

Incredibly revealing, the past two weeks, I tell you. The responses.

The fact Iranians are crying out for regime change; that the UN-backed International Atomic Energy Agency confirmed two weeks ago what most foreign powers knew or strongly suspected – that Iran was violating the non-proliferation order – none of this matters to you.

Blinded by your own version of ideology, you’d rather advocate for the regime that executes (by public hanging) more people than any other country does. Congratulations.

Back to the ASIO advice: It also references frayed social cohesion and certain ideologies.

Speaking of ideologies, last week a suicide bomber went into a Christian church in Damascus and blew the congregation to smithereens while they were praying. Obviously, women and children. Islamic State claimed responsibility.

In September 2024, jihadists slit the throats of 26 Christians during a church service in Burkina Faso. Two weeks ago, Islamic extremists massacred 200 Christians in Nigeria’s Benue State. Families were burnt to death in their beds; those who tried to escape were macheted to death.

I would say go find out for yourself how frequently this is occurring around the world now, but it makes for pretty grim reading.

They are the same ilk: Islamic State, Hamas, Muslim Brotherhood, the Iranian regime.

The Iranian regime is the arrowhead of global extremism and every time the regime strikes, our government sends a message that it is unaware or indifferent. The Albanese government has been unwilling or unable to respond with anything resembling strength. It knows only appeasement.

Consequences from Australia? Hilarious.

For what it’s worth, I don’t believe in culture wars. If this is your takeaway from this conversation, then back to school for you. This is about looking around me and feeling as if there are some things so obvious as to be absurd yet concurrently ignored. Feeling as if the people who work for us (a reminder, every single person in Canberra works for me and for you) and whose job it is to know and discern the times are constantly siding with the wrong team.

This country is in need of a radical course correction. Yes, yes, my side got solidly beaten up at the federal election in May, I am very aware of that. John Howard says Australian voters always get it right. With the utmost respect, I don’t necessarily agree. I repeat what I’ve said previously in that if the Prime Minister can lead his cabinet and this country with strength and vision, we will all thrive and no sane person wants anything else.

I sense I may be disappointed again but I fear there is so much more at stake this time.