Labor Cheers for a Terrorist -- While Melburnians March for Iran's Freedom
Family First Party
Jane Foreman - Family First Legislative Council Candidate
Key Facts:
KEY FACTS:
•Victorian Labor's state conference on 25 May 2026 passed a motion supporting campaigns for the release of Marwan Barghouti, convicted in Israel of directing deadly attacks on civilians. He is serving five life sentences.
•The same conference voted down an amendment condemning the Iranian regime's human rights violations, while passing a separate motion opposing the war in Iran and criticising Israel.
•ASIO has directly linked Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) to antisemitic arson attacks in Melbourne (Adass Israel Synagogue, December 2024) and Sydney. The Iranian ambassador was subsequently expelled from Australia.
•In February 2026, thousands of Melburnians — including significant Jewish and Iranian-Australian communities — rallied at the steps of Victoria's Parliament House in solidarity with anti-regime protesters inside Iran, part of worldwide protests across 30 countries and 73 cities.
•The Jewish Independent reported strong Iranian-Jewish solidarity at the Melbourne Parliament rallies, with attendees waving each other's flags and chanting "Long live Iran! Long live Israel!"
•Family First policy: the Victorian government must formally condemn the Iranian regime's human rights abuses and IRGC-linked attacks; Premier Allan must repudiate the Barghouti motion; Victoria must stand with its Jewish and Iranian-Australian communities.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
25 May 2026
Labor Cheers for a Terrorist — While Melburnians March for Iran's Freedom
Thousands of Victorians rallied at the steps of Parliament House earlier this year demanding freedom for Iran. Yesterday, Victorian Labor voted to free a convicted terrorist. Jane Foreman says the Allan government's party has chosen the wrong side of history.
While thousands of Melburnians — Iranians and Jews standing shoulder to shoulder — have gathered at the steps of Victoria's Parliament House in recent months to demand freedom from the regime that has massacred its own people, Victorian Labor was doing something else entirely at its state conference yesterday. It voted to support campaigns calling for the release of Marwan Barghouti, a man serving five life sentences in Israel for directing the murder of civilians.
And then — in the same breath — it voted down an amendment condemning Iran.
“Thousands of Victorians have marched outside this very Parliament against the Iranian regime. Melburnians watched their synagogue get firebombed by IRGC-linked operatives. And Victorian Labor's response is to vote against condemning Iran. I am lost for words.”
This is not an abstract foreign policy debate. Since late 2024, IRGC-linked operatives have carried out arson attacks against Jewish targets in Melbourne and Sydney. ASIO has directly linked Iran to antisemitic attacks on Australian soil. The Iranian ambassador was expelled. Australians know what this regime does — not just to its own people, but here, in our cities.
Yet when Victorian Labor delegates had the chance to say clearly: we condemn Iran's human rights abuses — they said no.
“When Iranians and Jewish Australians are dancing together outside Parliament House because the regime that firebombed a Melbourne synagogue has finally fallen, and Labor can't even pass a motion condemning it — you have to ask: whose side are they on?.”
The motion supporting convicted terrorist Barghouti's release is not an isolated lurch. It is part of a pattern inside a Labor Party increasingly captured by factions that romanticise terrorism and treat the Iranian theocracy as a legitimate grievance movement. Premier Jacinta Allan must repudiate this motion publicly and immediately. Silence is not neutrality — it is complicity
“Victorian families — Jewish, Iranian-Australian, and every family that watched the Bondi massacre unfold — deserve to know that their government does not legitimise terror. After yesterday, they have every right to wonder.”
Family First's Jane Foreman is committed to demanding the Victorian government formally condemn the Iranian regime's human rights abuses and its IRGC-linked attacks on Victorian soil; calling on Premier Allan to immediately and publicly repudiate the Barghouti motion; and standing without equivocation with Victoria's Jewish and Iranian-Australian communities against political movements that normalise, excuse, or celebrate violence.
— ENDS —
About us:
About Family First
Family First exists to restore Australia by restoring the primacy of the family in public policy. This will be achieved through a grass roots political party which raises courageous voices in our nation’s parliaments. More details are available on our website: https://www.familyfirstparty.org.au/
