Tim Wilson MP, Liberal Member for Goldstein, added: “I am deeply concerned and I’m not alone in this.

I would hope that every member of parliament, regardless of their party affiliation, is deeply concerned.

We have foreign interference and foreign actors working through criminal organisations or criminal actors within Australia and sponsoring them to engage in violent acts to destroy property and potentially risk lives, and of course to inflame tensions within the Australian community, but these were not unknown or limited risks.

The Coalition has gone out and warned consistently that this is a serious risk over the past couple of years and called for the listing of the Iranian regime as a terrorist organisation and now we’re in a situation where the government has finally done so on the advice of ASIO. We only wish they had have done it earlier.

I think when you look at the events of October 7, and the sponsoring of Hamas in the actions of not just Hamas and Hezbollah in the events October 7, and everything has cascaded since then from October 7. It’s been pretty clear they’ve been involved in trying to inflame tensions in Israel and around the world.

That is what has now come to light explicitly since in the past couple of days, but has been pretty clear since that point. And the consequence has been to human life, to property, but to social cohesion in Israel, in Australia and around the world. And of course we want a nation that is cohesive, we want a nation that’s respectful, we want a nation where people come together and seek to advance the objectives and national interests together. And when we have an environment where foreign actors are ceding discontent and turning Australians against each other, that is a deeply distressing environment and that is not a place that we want our country to go.”