The Albanese government’s support for the US–Israel war on Iran rests on claims about nuclear threat, humanitarian intent and non-involvement that do not withstand scrutiny.

As US and Israeli bombs and missiles rained down on Iran, the Australian public was given a barrage of lies from our own government. There’s a reason for this. When a war is so deeply unpopular as the one Trump and Netanyahu started with Iran, then those promoting it have no other option but to lie.

As the illegal war started by Trump and Netanyahu has spread across the region, with more than a million people in Lebanon being driven from their homes, with the killing and the economic chaos escalating, the lies have only become more brazen.

From Prime Minister Albanese, Foreign Minister Wong and Defence Minister Marles we have seen layers of lies stacked on top of each other as they desperately wriggle and squirm to stay on message with Washington.

Lie one – nuclear weapons The Albanese Labor Government was the first government in the world to support the US and Israeli bombing of Iran. They were immediately backed in domestically by the Coalition and One Nation, all three parties clamouring to be on the side of Israel and the US in this Trumpian war.

Labor’s initial support hinged on the claim that “the Iranian regime can never be allowed to develop a nuclear weapon.” There was never any evidence that Iran was on a credible pathway to acquiring a nuclear weapon.

Donald Trump, after his attacks in June said the US had “completely and totally obliterated” Iran’s nuclear enrichment program. He repeated that claim just days before he started this latest war and it was reaffirmed by Tulsi Gabbard, the US Director of National Intelligence, to Congress this week. Yet Labor continues to recycle this lie.

The most grotesque, but never mentioned, hypocrisy in this lie is that the Albanese Government wants you to believe that they are willing to back an invasion to prevent a country headed up by violent extremists, flaunting international law, from ever getting their hands on nuclear weapons. Everyone knows this is the perfect description of Israel, Labor’s and Trump’s partner in this illegal war that has an estimated 90-200 illegal nuclear warheads on a hair trigger.

There is a huge, violent, nuclear-armed elephant in the corner of the room here and everyone is refusing to mention it.

Lie two – protecting the Iranian people

The most unethical and cynical lie has been the lie told to the Iranian people, that this war is about their struggle for self-determination.

The people of Iran live under a brutal government that flouts human rights and attacks and kills dissidents and protestors. In Australia, I have met with people from the diaspora who have been threatened by the IRGC because they are vocal on issues of human rights. Before the war, the regime brutally cracked down on protest across the country. Many inside Iran and the diaspora were watching these scenes with horror, looking for help. Instead, Trump, Netanyahu and their boosters in Australia offered them false solidarity and a poisoned chalice.

One Labor backbencher made the claim that this war on Iran was to give the Iranian people “the opportunity to determine their own future, free from brutality, fear and blackmail.” Even as he spoke, the bodies of over 100 school girls were being dragged from the rubble in Minab following a US airstrike.

Over the coming days, 18 hospitals and health facilities have been targeted and bombed, oil reserves have been hit and are spewing toxic air into Tehran. The Iranian people now face the brutality and fear of a vicious Israeli and US bombing campaign and their own government.

The war parties – Labor, One Nation and the Liberals – do not care about the Iranian people, they care about supporting Donald Trump. A fact plainly obvious to the people of Iran, with one person saying, “I don’t even have tears left. Only anger and more anger. At this regime, and them [the US and Israel].”

Trump does not care about democracy and equality in his own country. And he does not care about it in Iran, as he said he is happy for the regime to stay in place as long as he decides who is at the top.

In case there was any doubt Labor, the Coalition and One Nation then made it crystal clear what they think about the safety of the Iranian people when they voted together to prevent Iranians from seeking safety in Australia. Most people seeking asylum do so by getting a visa to a safe country, then once they arrive, ask for protection. The Albanese Labor Government saw that this was going to happen with some of the 7,200 Iranians who currently hold a temporary visa to enter Australia, so this new law prevented them from coming here.

I have never seen an act of such political bastardry. Labor has been cosplaying a white knight saving the Iranian people, to justify their fealty to the US. Then, when there were actual Iranians that Labor could save, the Government slammed the door on them.

Lie three – we are not involved

Despite all the misdirection and manufactured consent, most Australians do not support this war. This has seen the Albanese Government twist itself in knots trying to justify and obfuscate its involvement.

Within a week of the war kicking off Labor said Australia supported it but was not directly involved. Only for it to come out that Australian personnel were stationed on a US nuclear submarine that sank an Iranian frigate and left the survivors to drown in breaching international law. When they read the room and saw the disgust many Australians met this news with, they then claimed they were sent to their bunks when the killing happened. The “bedroom defence” is Labor’s new shield from criminality.

The Albanese government then sent 85 troops, a spy plane and missiles to the UAE, allegedly on request from the UAE not Donald Trump. This new fiction started fraying within hours when the Defence Minister admitted that the US had also requested Australia to send these assets.

Even the flimsy claim that the E-7A Wedgetail aircraft that Australia sent will only be used for ‘defensive’ purposes has fallen apart. It is now grudgingly conceded that it will be feeding targeting information directly into the US Central Command to identify and destroy targets in Iran.

All of this, together with the structural support from Australia through US bases such as Pine Gap and North West Cape, and we then have Labor with their latest lie that they have not joined Trump’s illegal war on Iran.

The truth is Labor signed Australia up to this war years ago when they joined with the Coalition in supporting AUKUS. At that point, Australian foreign policy became downstream from Washington, and we signed on to this illegal war and all future US wars. But the Albanese Government knows that this truth is deeply unpopular, so instead, we get gaslighting and lies.

The self-interested violence of Donald Trump is not an aberration in US foreign policy, it is just an unvarnished example of a long-term trend. This is a learning moment for billions around the globe. It must be a learning moment for Australia, too.

Only by breaking our dependence on the US, ending AUKUS, and pursuing an independent foreign policy can we begin to rebuild public trust and contribute to genuine peace. Until then, the lies will keep on coming to justify the unjustifiable and to keep up with the endless cycle of spin from our overlords in Washington.