November 24, 2023
Industry Minister Ed Husic said the Coalition has a problem with "helping people out in dire need" after it raised doubts over teh speed in which hundreds of temporary visas were granted to Palestinians seeking to flee Gaza.
The Department of Home Affairs confirmed 860 visas had been approved for people in Gaza with connections to Australia since the Hamas attacks on Israel on October 7.
Coalition home affairs spokesman James Paterson said he sought assurances normal processes were followed given that a "very large number of visas have been granted in a very short period of time".
Speaking to Sky News on Friday, Mr Husic hit back against assertions that official visa protocols weren't followed and accused the Opposition of taking issue with providing safe passage for refugees.
"The coalition having served office knows the type of processes that are used to vet and clear the way in which people apply for visas, so they know.
So what's their issue?," he said.
"Are they really saying that they don't want Australian Palestinians who are deeply concerned about the fate of their families, for those people that are in Gaza, to be put out of harm's way? Is that what they're effectively saying?
Earlier, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said visas being offered to Palestinians with close links to Australia had been subject to appropriate security checks.
"These are not permanent visas. These are temporary visas," Mr Albanese said.
"There are the same security checks that are in place for people, for Australians, that have been in place for a long period of time." Senator Paterson said he wanted to ensure "no corners were cut in granting these visas and particularly the security assessments, which often do take quite a significant amount of time, were carried out on this cohort before they came to Australia ... to grant more than 800 visas in just six weeks will be an extraordinary level of efficiency."
