August 22, 2024
Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus and shadow home affairs minister James Paterson have weighed in on the Gazan refugee visa debate after a former deputy immigration secretary said the government’s use of tourist visas was “politically” motivated.
Abul Rizvi argued that Labor’s use of the visa type was “not the best policy path” and the government “went down a path it thought was politically safer”.
“Home Affairs would have given them the advice that the humanitarian option is probably the better one,” he told The Australian.
The former deputy immigration secretary went on to say the government should have created a special humanitarian visa class for Palestinian arrivals as Australia did after the invasion of Ukraine or during conflict in Afghanistan.
The Attorney-General was pressed on Mr Rizvi's comments on Thursday morning, but failed to weigh in on his specific points.
“What Mr Rizvi actually said, and I’d invite everyone to look at his story, is that Australia should be a country which shows compassion for people fleeing violence, for people fleeing war zones," he said at a doorstop interview.
Questioned about Mr Rizvi's criticisms over Labor’s use of visitor visas, the Attorney-General once again dodged the crux of his point before hitting out at the Coalition.
"I’m not going to engage in speculation,” Mr Dreyfus said.
“I’m going to point to what Mr Rizvi actually said and I’d say again, that the arrangements, the security vetting, the security agencies, the personnel in the security agencies that are in use now under our government are the same as were in use under the previous government.
“Unlike, it appears, Mr Dutton and the opposition, our government has complete confidence in our security agencies. If Mr Dutton and the opposition are doubting our security agencies, let them come out and say so."
However, Mr Paterson said Mr Rizvi’s comments were “hugely significant” considering his long-time opposition to the Coalition.
“Let's be clear, he's no fan of the Coalition. He's been very critical of us to in the past, and that just adds greater weight to what he has said,” the Liberal Senator told Sky News before highlighting Mr Rizvi's claims.
“He said, number one, the government has departed from departmental advice. Number two, their decision was political. And number three, it's totally contrary to all past practice when evacuating people like this to hand out tourist visas to people fleeing a war zone controlled by a terrorist organisation.”
The shadow home affairs minister demanded Labor be totally transparent about what advise it received leading up to the visa decision so the public could know whether the choice was politically driven.
“There is only one course of action that the Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, can take today to clear this up,” Ms Paterson said.
“Release all departmental advice provided to his predecessor, Clare O'Neil, and the former immigration minister, Andrew Giles, so that the public can judge whether or not the department did in fact advise this course of action or advised against it, and whether the government made a political decision to ignore it.”
While Mr Rizvi questioned Labor’s motives when issuing visitor visas, he went on to lash Mr Dutton’s call for a blanket ban on Gazan refugees, claiming his order flew in the face of the Migration Act.
The act requires each visa application to be assessed on their own merit against legal criteria and for Mr Dutton to implement a blanket ban would require changing the legislation, Mr Rizvi argued.
Politicians have become engrossed in a war of words over the visa processes for Gazan refugees after ASIO boss Mike Burgess said Hamas sympathisers could be granted access to Australia and the Opposition Leader demanded a temporary blanket ban on Gazan arrivals.
Since Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel, there have been 10,033 applications for visas into Australia by holders of a Palestinian Authority travel document.
Of those, 7,111 applications have been refused.
There have been 2,922 Palestinians granted a visa to Australia. About 1,300 of those are now in Australia, the vast majority of them holding temporary visitor visas.
Three times as many Israeli citizens have been granted visas since October 7, with 8,746 visas approved and 235 rejected.
