August 15, 2024
BEN FORDHAM: A war of words has erupted in Canberra over the granting of visas to Palestinians fleeing Gaza. The Opposition leader, Peter Dutton, is calling for a complete pause on Palestinian refugees coming from Gaza into Australia. Since the October 7th attack on Israel. Almost 3000 Palestinians have been granted entry into Australia. But on the other hand, the government points out that more than 7000 applications have been refused. The Coalition's been on the attack over Labor's decision to allow people from Gaza to enter our country, and they are questioning whether adequate security checks are being conducted before people arrived. Joining us on the line, the Shadow Minister for Home Affairs, Senator James Paterson. Senator, good morning to you.
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning, Ben.
FORDHAM: So the government is saying, well, hold up a moment. We have knocked back 7000 applications.
PATERSON: The only problem with that, Ben, is that the government was then unable to answer the most basic questions about when and how and why those visas were rejected. In fact, the Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, when asked specific questions about this cohort in Question Time, had nothing at all substantive to say. Some media reports have suggested that the majority of those 7000 people who were rejected were rejected simply because it's not possible to leave Gaza at the moment because the border crossing at Rafah has been closed and therefore they were not rejected for security reasons at all, but simply for a practical reasons.
FORDHAM: So you want to know how many have been rejected or refused on character grounds or security grounds?
PATERSON: Exactly right. How many have been rejected because they failed the character test? How many have been rejected because ASIO said they weren't safe to come to Australia? How many have been rejected because they're supporters of Hamas? Tony Burke doesn't know that, or wasn't able to answer that yesterday in Question Time
FORDHAM: Ok, the ASIO boss has said that even if people are sympathetic to Hamas, that doesn't mean that they're a security threat to Australia.
PATERSON: That's what kicked off this whole debate, and I don't agree at all. If you are a supporter of Hamas, a listed terrorist organisation, you are not welcome in Australia and you should not come to Australia. And if you're already in Australia, you should leave Australia, because of all the problems we've had with anti-Semitism and social cohesion and frankly, the increased terrorism threat level only a week ago. How do any of those problems get better by bringing supporters of Hamas into Australia?
FORDHAM: I saw the Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, on Sky with Peter Stefanovic yesterday, and he seemed to be very, very clear to say, don't you worry, everyone who comes in here is checked by ASIO.
PATERSON: Well, if that is what he meant, then he misled Peter Stefanovic, his viewers and all the Australian people. Because on Sunday, Mike Burgess on Insiders made it very clear that not all cases are being referred to ASIO. And we asked them clearly in question time to reassure us that every application is being referred to ASIO, and they refused to confirm that that's the case. So they need to be very clear today if every single case being referred to ASIO for investigation, and if not, why not?
FORDHAM: Are you suggesting an all out ban of people coming in from Gaza or just pausing?
PATERSON: A pause for now is what Peter Dutton said yesterday and I agree with, until we can be assured that sufficient security checks are taking place. Undoubtedly there are genuinely innocent, worthy people who want to leave Gaza who pose no risk to the Australian community. But the reason why we do robust vetting is to make sure we can distinguish them from the people who do pose a risk to our country, and make sure those people who do pose a risk to our country don't come. Now until the government can reassure us that that's happening, and they haven't so far. Then we think it has to be paused.
FORDHAM: Can I just ask you this lastly, James Paterson, do you think the approach so far has put people in Australia at risk?
PATERSON: I'm gravely concerned that that's the case. One of the things the government said yesterday was they've taken exactly the same approach that we did in Syria and Afghanistan, but that's not true in Syria and Afghanistan. Those people were first airlifted out of those countries to a third country like the UAE, where they were then interviewed by Australian government officials on the ground, had their identity and their character checked before they were granted visas to come to our country. That has not happened in Gaza because there are no officials on the ground in Gaza, and you cannot leave Gaza without a valid visa. So these people have been granted visas sight unseen, in some cases in 24 hours, in other cases, as quickly as one hour. How could you possibly do the robust security checks that we did to Syrians and Afghans that they have not done in Gaza?
FORDHAM: I'm sure this will feature heavily in Question Time once again today. We appreciate you jumping on the line.
PATERSON: Thanks, Ben.
ENDS
