October 9, 2024
RAY HADLEY: Now, during the news break I just tuned into Parliament, Question Time continues today. And the Opposition have gone after Tony Burke regarding this story today in the Daily Telegraph about a bloke who came here, Fayez Elhasani, and he has previously hosted meetings of Palestinian factions in Gaza. His family tree of terror, according to The Daily Telegraph, he has a brother called Iyad al-Hassani, head of operations division of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He has a son, Remah Fayez Al-Hassani, operative of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. Mohammed, another son, is commander of the operational unit of Palestinian Islamic Jihad. He's got a brother, another brother, called Sami al-Hassani, senior commander of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. So it's a pedigree of terrorism, basically, that's been documented here. Now, while I was listening to Parliament, questions were put to Tony Burke, and he dead batted them all saying that ASIO – first of all, he did not refer to this bloke specifically – he said that anyone coming here had to go via either Egypt or Israel at the border and would have been checked there. And then he said if ASIO clears people, they are cleared. He said if they have an objection to people coming here, well, then we do something about it as well. But he didn't make any specific reference to this bloke Fayez Elhasani, who's now in Australia, apparently living with a daughter who presumably is also either a permanent resident or a citizen, I don't know the status of her, but living as well. But there was no answer to the direct question from the Opposition about whether he would investigate whether in fact this man does have still connections with Hamas and terrorist organisations generally in that part of the world. Senator James Paterson is the Shadow Home Affairs Minister, he's online from Canberra right now. Senator, good morning to you. I guess you've heard what's been said this morning in Parliament as I did?
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning, Ray. Yes, and I was as concerned as you were by the lack of answers from Tony Burke. How is it that someone has come to our country, been granted a visa to be here, when he has documented public associations with listed terrorist organisations? Not just from family members who were key operatives and commanders of those terrorist organisations, but a person who himself has met with and hosted a press conference with Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, all listed terrorist organisations in Australia or among our partners.
HADLEY: Well, I think we can conclude that, you know, ASIO do their best, but sometimes, like all of us, they make a blue. And if they've made a blue it needs to be rectified by the government by going back to them and saying, hang on, we think you may have just overlooked a few things about this fellow.
PATERSON: And let's be clear, this is not just a security issue. I mean, Mike Burgess has said, the ASIO Director-General, if you simply liked a tweet supporting Hamas or calling for the destruction of Israel, you're a threat to security. But beyond being a threat to security, there's also the character provisions in the Migration Act which the government is responsible for enforcing. How is someone who hosted a press conference with Hamas, who said that the resistance to Israel must use all means necessary, is someone of good character allowed to come to our country? I can't understand how that would ever be approved.
HADLEY: Unbelievable. Now it looks like he's not going to answer the questions, I'm trying to listen to it down the line at the moment as I'm talking to you, but they've moved on, I think. But look, just on another matter, we've got this Associate Professor Khaled Beydoun arrive here on another visa, I guess a visitor's visa. I don't know that he's here professionally. He's the bloke that spoke over the weekend about it being a day of celebration. And we had almost an immediate response on Monday, and we're up to Wednesday now from the minister saying, 'I've called department officials and said, I want to know about this bloke.' Well, the bloke's still here, as far as I know. If he's still here, no one's done anything about it. He's going back, he's going back on his own volition.
PATERSON: This should be the easiest brief that the minister will ever sign from his department. Someone who gave a speech in public saying that a terrorist attack was a day for celebration, should have their visa cancelled and they should be deported. But he should never have been allowed to come to Australia in the first place. It was only a week ago that this person posted in support of Hassan Nasrallah, the slain former leader of Hezbollah, another terrorist organisation, on Instagram. Now that's easily accessible to our government. They should have checked that before granting him a visa. He's not a person of good character, why is he still in Australia?
HADLEY: Well, I suspect if he was talking along the same lines public in the United States as opposed to a lecture theatre, he wouldn't be too popular. It says here he's visiting Australia as part of a multileg speaking tour. American law professor, author Khaled Beydoun has been a source of information for supporters of Palestine and the year-long conflict, of course. But speaking at the Hizb ut-Tahrir rally at Lakemba on Monday, the third and final stop - so he's probably gone if that was his third and final stop - Beydoun has become engulfed in controversy after remarking October 7th marked a day of celebration for the pro-Palestinian movement. Now, one would assume that that's his last leg, unless he's in Ayers' Rock having a sightseeing tour, he's probably gone anyway. And by the time Tony Burke gets across it the bloke will be back in his home in the United States of America, lecturing about the stupidity there.
PATERSON: Well if he's come and gone without having his visa cancelled this is yet another failure on immigration and national security from the Albanese Labor government in a long line of failures which put our community at risk. Let's remember this is the government that released over 150 people from immigration detention who were violent non-citizens. This is a government that was granting Palestinians tourist visas from Gaza to come to our country without the proper checks until after their visas were granted. I mean, this is a government that's played fast and loose with our community safety and national security. And it's no wonder that so many Australians don't feel safe.
HADLEY: Okay. On another matter, you've probably just heard this as you were waiting online that Andrew Clennell has found more evidence, albeit 11 years ago, from Penny Wong. It appears to be contagious when referring to people they don't like on the Opposition to be, I guess, suffering from Tourette's.
PATERSON: Well, I think this was a very revealing moment yesterday in Question Time, and I am not surprised that we found some archival footage of Penny Wong doing the same. I think it's very revealing of Anthony Albanese's character. He presents himself as a good bloke and a nice guy, but actually when he's under pressure, he can be pretty nasty and he's not above using people with Tourette's as a battering ram or a weapon to attack the Opposition. And frankly, it never should have happened and he should have apologised much more promptly than he did.
HADLEY: Well, the point about it is this. Okay, we do live in the politically correct world, but I would suspect even in more enlightened times as we are now, people suffering with a known condition, which is a chronic condition, and worse still, is first impacting on people as children, and then they try to, I guess, seek help, medical help, psychological help, to stop Tourette's - some successfully, some unsuccessfully. Penny Wong mistakenly thinks it's only when you swear, when in fact, there's a whole range of other things in relation to it, tics, uncontrollable discussions, not involving profanities, but involving other things that people can't control. And so you would think a bloke of his age, who has grown up in this PC world in which we inhabit, would be thinking twice about using such an expression. And all I can fall back on is that unless he's got a script in front of him - as so aptly described by Paul Keating about a former leader, John Hewson - he's completely useless, unless someone's prepared something for him. And we've seen it before, and I'm talking to Senator James Paterson, by the way. We've seen it before in relation to him not being across detail in the lead up to the last election, not knowing really important things that a Prime Minister should know in relation to interest rates, debt and a whole range of other things. And whenever he doesn't have something in front of him, as he didn't in Question Time yesterday, he reverts back to his standard operating procedure of saying whatever comes into his head.
PATERSON: That's exactly right. This is a bloke who's just not across the detail and refuses to accept responsibility. It wasn't just in the lead up to the last election that he played this trick, but as prime minister, he is often asked questions at press conferences that he can't answer. And he gives excuses like, 'well, I was in the car'. Well, don't you have a phone, Prime Minister? Can't you make a phone call, can’t you be briefed by your staff? He pretends not to know the answer to the question sometimes, I think, because he doesn't want to have to answer them. And as you say, without a brief in front of him, he just resorts to nasty personal insults. And frankly, people with Tourette's deserve better than that, they deserve more respect than that from the highest office in the land.
HADLEY: Good to talk to you. I don't think we're going to get an answer on this bloke because I have a feeling he's already on a plane on his way back to the United States of America as we speak, on the way back to Arizona State University. But you'd wonder how he got here in the first place and why it's taken three days for the minister responsible to say, 'I've revoked his visa', even if he is en route back to the States today.
PATERSON: Sadly, I think you're exactly right, Ray.
HADLEY: Okay. Thanks for your time. Senator James Paterson, Shadow Home Affairs Minister, talking to us on the Ray Hadley morning program.
ENDS
