August 22, 2024
JAMES PATERSON: Good morning. There are very serious allegations made in The Australian newspaper today by Abul Rizvi, a former senior official in the Department of Home Affairs, and before that, the Department of Immigration. Now, let's be clear, Mr. Rizvi is not someone who's a friend of the Coalition, he has also been highly critical of us in the past, too. And that's why his words carry even greater weight. He's made three charges against the Albanese government this morning. He says one, they ignored departmental advice when they handed out 3,000 tourist visas to come to Australia. Two, that was apparently a political decision. And three, that they have departed from past practice when evacuating people from conflict zones like this.
There's only one course of action available to the Minister for Home Affairs, Tony Burke, today. He must release all departmental advice to his predecessors, Clare O'Neil and Andrew Giles, to clear up whether or not the department did support this course of action, whether they advised this course of action. And whether or not the government departed from it in a political decision that has put Australia's national security and community safety at risk.
JOURNALIST: It's unlikely the government is going to do that. Releasing departmental advice. I mean, what should happen if they don't?
PATERSON: Well, there's nothing to stop the government from releasing the departmental advice, but it will be very telling if they don't. That's basically an admission of guilt from the government, it is an admission that Mr. Rizvi is right, they did make a political decision, that they departed from past practice, that they ignored departmental advice, and that they recklessly issued 3,000 tourist visas to people fleeing a war zone controlled by a terrorist organisation, putting our national security at risk.
JOURNALIST: If these claims are true by Abdul Rizvi, what should happened?
PATERSON: Well, there must be very serious consequences. Obviously, the Prime Minister can't sack Clare O'Neil and Andrew Giles, he's already done that. And so the only consequence is for the Prime Minister to take personal responsibility. And number one, every one of these visas needs to be re-examined, they need to be carefully checked against much more robust criteria like we have for refugee humanitarian visas. We need to make sure that no Hamas supporters were brought into our country under this rushed process and we need to make sure that our community safety and national security hasn't been undermined.
JOURNALIST: On another topic, I understand this is not your portfolio, but we're still awaiting for the final New Aged Care Act. We're hearing that it's imminent. Today is the last day of sitting. Have you heard anything from within the Coalition about a time for when we're going to see it, an agreement?
PATERSON: We've been engaging very constructively with the government on this in a bipartisan way, because it's a huge priority for our nation to get aged care right, for our older Australians and to make sure that it's sustainably financed by taxpayers. I don't have any insights into when the government plans to release their own legislation, the ball is in their court. But we have had very constructive conversations with them about landing this in a bipartisan place, and that's what we hope to see shortly.
JOURNALIST: Has a deal been struck?
PATERSON: We have certainly negotiated principles with the government. But we haven't seen the final legislation. And until that's released, we'll be determining our final position and taking it to the Coalition party room in the normal way.
Thank you.
ENDS
