October 9, 2024
ANDREW BOLT: Joining me is the Opposition's Home Affairs spokesman, Senator James Paterson. Thanks for coming on the show, Senator. Look, should this man, Fayez Elhasani, be in Australia?
JAMES PATERSON: The short answer to that is obviously no Andrew and I thought that editorial you just gave was very powerful and it included some fresh new information about Fayez Elhasani which makes it even more worrying that he was granted a visa. I want to be clear. I am not in any way critical of ASIO or the dedicated, professional and patriotic people who work there. The problem is I think they've been given an impossible task by the Albanese government. It emerged through an order for production of documents that I secured in the Senate a few weeks ago that more than 2,000 Gaza tourist visas were referred to ASIO in March this year and there's two problems with that. One, they were referred to ASIO after the visas were granted, not before they were granted. And secondly, that is an extraordinarily large volume of visas for ASIO to consider. And so it is not surprising that someone like this could get in, who I don't think would meet the criteria for a security assessment, but also clearly does not meet the criteria for a character assessment. Someone who has advocated terrorism, has links to terrorists, who has published artwork which is anti-Semitic and which glorifies terrorism. All of those things should have fallen afoul of the low bar of character assessment, let alone the higher of a security assessment.
BOLT: Look, I know politicians are usually very, very anxious not to be seen to be criticising ASIO. I don't know whether you rely on their leaks or you're looking ahead as You've got to work with them. But honestly, I saw Tony Burke there deploring, mocking 'just a Google search'. If you can Google this guy's name and see all these links, just the simple Google search. I'm not even an ASIO operative. Then you've got to wonder, surely, how ASIO missed all those red flags. Or worse, how it didn't miss them and still didn't get the government to boot him out.
PATERSON: Andrew, I think we all saw what the problem was today. It was standing in Question Time and the problem’s name is Tony Burke. And the other problem’s name is Anthony Albanese. Because even when presented with this information on the front page of a newspaper, they were both unmoved by it. They were both unconcerned by it. They both didn't see what the problem was. I mean, Mike Burgess, as ASIO Director General, has publicly set out the test here. In his interview with 7.30 with Sarah Ferguson, he said, anybody who'd simply tweeted in support of Hamas or tweeted in support of the destruction of the state of Israel is a security problem for Australia and, quote, “would not pass muster.” Now, Fayez Elhasani, has done far more than just tweet in support of terrorist organisations, through his family members he's directly linked to those terrorist organisations. As you've documented, he has publicly hosted them at his institute. He did a press conference with them. He advocated their cause. I mean, all of those things should be enough information now that they are in the possession of the Minister and the government to act and yet still they are not. So I think it's very clear what the problem here is and it's the Labor Party.
BOLT: So let's not forget that the ASIO boss a month earlier or more than a month earlier had said, well if they merely advocate for Hamas, that's not necessarily a reason we would throw them out. It had to be more active than that. So I don't know. I think he spoke frankly the first time, unfortunately. But here's another ground for him to be thrown at. You've put the case very well, I'll tell you something else. To apply to come in here as this tourist or whatever. He should have answered honestly question on the application form, page ten, I think it's number 39. The question is, 'Have you ever been associated with an organisation engaged in violence or engaged in acts of violence, including war, insurgency, freedom fighting, terrorism, protests?' Now, if he answered honestly, yes I have. Half my family is in that. He should have been stopped. If he lied and said, no, no, no, he should be thrown out, shouldn't he?
PATERSON: That's right, Andrew. Neither you nor I know how he answered that question. But as you say, if he fessed up to being associated with a terrorist organisation, his visa never should have been approved in the first place. And if he lied about his associations with terrorist organisations, then that is comfortable grounds for cancelling his visa now. I cannot fathom why Tony Burke has not asked his department to provide a brief on this case. He's asked for it in other cases that are not as egregious as this one. I would have thought this is a really clear cut case and the “nothing to see here” act that we saw from Tony Burke in Question Time today was arrogant. It was dismissive. And frankly, he is being reckless with Australians’ safety. We should not be importing any supporters of terrorism, or any people directly linked to terrorist organisations into our country. Zero is the acceptable number of those people to come to our country. And yet Tony Burke and the Prime Minister apparently completely blasé about this, like there's no consequences for our country of doing this.
BOLT: And lastly, James Paterson, the Prime Minister today said yet again, 'I support Israel's right to defend itself'. He has never, ever mentioned one thing Israel has done that he actually does support. The principle, yes. The practice, no. But yet again, he refused to support anything it's doing, including going into Lebanon to take out Hezbollah terrorists. Do you support Israel doing that?
PATERSON: Yes, I strongly support Israel doing what it needs to do to restore deterrence in the region, to put Iran back in its box and to dismantle the terrorist networks on its border, whether that's in Lebanon or Gaza. We have a Prime Minister who's been speaking out of both sides of his mouth. On the one hand, he says Israel can defend itself, but on the other hand, he says there should be an immediate ceasefire. Well, how on earth does Israel defend itself if there's a ceasefire? The Foreign Minister, Penny Wong, has said that Hamas has no role in the future governance of Gaza, but there should be a ceasefire. Well, how does she think we're going to get Hamas out of Gaza, if not through the IDF? I mean, this government is completely divided on this issue. It can't give an honest answer on this issue because they are torn between the national interest and our national security interest and their electoral interests.
BOLT: Yes. And they keep saying, 'Hamas must release the hostages'. Hasn't done it in a year. So how's it going to make it do it? There's only one force on earth that will make Hamas do that. It's called the Israeli Defence Force. James Paterson, thank you so much for your time.
ENDS
