August 22, 2024
ANDREW BOLT: Joining me now, the Shadow Home Affairs Minister James Paterson. Senator James Patterson, thank you so much for joining us. I've just shown the culture that Hamas built in Gaza over nearly two decades. Constant preaching of Jew hatred, of violence, of armed struggle or terrorism. Do you think this government has any clue about the kind of society there, when it's giving nearly 3000 people from Gaza just tourist visas with minimal checks, no interviews to come to Australia.
JAMES PATERSON: Andrew. I hope they have no idea, because if they do know about that, and then nonetheless have recklessly decided to bring in 3,000 people with inadequate security checks on tourist visas, then they're guilty of grave irresponsibility for our country. The Prime Minister talks about the importance of social cohesion. He says he's appalled by anti-Semitism. And yet it's very difficult to reconcile those things with the decisions he's presided over to bring people in who are at risk of exacerbating those problems and making them even worse. The sad truth is that the people of Gaza have been subject to Hamas level indoctrination for decades. Many people have been raised knowing nothing else other than hatred of Jews, hatred of Israel, hatred of Western civilisation. And I think that's why we do need to have high standards. We do need to say we only want to welcome people to our country that want to uphold what is good about our country and make it better, not undermine it or change it fundamentally.
BOLT: I understand, the people are saying, yes, well, look at the Ukrainians we brought in as if the Ukrainian culture is similar to the culture in Gaza. It's just so unreal. But let me now show you, show viewers again what Abul Rizvi. A former Home Affairs deputy secretary has told The Australian newspaper, that the Department of Home Affairs would have said to this Albanese government do not bring in these refugees on tourism visas. He would have advised that humanitarian visas were a better option. But the government went down a path that it thought was politically safer, not the best policy path. And now, he said, it's blown up in their face. Do you believe that's actually what happened, that the department advised against this?
PATERSON: These are very serious allegations from someone who is no friend of the Coalition or the Liberal Party. In fact, normally Abul Rizvi is attacking us for the things that we have said and done. So it's highly significant that he's accused the Labor Party of three pretty grave sins in this area. One, ignoring departmental advice. Two, departing from past practice. And three engaging in politicised decision making to reach those conclusions. And I think it is incumbent on the government to release that advice, to put it beyond doubt. What was the Department of Home Affairs advising them to do? It's very difficult to imagine that the Department of Home Affairs was saying it's a good idea to give tourist visas to people fleeing a war zone controlled by a terrorist organisation, and to do so in some instances, as quickly as an hour, and on average, in 24 hours. I'd be surprised if that was the advice, but only Tony Burke can put this beyond doubt by releasing that advice publicly, and he should do so.
BOLT: Well, the Attorney General, Mark Dreyfus, today refused to confirm or deny there was any such advice. He deflected instead have a listen.
[CLIP START]
MARK DREYFUS: What Mr. Rizvi actually said, and I would 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.
JOURNALIST: He has said that, but he's also questioned the choice of visitor visas.
DREYFUS: I'm not going to engage in speculation. 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 we're in use under the previous government.
[CLIP ENDS]
BOLT: Now James, I would have thought that Mark Dreyfus, the Attorney General being Jewish himself, would have a very heightened appreciation of the dangers here. But that deflection, what's your response?
PATERSON: Well points to Mark Dreyfus for upholding the party talking points and sticking to the line, but everybody can see that it is no longer viable or tenable to argue that what this government has done is the same as what the previous government did. I mean, the process under the previous government in relation to the Syrian evacuees in Afghanistan was completely different. People were taken to third countries. They were interviewed in person by Australian government officials. Biometric assessments were done and only then, when security checks could be satisfied, were people given visas to come to Australia. In this case, they granted visas to 3,000 Gaza residents, sight unseen, no interviews, no biometric tests, nothing. And they have rushed this process. And it is untenable for Mark Dreyfus or anyone else to try and insist otherwise. The fact that they keep sticking to this line, despite all the evidence of the contrary, really shows the contempt they have for the people of Australia who are seeing through this and can see through this. And I think it's doing them great damage.
BOLT: Rizvi, this former deputy head of the Home Affairs Department, did say that what you're asking for, a ban on all refugees from Gaza for now, is unlawful under the Migration Act. Is he right?
PATERSON: No he's not. In fact, what Peter Dutton has been calling for is upholding the principles of the Migration Act, which is that tourist visas should not be given to people who have no intention to return from where they came. It's a temporary visa, and it's been granted to people who Tony Burke says have no prospect of returning. So Peter Dutton is asking that that principle of the Migration Act be upheld. He's also asking that the principle of the Migration Act, that we have character provisions that we apply to applicants, also be upheld. I think if you are a Hamas supporter, whether it's rhetorical or otherwise, you're violating all principles of the character provisions of the Migration Act, and your visa should be refused on that basis. The truth is, right now, no one's getting out of Gaza because the Rafah border crossing is closed. And so the government does have the time to get this right, to pause, and to do it properly. And we would supportive it if they did it properly, but there's no evidence that they're doing so.
BOLT: Senator James Paterson, thank you so much for your time.
PATERSON: Thanks, Andrew
ENDS
