August 6, 2024
PETA CREDLIN: You will recall the countless times on this program I have called into question the Albanese government funding of UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. Now, in the immediate aftermath of the October 7th terror attacks, serious allegations were made that the staff of UNRWA were involved in the atrocities. An investigation was launched and the Prime Minister was shamed into pausing Australia's multimillion dollar funding of the UN agency. Before the investigation was concluded though, Labor lifted the ban on funding and the millions flowed again. Well, today sufficient evidence has linked nine UNRWA staff with the October 7th attacks, and that's forced this admission of their involvement by the UN and termination, says the UN, of their employment. Joining me now to discuss this and more Shadow Home Affairs Minister, James Paterson. Well, Senator, thank you for your time. I mean, clearly it was a mistake to reinstate the funding before we even got the results of this investigation. Clearly, now the Prime Minister only has one option, doesn't he?
JAMES PATERSON: That's absolutely right, Peta. The Prime Minister has nowhere to hide. He was warned that his decision to increase funding for UNRWA while it was under investigation for its employees being complicit in the worst atrocity against the Jewish people since the end of the Holocaust, was a massive risk. He was warned that Australian taxpayer dollars could ultimately go to an organisation that employs terrorists, and we begged him not to resume that funding because of this risk. But he and the Foreign Minister ignored that advice, ignored those warnings, resumed that funding, and now they are complicit in funding an organisation that itself has admitted it employed at least nine people who participated in the 7th October atrocities. Now that’s offensive at any time, but right now, when Australians are struggling with the cost of living, when taxpayers work very hard for their money, I think it will be utterly offensive to most Australians, the idea that their hard earned money is being sent to an organisation that employs terrorists in Gaza.
CREDLIN: What was horrific to me, James, was to learn that these UN workers were described as teachers, as social workers, including one who was an Arabic instructor, and he was revealed to be a Hamas military commander that helped slaughter civilians in Kibbutz Be'eri. Now for years there has been allegations around UNRWA. I think for the first time I would have heard about them was 15 plus years ago, allegations that it facilitated terrorism. I mean, do we need a wholesale audit into all the funding we provide in this region? Because if you can't trust the UN, who do you trust?
PATERSON: I think that's right, Peta. I think we do need to run a very fine climb over every dollar of foreign aid that we send to that region, because it is unconscionable, the idea that a single cent of Australian taxpayers money would ultimately find its way into the hands of terrorists. And if social workers and teachers working for UNRWA are involved in these kinds of atrocities, what about other organisations? I think it's incumbent on the government to find charitable partners, to work within the region that can assure them that there is no risk that any of their funds end up with terrorists. And unless they can provide that guarantee, then we shouldn't be providing funding at such a great risk to our taxpayers.
CREDLIN: All right. Let's talk about these Gaza visas the government is handing out. We've discussed them before. We've discussed the fact that some are being approved in under 24 hours. No Australian officials on the ground to handle security checks. We learned on Friday that Labor's got a secret plan to make these temporary visas now permanent. If we're not checking these people, James, thoroughly, it would be madness to give them a pathway to citizenship. When we've seen in recent months just how hard it is to remove citizenship from someone if there's a problem down the track. Why don't we just roll over the current temporary visas? Why make them permanent?
PATERSON: That's right, Peta. Tony Burke is off to a very bad start in the portfolio. And if one of his first major policy initiatives is to grant permanent protection visas to people who we can't be assured do not pose a risk to the Australian community, I think he'll be very harshly judged for his second stint in this portfolio after his spectacular failure the first time he was appointed to this portfolio. The truth is that granting a visa to someone who is leaving a war zone controlled by a terrorist organisation with 24 hours or less consideration, is a major risk to the Australian public. It is not adequate. And Tony Burke was out on Sunday saying, well if we grant them these more permanent visas to stay in Australia, we'll do further security checks. But why would any further security checks be necessary if adequate security checks were granted in the first place? And why were they ever given a temporary visitor visa, a tourist visa, to come to our country if they never had any intention of ever returning to Gaza in the first place? The tough scrutiny should have happened before they came to Australia, not once they're here.
CREDLIN: James, you and I both know that one of the first things the terror group does is try and get its best operatives, its bomb makers, its strategists out of the zone, so that they survive to kill and maim again. We're not checking, as I say, the security credentials of these people very well. There's concern about their bona fides, that they're even travelling on the right name. They come in with papers from the Palestinian Authority. I mean, give me a break. Once they are here, we lose them in the community very rapidly. This is a massive risk to Australians.
PATERSON: Well, that's right, and even if not a single terrorist makes their way as part of this cohort into our country, you can bet your bottom dollar that there will be many supporters of Hamas within this cohort. Your colleague Sharri Markson identified at least one through a desktop social media search, when these visas were first granted. If she can find one, I bet there's many in there. And after the surge in antisemitism since the 7th of October in our country, the damage to social cohesion that has been done, do we really think it's a good idea to bring any more supporters of Hamas to Australia and to allow them to stay on a permanent basis? Frankly, I don't think so and I don't think the Australian people would agree either.
CREDLIN: James, they've gutted the Home Affairs portfolio. They're throwing the security chiefs out of the National Security Committee. They've sacked the head of the Home Affairs department. They've got this gaping hole, I would argue, here on the security of visas. You make the point, even if they're not terrorists in Australia, they could well be sympathisers. They can also be fundraisers for Hamas. That has happened before, money left Australia for Islamic State. Young people here were radicalised. I mean, this is this is cack handed management by Labor.
PATERSON: Look, let me add one more to that list Peta. We have supporters of Hamas in Australia openly wearing their logos and their symbols on the streets of Melbourne and Sydney, including the logo of the al-Qassam Brigades of Hamas, which is the militant wing of the organisation, in defiance of the hate symbols legislation that the parliament passed unanimously earlier this year. And no one has been prosecuted. No one has been charged. No one has been arrested. What on earth is the government and the Prime Minister doing in showing this tolerance, in allowing this behaviour to fester? And how is that building a stronger and more cohesive Australia? Frankly, I don't think we can afford three more years like the last two. Does any Australian feel safer than they were two years ago? I doubt it.
CREDLIN: James Paterson, I call this, visas for votes. If I'm really honest. Tony Burke and certainly I got a steer from Labor people yesterday. But his big motivation is holding on to Watson and he's got licence from others in the Labor strategy team to go out there and try and win back the Muslim community. This seems to me to be an election ploy. Am I too cynical?
PATERSON: Well, the Prime Minister certainly didn't appoint Tony Burke because of his great success in the portfolio last time, this is a person who, in just 80 days as Minister, allowed 83 boats carrying 6634 people into our country. So that's not the reason why he was appointed. I think the reason, the only reason, we can point to is the enormous political pressure that the Labor Party is facing in south western Sydney, from the Muslim Votes Matters group and others. And let's be honest, Tony Burke considers himself a future leader of the Labor Party. Now, that might be hard for you to see, Peta, and for me to see, but that's what he believes. There's no way he's taking any risks with his political future. And if ever forced to choose between the national interest and keeping his seat, I'm pretty sure which choice he's going to make.
CREDLIN: Thank you for your plain speaking, James Paterson.
ENDS
