August 15, 2024
PETER STEFANOVIC: Back to our top story now. Peter Dutton, he stepped things up a few notches here on First Edition yesterday by calling for a blanket ban on Gazans coming to Australia for now. Joining us live out of Canberra, the Shadow Home Affairs Minister, James Paterson. James, good to see you. Thanks for your time as always. So let's start off with that claim. Do you support Peter Dutton's ban on Gazans for now?
JAMES PATERSON: All the big news breaks on First Edition Pete. And I of course strongly support what Peter Dutton has called for because frankly, when I started raising questions about this earlier in the week, I expected the government would quickly come out, reassure Australians and say, of course we're not going to bring any Hamas supporters to our country. But when they were unable to give us that assurance, when they were unable to provide evidence that they are doing sufficient security and identity checks, well then, the only option that remains is to pause all applications from Gaza for now, until those checks can be put in place. So Peter is absolutely right to call for this.
STEFANOVIC: So how long is for now?
PATERSON: Well, as long as it takes for the Albanese government to put in place adequate security checks to make sure that there is no risk posed to our community. We need to make sure that every case is referred to ASIO for its assessment, not just some. We need to make sure that face to face interviews are taking place, and we need to make sure that biometric testing is taking place. Because while there are undoubtedly many innocent, genuine migrants coming from Gaza, there are also undoubtedly people who could pose a risk to our community. And we have to weed out those people that pose that risk. That's why we do security vetting. But it doesn't work if it's not robust.
STEFANOVIC: So when I spoke to the Prime Minister yesterday, I raised that point. I said, why not refer it all to ASIO? And he said, it already is. So that's not true.
PATERSON: He misled you and he misled your viewers because that is not true. Mike Burgess said on Sunday that only some of them are being referred to ASIO. And so the Prime Minister should clarify today because he repeated those claims and the Immigration Minister repeated those claims in the Parliament and have arguably misled the parliament. They need to be up front today and say of the 10,000 visa applications considered by the government for Palestinian document holders since the 7th of October, how many of them actually went to ASIO for their assessment on security risk?
STEFANOVIC: Yeah. Now, we spoke on Monday about this, after Mike Burgess spoke on Sunday about asking politicians media as well to tone down the rhetoric. Was it the right thing to do to up it up now, just three days after that call from Burgess?
PATERSON: Well, Peter Dutton and the coalition have been very measured all the way through about this because we understand that our national security…
STEFANOVIC: Until, until now?
PATERSON: Is the first and most Important duty of any federal government. No, I don't think anything has changed. National security is the first and most important duty of the government. The Albanese government might have lost sight of that, but we haven't. And all we're asking for is a temporary pause. I point out, by the way, that right now, no one from Gaza can come to Australia because the Rafah border is closed. So the government actually has the time to get this right, to put in place a robust system that can assure the Australian people that there is no risk to national security.
STEFANOVIC: The government, and I think it was Bill shorten said yesterday, that the government is basically using your policy that you were operating under as well. Is there a problem with that?
PATERSON: Well it's not true. It would be great if it was true, but it's not true. So in the case of the Syrian intake, for example, or the Afghan intake, every person who came to Australia was either interviewed in country where it was safe to do so, or they were taken to a third country where they could be interviewed on the ground by Australian officials and had biometric testing taken. And it was only after those security and identity checks took place that they were given visas to come to Australia. In contrast, there are no Australian government officials on the ground in Gaza, so those checks cannot take place. And in fact, you couldn't leave Gaza until you had a valid visa to leave. And so what the government has done in this instance is sight unseen, in an average time of 24 hours, but it's in some instances as close to one hour, they've granted people tourist visas without interviewing them, without doing biometric testing. So it's completely different to the approach we took. In fact, Peter Dutton was the immigration minister at the time, and he was attacked for going too slow on the Syrian migrant intake because he was making sure those security checks took place. And that's exactly what this government should have done.
STEFANOVIC: You mentioned Rafah and the Rafah crossing there. I mean, it's worth reminding our viewers, and I know we've done this a bit during this war, but Egypt and that's Gaza's neighbour, Egypt isn't taking refugees.
PATERSON: No, they're not Pete and they're not alone in that. Neither is Jordan and many other countries in the region. Australia is a very generous and compassionate country, and I think most Australians are proud of that. We have taken people from Afghanistan, from Syria and, yes, from Gaza, and we should do so and continue to do so, but only if we can be absolutely certain that there are no supporters of listed terrorist organisations among them, that there are no people who pose a security risk to our country and the Albanese government hasn't put in place a robust enough system to make sure that that's the case.
STEFANOVIC: Do you support or agree with that point that Tony Abbott made that at this time, he believes, or there could be a suggestion that all folks who come here from Gaza are Hamas sympathisers?
PATERSON: Well, I think Tony was just pointing out it's a risk that they may be, because opinion polling out of Gaza is very clear. Anywhere between 40% and 70%, depending on which poll you rely on, support Hamas and the 7th of October attacks. And nobody who supports that horrific terrorist incident should come to Australia because frankly, we have enough problems already with social cohesion and anti-Semitism. We don't want to make them worse by bringing in supporters of terrorist organisations.
STEFANOVIC: Final on here James, I noticed Tony Burke, he called you a “junior shadow minister” in Question time yesterday. Your thoughts on that? Is he being ageist?
PATERSON: I saw that Pete. Look if that's the worst thing that Tony Burke can say about me, I'll have to live with it. But he might like to ask his colleagues, Clare O'Neil and Andrew Giles, what a “junior shadow minister” is capable of doing.
STEFANOVIC: True. James Paterson thank you.
ENDS
