Dutton Says People Fleeing Gaza Should Not Be Granted a Visa

Two-thirds of people seeking to flee Gaza to Australia are being refused, new figures have revealed, as the Opposition warns it is “not prudent” for any Palestinians to be allowed into the country.

Peter Dutton has argued Palestinians fleeing Gaza should not be granted entry to Australia, citing national security fears.

In a Sky News interview on Wednesday morning, the opposition leader said he was not satisfied there was sufficient screening in place to ensure those fleeing the region were not associated with terrorist activities.

“If people are coming in from that war zone and we’re uncertain about their identity or allegiances — Hamas is a listed terrorist organisation,” he said.

“I don’t think people should be coming in from that war zone at all at the moment. It’s not prudent to do so and I think it puts our national security at risk.”

Since the Hamas terror attack on Israel on October 7 last year, 7,111 visa applications have been refused by the federal government.

2,922 visas were granted to holders of a Palestinian Authority travel document in that same time, with all but about 350 being visitor visas.

The number who have arrived in Australia is closer to 1,300.

About 40 people’s visitor visas were cancelled, and about half of those cancellations were then revoked, reinstating the visitor visa.

Many applicants are children and most have received visitor visas. In early August, new Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke said the government was working on a solution for that cohort when the visitor visas expired, confirming they would not be sent back to Gaza with a war ongoing.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese accused Mr Dutton of stoking division.

“This bloke always seeks to divide … We take our advice from the director-general of ASIO and the security agencies. Not from someone always looking for a fight, always looking for division.”

Since the October 7 attack, just over 8,700 visas have been granted to Israelis, with about 200 applications refused.

ASIO chief outlines vetting process

The Coalition has repeatedly raised concerns about the extent of security checks on the cohort.

Those concerns were reinvigorated this week after ASIO chief Mike Burgess told the ABC’s Insiders his agency conducted security screenings on some but not all visa applicants, subject to referral from the department.

“I can assure your audience that when things get referred to ASIO, we deal with them effectively. Of course, there might be times when they didn’t get referred to us in time [but] once we become aware of them, we’re able to do [security] assessments.”

Coalition home affairs spokesperson James Paterson said every person coming out of Gaza should be referred to ASIO.

“Mike Burgess rightly said that when these cases are referred to his organisation, they are assessed for security. But he also said there were some instances where they were not referred … That’s deeply disturbing,” he said.

Mr Burgess also said that in circumstances when his agency did conduct security checks, it would not automatically reject someone who supported Hamas.

“[It] depends on what that looks like,” he said. “If they’re supportive because they want their homeland … If it’s just rhetorical support and they don’t have an ideology or support for violent extremism ideology, then that’s not a problem.

“If they’re giving financial support or material aid, that can be a problem and obviously we take each case on its merits and context of the information we have before us.”

Senator Paterson said that process should be changed.

“I think the government should send a very clear message that no-one who supports Hamas is welcome in Australia,” he told the ABC’s RN Drive.

“You could be a peaceful supporter of Palestinian self-determination and an opponent of using violent means to achieve those objectives. And if you are, then there should be no barrier to you coming to Australia and being welcome in Australia.

“But if you support an organisation that carried out the worst atrocities against the Jewish people since the Holocaust … I don’t think that’s the sort of person we want to welcome to our country.”

‘Come to my electorate,’ minister tells Dutton

Education Minister Jason Clare noted there was currently no way out of Gaza so further arrivals were not currently possible.

“There’s no-one coming from Gaza at the moment. The Rafah gate is closed, it’s just a fact.

“There are people from Gaza here now, they live in my electorate, I’ve met them, great people. And I’d invite Peter to come to my electorate and meet them.

“These are people who have had their homes blown up, their schools blown up, their hospital blown up, who have had their kids blown up. Come and talk to them, see them, and I think he would get a better appreciation for the human catastrophe that is happening in Gaza now.”

NDIS Minister Bill Shorten said Mr Dutton had “misfired”.

“We currently have a process where ASIO vet people, where we have national security checking. Memo to Peter Dutton, we’re using the same process that he used.

“It’s a very small number of people who have been accepted here temporarily. Their temporary visas are coming to an end. Unfortunately, the war in Gaza isn’t over, so how humane is it to send people we’ve accepted back?

“And we’ve always had a principle that in a war zone, whilst there’s combatants and bad people, there’s a lot of innocent people. And when we start saying that everyone’s guilty because of some people, it’s a problem.”

Nasser Mashni from the Australia Palestine Advocacy Network accused Mr Dutton of using the conflict to score “cheap” political points.

“That framing is racist … it really is shameful and beneath our alternative prime minister,” Mr Mashni said.

Mr Mashni said it was also his understanding that people were currently unable to exit Gaza, but said the Australian government should have done more during the window where people were able to leave.