Opposition leader Peter Dutton does not believe Australia should be accepting Palestinians from the Gaza war zone at the moment due to national security risks.
Amid the Israel-Hamas war, Dutton expressed concerns over the potential arrival of Palestinians with possible ties to Hamas arriving in Australia.
He emphasised that every Australian would be shocked to learn that the government might be bringing in people from a war zone without “conducting checks and searches on these people” by the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation (ASIO).
“It is something the prime minister needs to answer because we’re living in a heightened security threat environment, and the prime minister needs to be upfront with the Australian public,” he said.
Dutton said it was concerning “to bring people out on paper documentation when you don’t have a regime there to check the births, deaths, and marriages registers as you would normally have, coming out of another country.”
“Hamas is a listed terrorist organisation, they’ve just committed an atrocity against the Jewish people, the biggest attack on people of Jewish faith since the Holocaust—and that the government wouldn’t be conducting checks?” he queried.
Hamas launched an attack on Israel on Oct. 7, killing about 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages. Since then, more than 39,000 people have died in Gaza according to the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Health Authority.
Albanese Responds to Dutton
However, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese expressed confidence in security following Dutton’s comments in an interview with Sky News.When asked directly if he supported a pause on accepting individuals from Gaza, Albanese responded “There’s security checks.”
He also emphasised that the Director-General of ASIO, who recently commented on the matter, holds a crucial perspective.
“What the Director-General of ASIO thinks is pretty important too,” Albanese said.
Meanwhile, Minister for Education Jason Clare told the ABC no one is coming to Australia from Gaza at the moment.
“The Rafah gates closed. That’s just a fact,” he said.
Clare said anyone who comes from Gaza, like anyone who comes from anywhere around the world, goes through security processing.
“The same sort of system that existed when Peter Dutton was in power. And he knows that,” he said.
The Minister extended an invitation to Dutton to come and visit people within his electorate from Gaza living in Australia now.
“These are people who’ve had their homes blown up, who’ve had their school blown up, who’ve had their hospital blown up, who’ve had their kids blown up. Come and talk to them, see them.”
Question Time Pressure
During question time on Aug. 14 (pdf), several politicians asked the Albanese government about their vetting process for individuals fleeing Gaza.Deputy Leader Sussan Ley asked Albanese if any agency had expressed concern about anyone who has arrived from Gaza since Oct. 7.
In response, Albanese said the director-general of ASIO had not expressed concerns along any of the lines that were raised by the shadow minister.
Shadow Immigration and Citizenship Minister Dan Tehan also pressed Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke on whether any visas approved for applicants from the Gaza war zone since Oct. 8 had been granted without an ASIO security assessment being made.
In response, Mr. Burke said there is a process that ASIO is involved with that applies to every single visa issued in Australia whether someone is from the United States or the Gaza Strip.
“That is through what ASIO will routinely refer to as their watchlist—what is technically referred to as the Movement Alert List,” he said.
“It is updated every 24 hours with every name that ASIO puts forward that they are concerned about.
Dutton Expands on Security Concerns
Dutton has since further elaborated on his concerns, dismissing suggestions that the issue was driven by internal politics.“I know that sort of insider talk’s been going on, but I’ve got a great national security team with James Paterson and with Andrew Hastie,” Dutton said. “We’ve had countless conversations about this topic.”
Dutton argued that the government had effectively changed its policy by allowing individuals into Australia who might be sympathisers of a listed terrorist organisation.
“Could you imagine if we were proposing to bring people in who were sympathetic to another listed terrorist organisation, like al-Qaeda or ISIL or ISIS? It’s completely unacceptable. And the government is trying to patch this up, but they are putting our country at risk,” Dutton stated. “We can take people in a measured, responsible way. That’s not what they’ve done.”
He insisted that Australia should halt the intake of individuals from war zones until proper checks are ensured, emphasising the potential risks.
“You bring 3,000 people in, let’s say 99 percent are good. If 1 percent, 30 people, are questionable or sympathisers with a listed terrorist organisation, how on earth is that in our country’s best interests?” Dutton asked.
He pointed out the challenges of conducting security checks without sufficient intelligence resources.
“When we check the people coming out of Syria, we did it with America because they had the biggest intelligence holdings in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Dutton said.
“The Americans don’t have the security holdings and the intelligence holdings out of the Middle East like they did. The Israelis do, you know, ironically enough.
“But none of those checks have been done. We can bring people here. We can be generous, but it needs to be done in the right way, and it just hasn’t been done.”
