Daniel Hurst
The Guardian / August 21, 2024
De facto ambassador to Australia says opposition leader’s commentary ‘not evidence based, not verified and unacceptable’
Peter Dutton’s comments about people escaping the bloodshed in Gaza are hurtful and “very bad for cohesion and harmony”, according to Palestine’s de facto ambassador to Australia.
After a week of intense parliamentary debate about Australia’s use of visitor visas for Palestinians fleeing the conflict, Izzat Salah Abdulhadi called the opposition leader’s commentary “very political”.
“It will have a very negative impact on the Muslim, Arab, Palestinian community, who already live in a very stressful situation seeing the killing of whole families in Gaza – we can see all these images,” said Abdulhadi, the head of the General Delegation of Palestine to Australia.
“It’s very bad for cohesion and harmony, which is important for national security and the national interests of Australia.”
Abdulhadi called on the new home affairs minister, Tony Burke, to provide certainty to people who have fled Israel’s military assault on Gaza in response to the 7 October Hamas attacks.
Burke is considering putting in place a pathway to support Palestinians as their visitor visas expire.
Abdulhadi acknowledged there was “a risk” the government might be spooked by the fractious domestic political debate, but said it was “time for leadership and to provide those arrivals from Gaza support”.
Abdulhadi represents the Palestinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank. The authority is dominated by Fatah – a rival to Hamas – and is not in control of Gaza.
Dutton triggered an acrimonious political debate when he said last week he did not think “people should be coming in from that war zone at all at the moment” because “it puts our national security at risk”.
He and his Coalition colleagues have since used parliamentary question time to prosecute the government over its processes to issue visas to “people from the terrorist-controlled Gaza war zone”.
In an op-ed in the News Corp tabloids on Sunday, Dutton argued there was “a real possibility the Albanese government has allowed Hamas sympathisers and antisemites into our country by failing to conduct necessary checks”.
Abdulhadi pushed back at those comments in an interview with Guardian Australia on Wednesday. He said departures from Gaza had been “totally frozen” since the closure of the Rafah crossing in May.
The Australian government had also used a “very restrictive visa-issuing process” with strict definitions of close family members, so it had become “really difficult” to bring anybody from Gaza, Abdulhadi said.
“But from a principled point of view, I think the comments of Mr Dutton are not evidence based, are not verified and are unacceptable,” Abdulhadi said.
“We’re used to this kind of politicizing external issues, foreign policy, for domestic issues unfortunately.”
Australia issued 2,922 visas to Palestinians between 7 October and 12 August, but a further 7,111 applications were rejected, government figures show. Only an estimated 1,300 Palestinians had actually been able to make it to Australia.
Anthony Albanese rounded on Dutton in question time on Wednesday, saying the opposition leader’s entire political career was about stoking division.
“He continually looks to pretend that he’s so strong but nastiness is not strength,” Albanese told parliament.
“Punching down on vulnerable people is not strength but that is what this bloke does.”
Dutton’s office was contacted for a response but he has previously defended his comments.
He said on Tuesday he was advocating a temporary pause on Gaza visa approvals “just until the security situation stabilizes and the government can assure Australians proper checks are being undertaken”.
The government has repeatedly said it is not taking any shortcuts with security checks and has confidence in security agencies.
The Liberal frontbencher Dan Tehan alleged in parliament on Wednesday that the government was “cutting corners on security assessments” but the Asio chief, Mike Burgess, told Guardian Australia in March: “I’m confident the process is where it needs to be.”
Daniel Hurst is Guardian Australia’s foreign affairs and defence correspondent
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Peter Dutton tells Coalition party room he only wants temporary pause on Gaza visas as part of ‘principled stance’
Karen Middleton
The Guardian / August 20, 2024
Some Coalition MPs have indicated privately they would be concerned if opposition leader was advocating to permanently refuse visas to Palestinians.
Peter Dutton has assured Coalition MPs he is only calling for a temporary pause in allowing people from Gaza to come to Australia, after some were concerned he wanted a permanent ban.
In his weekly address to the Coalition party room, Dutton insisted the Coalition had taken “a principled stance” in challenging the visa approval process for applicants from Gaza and demanding greater security checks.
“We have called for a temporary pause on approving visas from Palestinian document holders in Gaza, just until the security situation stabilises and the government can assure Australians proper checks are being undertaken,” Dutton is understood to have said.
He said Australia was “a big-hearted and generous nation” but was obliged to ensure appropriate security checks were done.
Some in the Coalition have indicated privately that they would be concerned if the opposition leader was advocating to permanently refuse visas to people from Gaza. But they said they were satisfied that the opposition leader had clarified that he was only calling for a temporary pause.
In the party room, his almost-week-long campaign casting doubt on the security processes around issuing visas to Palestinians won support. He is calling for future visa applicants from Gaza to be subjected to face-to-face interviews – something that could only be done once the Gaza border reopened and people could be assessed in another country before being approved to travel to Australia.
The opposition continues to press the government over its handling of the visa process, devoting every question in Tuesday’s House of Representatives question time to the issue.
The shadow immigration minister, Dan Tehan, demanded to know how many visas issued to people from Gaza had subsequently been cancelled.
Government-issued figures indicate that 2,922 visas were granted to people holding a Palestinian Authority travel document between 7 October and 12 August and 7,111 applications were refused. Most of those granted were visitor visas.
The government says that during the same period, 43 Palestinian visitor visas were subsequently cancelled – all while the visa-holders were still offshore. Twenty of these were later reinstated.
“We’re being guided every single step of the way by our security agencies,” Anthony Albanese said. “What our agencies do is to constantly examine issues. That doesn’t stop when someone is granted a visa.”
The prime minister said it was “an ongoing process”.
Albanese said it was “unbelievable” that the Coalition was seeking details about visa cancellations when Dutton routinely refused to provide information as home affairs minister.
Earlier on Tuesday, the opposition demanded that the government guarantee no one granted a visa from Gaza since the 7 October Hamas terrorist attacks on Israel would be allowed to stay permanently in Australia.
“We don’t think permanent visas is the right approach,” the shadow home affairs minister, James Paterson, said. “We think temporary protection visas under the former government was the right approach. That allows people to be safe and stay here while they can, but to return home when it’s safe to do so.”
Paterson said Canada had only accepted 254 people from Gaza since the 7 October attacks, France 260, Italy 156 and the US 17.
Earlier in the Coalition party room, Dutton said he remained concerned that the government’s decisions were making Australia less safe through “a murky process” of visa approvals. He suggested Labor was selling out national security for political reasons.
In parliament, the treasurer, Jim Chalmers, accused him of being “on the dog whistle”.
“Every single question on the Middle East,” Chalmers said in question time. “Not one question on middle Australia … They are playing politics on national security because they are hopeless on economics.”
Dutton tried unsuccessfully to have parliament silence the treasurer.
Finishing his answer when question time resumed after the house voted down Dutton’s motion, Chalmers had another rhetorical jab.
“That break was actually useful,” Chalmers said. “It was a good opportunity to clean up the little shards of the opposition leader’s glass jaw over there, Mr Speaker. Another display of extreme weakness and extreme sookiness from the leader of the opposition.”
Karen Middleton – Political editor
