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representatives vote 2024-08-15#1
Edited by
mackay staff
on
2024-08-17 09:29:28
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Title
Motions — National Security- Motions - National Security - Visas for people fleeing from Gaza
Description
<p class="speaker">Peter Dutton</p><p>I seek leave to move the following motion:</p><p class="italic">That this House:</p><p class="italic">(1) notes that the Albanese Government has so far granted almost 3,000 visitor visas to individuals from the Gaza warzone;</p><p class="italic">(2) notes that in question time yesterday, the Prime Minister claimed that his government has done this under 'exactly the same arrangements as previous offshore refugee and humanitarian visa grants';</p><p class="italic">(3) notes that this is not true;</p><p class="italic">(4) notes that for the Syrian refugee intake, rigorous security checks were conducted prior to arrival in Australia at a number of key visa processing points, this included the collection and checking of biometric data against Australia's security agencies and those of our international partners, these checks were supplemented by interview with Australian departmental officers, where claims and identity were assessed;</p><p class="italic">(5) notes that these measures have not been undertaken under the Albanese government's change of policy to grant visitor visas, including to people who have expressed sympathy for the Hamas terrorist organisation; and</p><p class="italic">(6) therefore requires the Prime Minister immediately attend the chamber and explain why he misled this House.</p><p>Leave not granted.</p><p>It's no surprise that the government would seek to gag this debate, because it's not a debate that they want to have. This is an issue of national significance, and the Prime Minister should be here—</p> <p class="speaker">Milton Dick</p><p>Order! The Leader of the Opposition will resume his seat. You don't have leave. There's no motion. The Leader of the Opposition will need to move a motion rather than just giving a speech. I call the Leader of the Opposition.</p> <p class="speaker">Peter Dutton</p><p>I move:</p><p class="italic">That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition from moving the following motion—</p><p class="italic">That this House:</p><p class="italic">(1) notes that the Albanese Government has so far granted almost 3,000 visitor visas to individuals from the Gaza warzone;</p><p class="italic">(2) notes that in question time yesterday, the Prime Minister claimed that his government has done this under 'exactly the same arrangements as previous offshore refugee and humanitarian visa grants';</p><p class="italic">(3) notes that this is not true;</p><p class="italic">(4) notes that for the Syrian refugee intake, rigorous security checks were conducted prior to arrival in Australia at a number of key visa processing points, this included the collection and checking of biometric data against Australia's security agencies and those of our international partners, these checks were supplemented by interview with Australian departmental officers, where claims and identity were assessed;</p><p class="italic">(5) notes that these measures have not been undertaken under the Albanese government's change of policy to grant visitor visas, including to people who have expressed sympathy for the Hamas terrorist organisation; and</p><p class="italic">(6) therefore requires the Prime Minister immediately attend the chamber and explain why he misled this House.</p><p>This is an egregious breach of what is in our country's best interests. This Prime Minister has one charge, the first and most important charge: to keep our country safe, and he has lost control of the national security agenda. The Prime Minister of our country came into this parliament yesterday and clearly demonstrated that he had no idea what our security agencies were doing. He had no idea how to manage the program. What we know is that this is an Andrew Giles special. Andrew Giles, the disgraced and now sacked immigration minister, brought in 152 people—</p> <p class="speaker">Milton Dick</p><p>Order! The Leader of the Opposition will pause. The member for Newcastle, on a point of order?</p> <p class="speaker">Sharon Claydon</p><p>I want to remind the Leader of the Opposition to refer to members by their correct titles.</p> <p class="speaker">Milton Dick</p><p>The Leader of the Opposition has the call and will use the correct titles.</p> <p class="speaker">Peter Dutton</p><p>The disgraced and now sacked Minister Giles was responsible for releasing 152 hardened criminals, noncitizens, from immigration detention into the Australian community when he didn't need to do so.</p><p>Government members interjecting—</p><p>I hear the cries opposite. Go and talk to the elderly lady in Perth who was attacked by one of these people who had been released by Minister Giles and to the others who have fallen victim to these hardened criminals since they were unnecessarily released by the Albanese government.</p><p>Not only was that botched, but now we know that 3,000 people were issued with visas and that 1,300 of them have been allowed into our country—not under the refugee and humanitarian program but on visitor visas. Some people have tried to equate this to the number of visitor visas that have been issued to people from Israel, which is an absolute outrage. When comparing people who come from Israel on a visitor visa, the comparable statistic is to the number of people who have come from London or the number of people who have come from New Zealand or the number of people who have come from Jordan on a visitor visa to our country. Israel is not run by a terrorist organisation. Hamas is a listed terrorist organisation.</p><p><i>A government member interjecting</i></p><p>I notice the Labor member there scoffing at that suggestion, but the fact is that Hamas is a listed terrorist organisation. The Israeli government is a democratically elected government. They are an ally of our country. They have helped thwart terrorist attacks in our country. If you look at public polling in the Gaza strip today, between 40 and 75 per cent of people have sympathy for the Hamas terrorist organisation. Imagine if the Howard government or the Morrison government had suggested that we would bring people in who are sympathisers to Saddam Hussein or to al-Qaeda or to ISIL or to ISIS. There would rightly have been public outrage and condemnation by the Labor Party. But the Labor Party has changed their policy to allow sympathisers of a listed terrorist organisation to come here under a visitor visa. It's without precedent.</p><p>I know that Minister Burke has been appointed to clean up the mess of Minister Giles, but the Prime Minister needs to come into this chamber to show the leadership and the strength of character that so far he has failed to demonstrate. The level of antisemitism in our country is at a record high. People in the Jewish community feel unsafe, and the director-general of ASIO has rightly raised significant concerns. The problem is that the Albanese government is contributing to social disharmony and to disruption in this country at a time when it's certainly not required. The Prime Minister has made a bad decision.</p><p>The Prime Minister in this chamber yesterday misled the Australian public when he said that what is happening today is akin to what happened when we brought people in from Syria. It is not. When we brought people in from Syria, we staged them in northern Iraq. We brought people in, or we assessed people who were in Jordan and Oman. I was criticised at the time as the minister because 12 months down the track we hadn't brought the full number in, and that's because we were testing people's verification of the claims that they were making and of their identity and whether or not they were on databases that the United States held. The United States held the intelligence because they had fingerprints and DNA of IEDs and the like out of Iraq and out of Afghanistan.</p><p>Ironically for this government, the Israeli government and security services would have the most significant holdings on those people who are sympathetic to Hamas and those people who would have been involved in, connected with or sympathetic to the attacks on kibbutzim and the attacks at the Supernova music festival, where 1,200 people were killed and over a hundred are still being held in the tunnel network.</p><p>That people could be brought from that region and that people could not be interviewed or that the government didn't have a process in place where there were face-to-face interviews is a complete and utter abrogation and failure of leadership of this Prime Minister. The fact that this Prime Minister has not come from his office this morning down to this chamber to answer these claims and to defend himself shows how weak he is.</p><p>The Australian public get it. They know that this country's been made less safe by Anthony Albanese. They know that this Prime Minister doesn't have the strength of character to provide the leadership to see our country through an uncertain period. For the Prime Minister now to have created this mess and not to be here to explain how he's going to clean it up shows how out of touch this Prime Minister has become and how he has failed his basic obligations as the Prime Minister of this country. Our country deserves strong leadership and the ability to make tough decisions which are in our country's best interests.</p><p>This is not against people of a particular religious belief. This is not against people of a particular political persuasion. This is about keeping our country safe, and Anthony Albanese has failed the Australian public and he should stand condemned. The fact that the Prime Minister cannot come to this chamber and provide an explanation and an apology for his misleading yesterday is a true reflection on his poor character. We deserve more as a country, and certainly every Australian deserves to feel safe but today, because of Anthony Albanese, the Australian public is less safe.</p> <p class="speaker">Milton Dick</p><p>Is the motion seconded?</p> <p class="speaker">Dan Tehan</p><p>Yes, the motion is seconded. Yesterday in question time the Prime Minister was asked a very simple question by the shadow minister for trade and tourism:</p><p class="italic">Can the Prime Minister guarantee that no individual who participated in or supported the October 7 Hamas terror attacks—the worst mass murder of Jews since the Holocaust—has been granted a visa by his government?</p><p>In responding to that question, he said, 'Exactly the same security arrangements as previous offshore refugee and humanitarian visa grants had been followed.' Yet when the member for Flinders asked the new Minister for Immigration the follow-up question, 'Have any visas for individuals coming from the Gaza war zone been granted without an in-person interview?' the new immigration minister could not answer that question.</p><p>What he did was show that the Prime Minister had misled this parliament, because he had said all processes had been followed as they had been done previously. And they hadn't, because you did not do in-person interviews, as was the normal process that has been followed. That's why the Prime Minister should come in here right now and correct the record. This goes to his fundamental responsibility: keeping the Australian community safe. The sad reality from this government is that time and time again we have seen them failing at this No. 1 duty to keep the Australian community safe.</p><p>'Why are we asking these questions?' you might ask. We're asking these questions because the minister who was then in charge has shown that he was not up to the job. All this was taking place under the former minister, Minister Giles. We know that when Minister Giles was brought under pressure he was prepared to say things in this chamber which later FOI records have shown were not true. Now we have the Prime Minister doing exactly the same thing. We know Minister Giles didn't live up to the ministerial code of conduct that the Prime Minister put in place. Now the Prime Minister won't live up to his own code of conduct. That is why he should be condemned.</p><p>What is at stake here? It's quite clear that what is at stake here is the safety of the Australian community. If you fail to undertake proper security checks then you leave the Australian community open to all sorts of possibilities that could occur. We've seen what has happened previously when the government has failed to keep the Australian people safe. As the Leader of the Opposition rightly pointed out, we have a victim in Perth who was, sadly, a direct victim of the incompetence of those opposite. We do not want to see that happen again. We will ask questions, we will demand answers and we will keep going on this until we get reassurances from the Prime Minister that he will take this seriously.</p><p>The first thing the Prime Minister should do is come and correct the record, because, if he comes and corrects the record, he will be admitting that the processes that were followed weren't the proper processes that were followed and that he was wrong in saying that exactly the same security arrangements were followed, because we know that is not true. Until he will admit that and until he demands that the new immigration minister does a proper and thorough check of everyone who has come into this country, the security of Australia is at risk.</p><p>We have to remember that already 416 of those people who have come into Australia have sought to claim asylum. They have sought to claim asylum and they could be here for five to 10 years while that is processed. If you haven't done the security checks, if you haven't done the in-person interviews with those people, you are fundamentally putting the Australian community at risk. We say to the Prime Minister: where are you? Come in now and do your job. Keep the Australian community safe.</p> <p class="speaker">Zali Steggall</p><p>It's extremely concerning to see the opposition turn up today with this suspension of standing orders and the words and the rhetoric that we're hearing here. It goes directly against the advice of ASIO and the concern around the polarisation in our communities—that whipping up of a sense of fear and that inference that, for example, our services and systems are not working. What I'd like to share is the human story, the real story, about some of the people we're talking about and the lives we're talking about.</p><p>And I would ask you to be silent! I have the floor!</p> <p class="speaker">Milton Dick</p><p>Order! The member for Cowper will cease interjecting. The member for Warringah will be heard, just as other members were heard, in silence.</p> <p class='motion-notice motion-notice-truncated'>Long debate text truncated.</p>-
- The majority voted in favour of a motion:
- > *That the debate be adjourned.*
- ### What was the debate about?
- The debate was on the subject of Opposition Leader and Dickson MP [Peter Dutton's](https://theyvoteforyou.org.au/people/representatives/dickson/peter_dutton) motion:
- > *That so much of the standing and sessional orders be suspended as would prevent the Leader of the Opposition from moving the following motion—*
- >
- > *That this House:*
- >
- > *(1) notes that the Albanese Government has so far granted almost 3,000 visitor visas to individuals from the Gaza warzone;*
- >
- > *(2) notes that in question time yesterday, the Prime Minister claimed that his government has done this under 'exactly the same arrangements as previous offshore refugee and humanitarian visa grants';*
- >
- > *(3) notes that this is not true;*
- >
- > *(4) notes that for the Syrian refugee intake, rigorous security checks were conducted prior to arrival in Australia at a number of key visa processing points, this included the collection and checking of biometric data against Australia's security agencies and those of our international partners, these checks were supplemented by interview with Australian departmental officers, where claims and identity were assessed;*
- >
- > *(5) notes that these measures have not been undertaken under the Albanese government's change of policy to grant visitor visas, including to people who have expressed sympathy for the Hamas terrorist organisation; and*
- >
- > *(6) therefore requires the Prime Minister immediately attend the chamber and explain why he misled this House. *
- Standing and sessional orders are the usual rules of parliament.
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