Subjects: Labor’s visa and immigration policy shambles.
E&OE.
MATT SHIRVINGTON:
Well, Peter Dutton has been accused of engaging in nasty politics after declaring Palestinians fleeing war-torn Gaza should not be granted entry to Australia.
NATALIE BARR:
The Opposition Leader says Hamas supporters could be among them, which would put national security at risk.
And for more, Federal Opposition Leader Peter Dutton joins us. Good morning to you.
PETER DUTTON:
Good morning, Nat.
NATALIE BARR:
So, ASIO performs these background checks on anyone they let in. Their Chief, Mike Burgess, says if there’s no ideological support for Hamas, they’re not a problem. Don’t you trust ASIO?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, Nat, that’s not the case in terms of ASIO checking every person – that was confirmed by the Minister yesterday. In actual fact, Tony Burke said yesterday that they haven’t even conducted face-to-face interviews with people. Don’t forget that these people came in under Minister Giles, who has now been sacked. He’s the same Minister who released 152 hardened criminals into the community – when he didn’t need to do so. The problem is that, as we know, the Government policy is to allow people into our country who are sympathisers with a listed terrorist organisation. My motivation here is to make sure that we can take decisions that are in our country’s best interests, that keep us safe. Migration’s a great thing for our country, but it needs to be done in a managed way, and we need to make sure that the security of our country is first and foremost.
MATT SHIRVINGTON:
So, do you trust ASIO, Mike Burgess, leading that Department?
PETER DUTTON:
Yes, of course, Shirvo, but he can only act on the policy of the Government of the day. And the Government has brought people in with desktop exercises – so they haven’t even interviewed people. They’ve brought people in from a war zone on a visitor visa, they now don’t know what to do with the 1300 people who are here.
As I say, Australia is a great migrant country. We’ve got a great migration programme – if it’s properly managed – but if we’ve got people who are sympathetic to or have supported a Hamas listed terrorist organisation, why would we want them coming into our country? We can help people and we’re a big-hearted country, but we can’t be bringing people in who haven’t been interviewed. The Prime Minister said yesterday, ‘Oh, the Government is doing the same as what we did when we were in Government…(I) was Immigration Minister and we brought in people from Syria’. That is completely false. We staged people in a third country, we did the biometrics tests, we sent them off to the United States to be checked against their database, because the US had the biggest database on people of concern out of Iraq and Afghanistan. I was criticised 12 months down the track for acting too slowly. That’s not what has happened here. They’ve brought people in with 24 hour checks. I just think the vast majority of people, I’m sure, are fine. But if there is an element here of concern, then that should make us, as a country, very worried. That’s why I believe the Government has botched this as well, and our national security is too important.
NATALIE BARR:
So ASIO is saying, they check if someone provided financial or material support to Hamas, or if they have an ideology – and if they don’t, they’re fine to come in. What else do you want them to check?
PETER DUTTON:
Well, again, if you look at the Syrian example, it took us some months to be able to stage people in a third country – so, outside of Syria, to take the biometrics, to run those checks against databases of known terrorists, etc.. The Government hasn’t done that. ASIO has not been asked to do that and that’s not the programme that is underway at the moment.
I just don’t think by the Prime Minister’s answer in Question Time yesterday, that he understands the gravity of this situation. We’re talking about people coming out of Gaza – it’s a desperate situation. Nobody wants to see the scenes that we’re seeing, and everyone wants to see peace prevail immediately. But that’s not the reality of the situation.
Australia takes people in through the Refugee and Humanitarian Programme, but we do it with proper checks. That’s not what’s happened here. The former Minister, who’s now been sacked, has brought people in on a visitor visa, which is without precedent, and they don’t know what to do now with the 3,000 people that they’ve issued visas to. That’s why the Government’s scrambling at the moment.
MATT SHIRVINGTON:
Okay. We’ll leave it there. Thank you.
PETER DUTTON:
Thanks, Shirvo. Thanks.
MATT SHIRVINGTON:
Peter Dutton, appreciate your time.
PETER DUTTON:
Thank you.
[ends]