Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been asked if he’s a ‘heartless racist’ after claiming Palestinians fleeing Gaza shouldn’t be allowed in Australia.
Mr Dutton demanded all visa applications from Gaza be refused amid claims people fleeing the war could pose a threat to Australia’s national security.
Coalition MPs wrote to Tony Burke on Tuesday, calling on the newly appointed Home Affairs Minister to tighten visa vetting for applicants from Gaza to ensure they held no rhetorical support for Palestinian militant group Hamas.
However, Mr Dutton held firm that no one from Gaza should be entering Australia right now while speaking on Sky News.
‘I don’t think people should be coming in through that war zone at all at the moment,’ he said.
‘It puts our national security at risk.’
Mr Dutton was grilled over the call on Today and asked if he was a ‘heartless racist’ and whether he had ‘any humanity’.
‘We have to make decisions and they can be tough decisions, but the decisions are in our country’s best interests,’ Mr Dutton said.
Opposition leader Peter Dutton (pictured) was has been asked if he was a ‘heartless racist’ after doubling down on demands to refuse entry to immigrants from Gaza
He claimed the Albanese government had brought in people from a war zone without doing face-to-face interviews in some cases.
‘That is without precedent; 1,300 people have come here on tourist visas, again, without precedent,’ he said.
‘I think it’s a massive, latest mess of the Albanese government, and it puts our country at risk.’
He also claimed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese either ‘misled parliament’ or ‘just didn’t have a clue what he was talking about’ on Wednesday by saying the same process applies when bringing people out of Gaza as when Australia brought people over from Syria.
‘That is just not true. Twelve months after we took that decision I was still being criticised for not bringing people here quickly enough,’ he said.
Mr Dutton said face-to-face interviews were done in northern Iraq along with biometric testing.
‘The government has done none of that,’ he said.
‘I’m sure the vast majority of these people are just innocent people fleeing a war zone, but our country’s best interest is served when we know who is coming here and when we have a proper process to exclude those who are sympathisers of a listed terrorist organisation.’
Dutton said the government should put a freeze on Gazan immigration amid claims people fleeing the war could be linked to Hamas (pictured, displaced Palestinians on the Gaza Strip)
When asked if it’s ‘all refugees’ he wants to stop from coming into the country, Mr Dutton replied ‘we should stop people coming in from a war zone’.
‘We don’t know if the proper checks haven’t been done … You bring 3,000 people in, let’s say 99 per cent are good.
‘If 1 per cent of people are questionable or sympathisers with a listed terrorist organisation, how on earth is that in our country’s best interests?’
He added his ‘job is to protect all Australians’.
‘I’m not discriminating on any basis. I’m happy to see people brought in from the Middle East if they’ve been properly checked,’ he said.
‘We make decisions that are in our country’s best interests. That is not what Anthony Albanese has done.’
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese (pictured) said Mr Dutton ‘always seeks to divide’ and that his comments went against the advice of ASIO’s director general and security agencies
Senator Jane Hume said there should be a ‘temporary pause’ on visas when asked if she supported Dutton’s call while speaking to the ABC on Wednesday morning.
‘If we cannot do the security checks to ensure that those who are fleeing Gaza are not supporters of Hamas, then we have to take a temporary pause until we can be assured of that. We must do that to keep Australians safe,’ she said.
Mr Albanese told ABC TV earlier that Mr Dutton ‘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,’ he said.
NDIS Minister Bill Shorten told Radio National that he didn’t share Mr Dutton’s view on Wednesday.
‘I think if somehow he’s conflating the idea that every person (who) lives in Gaza is a member of Hamas, I don’t share that view,’ he said.
‘He hasn’t said that, but he says there’s risk.
‘We currently have a process where ASIO vet people, where we have national security checking and, memo to Peter Dutton, we’re using the same process that he used.
‘So if he thinks our current process is no good, then what’s he saying about all the time when he was in charge?’