Dutton pouring kerosene on domestic tensions: minister
Immigration Minister Tony Burke has accused the opposition leader of stoking divisions at home following calls to ban Palestinians from being granted visas.
Peter Dutton visits Nova Festival site
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has been accused of inflaming domestic tensions following repeated calls to stop fleeing Palestinians from entering the country.
Mr Dutton continued calls in federal parliament on Monday for people leaving war-torn Gaza being blocked from arriving in Australia until security vetting processes were tightened.
While seeking to bring on debate on the issue in the House of Representatives, Mr Dutton accused Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of misleading parliament on the visa vetting, and called for criteria of the security process to be released.
“This prime minister has lost his integrity, he’s lost his credibility, he has let down the Australian public, he has made us less safe,” he told parliament.
But Immigration Minister Tony Burke said the opposition leader was increasing division with his rhetoric, despite calls from security heads for elected officials to lower the tone of the debate.
“It wasn’t much more than the six-second delay on radio, between Mike Burgess as the director-general of ASIO telling people to cool the temperature, before (the opposition leader) runs along with a bucket of kerosene saying ‘where can I throw it on the fire?'” he said.
“What would be the motive for someone saying we should lower our national security principles and let visa applicants know if we’re doing a security assessment on them?”
The government said it had given tourist visas to those fleeing Palestine as it was quicker to issue during a fast-moving situation in the Middle East.
While Labor had insisted the security vetting process was the same as when the coalition was in office, Mr Dutton said the time the government took to issue visas was too short.
“We bought people here through the refugee and humanitarian program. It didn’t take 24 hours to get the visa, as it does if you’re a tourist. It took, in some cases, 12 months, because we had to collect biometrics,” Mr Dutton said.
“We had to collect all of that information to check against databases.”
Jana Favero, from the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre said the debate about banning those fleeing Palestine had been a distraction from a humanitarian response.
“They’ve seen kids starving, and that’s where the focus of the debate should be on, rather than Peter Dutton’s comments, which are trying to distract from what should be humanitarian response,” she said.
Independent MP Zali Steggall, who holds the NSW seat of Warringah, was heckled in parliament last week during a debate, before telling the opposition benches to “stop being racist”.
Asked about reports Mr Dutton was seeking legal advice about her comments, Ms Steggall doubled down.
“I would view that as again, true and tried part of the playbook of Mr Dutton of bullying and intimidating people from calling out his policy and behaviour,” she told ABC radio on Monday.
“I stand by (my view that) this policy proposal is inherently racist, and it’s designed to foster fear and hatred of a minority group.”
The crossbench MP said that for “the sake of our social cohesion” it needed to be called out.
Department of Home Affairs figures showed 7100 visas from Palestine had been rejected, and of the 2922 people approved 1300 had arrived safely in Australia.
Opposition foreign spokesman Simon Birmingham denied Mr Dutton was trying to whip up fear.
“What we’re seeing from the prime minister and some of the teals like Zali Steggall – who all promised some sort of kinder, gentler politics – that they are really quite happy to play the man rather than the ball,” he told ABC radio.
“They are happy to go on personal attacks against Peter Dutton rather than focus on the policy debate here.”
By: Tess Ikonomou and Andrew Brown/AAP
