Peter Dutton has committed to redoing security checks for thousands of Gazans granted visitor visas in Australia as he doubled down on introducing questions on antisemitism in citizenship tests.
In a press conference in Perth on Wednesday, the opposition leader said he would subject Palestinians on visitor visas who had fled the conflict in Gaza to more scrutiny, echoing the Coalition’s previous claims – without evidence –that they are a national security risk.
“We won’t compromise on border security. We have been clear about that. Our nation is the greatest in the world,” Dutton said.
“We welcome migrants coming to our country. We have the most successful migration program but we won’t compromise on those settings, which provide screening of people who are coming in from a war zone.”
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The Coalitionfirst floated the idea of changing citizenship requirements in February after a viral video emerged of two Sydney nurses allegedly threatening Israeli patients.
At the time, Anthony Albanese dismissedthe idea as a “thought bubble”along with a proposal to hold a referendum to give the government more power to deport criminals with dual citizenship.
Dutton said he remained committed to changing the citizenship test to include questions on antisemitism on Wednesday.
In August 2024 Dutton had advocated for a temporary pause on granting visas to people fromGaza, claiming the decisions were making Australia less safe due to “a murky process” of visa approvals.
More than 3,000 Palestinians have been granted visitor visas since 7 October 2023, with the home affairs departmentoffering some 995 Palestinian and Israeli nationalsa three-year humanitarian visa, as of January.
Palestinians must be approved by both the Israeli and Egyptian authorities to leave Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, and are subject to rigorous security checks.
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The Asio chief, Mike Burgess, has previously said Palestinians with visas had “gone through the process” and “part of the process is, where criteria are hit, they’re referred to my organisation and Asio does its thing”.
Thevetting processsearches an applicant’s name against a watch list, and anyone red-flagged is referred to Asio for a full security assessment involving consulting with other countries’ security agencies. In the case of Palestinian applicants, that includes Israel. The strict criteria for referring and conducting an assessment is detailed in the Asio Act.
Asked whether Dutton didn’t trust the existing process, he responded: “We will take advice and conduct proper security checks.”
Rasha Abbas, the Palestine Australia Relief and Action (Para) group’s executive director, described Dutton’s commitment as “truly disappointing”.
She told Guardian Australia: “It’s also disappointing for the leader of the opposition to create doubt in highly trusted systems and processes of Asio and home affairs that are independent of the government of the day.”