Angie Bell (Moncrieff, Liberal National Party, Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education) Share this | Hansard source

Now, Australia is a generous nation with a big heart, and we punch above our weight when it comes to supporting refugees. We have a history of supporting refugees from other conflict zones—those 12,000 from Syria, as the Leader of the Opposition pointed out, and those from Afghanistan—but this government has issued almost 3,000 visas to people from the Occupied Palestinian Territories, but we do not know how many people were subject to a clearance from our security agencies. In contrast, the UK granted 168 protection visas, 153 temporary residence visas have been approved by New Zealand, and the US has accepted 17, so these countries have been more cautious as to who they let in and the time that they take to do that. It is not so with this government.

It's not about racism, as the member for Warringah shamelessly said in this chamber. This is about averting a public safety disaster should the proper processing steps not be followed by this government. Face-to-face interviews by Australian officials in neighbouring countries like Jordan, as we did in the Syrian crisis, would be acceptable.

I haven't got a lot of time left to talk about the failure of this government on the economy, but Australians know. They are hurting. They can't pay their bills. I would ask them to look back to before the last election, think about the promises that were made to them that life would be easier and ask themselves the question: is it?

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