Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, of the 2,900 people issued with visitor visas from the terrorist controlled Gaza war zone, how many applicants have had their biometric data checked against Israeli government records on known Hamas members or sympathisers and those known or suspected to have participated in the 7 October terror attacks?

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Member for Berowra, I'm just going to ask you to repeat the full question again.

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, of the 2,900 people issued with visitor visas from the terrorist controlled Gaza war zone, how many applicants have had their biometric data checked against Israeli government records on known Hamas members or sympathisers or those known or suspected to have participated in the 7 October terrorist attacks?

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm asked a question about Australia. I'm asked a question as well about Israel's database as well, which I certainly don't think I'm in a position to answer. It is a fact that one of the things that we don't do, as I said to a previous question, is go through all of the detail of our security arrangements, and the member would understand why that's the case. I don't think Israel does that either, by the way, just as a matter of fact. Let me just say this: I spoke before about Dr Mona Kaskeen. She has said, to quote her this morning in that interview, 'Whoever crosses the border into Egypt, they must not be a political person or from Hamas, because they're not allowed to cross the border.' That is what she had to say about her own experience.

Let's be very clear about what has occurred here. The Leader of the Opposition went to welcome Olympians home, did an interview and once again made up a policy. It didn't go to shadow cabinet. It didn't go to their caucus—no process whatsoever, just like so many other issues that have occurred. The worst thing about that is that the Leader of the Opposition should know better. He should know also—

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The member for Berowra is on his feet, so I'll take his point of order

Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, this is a point of order on relevance. The Prime Minister was asked a question about processes by which the Australian government checks data against Israeli government records, not about announcements made by the Leader of the Opposition.

Milton Dick (Speaker) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The issue I raised on Monday about 'compare and contrast' on policies still applies. The Prime Minister has been detailed about that. For the remainder of his answer, he won't be able to talk entirely about the opposition's policies, but he is able to—as former Speakers have determined—to compare and contrast policies, which he is doing.

Anthony Albanese (Grayndler, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I answered the member for Berowra's question upfront already. We know that our security agencies do their jobs in a diligent way. The honourable member would know, as a former—at least—shadow Attorney-General—I don't know if he served on the national security committee or not, but he would know—about the arrangements that we have in place for security with other agencies. If he wants me to go down the track of talking about the arrangements that we have with our Five Eyes partners and with other governments, that is just an extraordinary thing for him to expect, frankly. What we do is we make sure that our priority is to keep Australians safe. I have confidence in our security agencies. I would hope that the member does as well.