Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, it is reported that between 40 and 75 per cent of people in the Gaza war zone support listed terrorist organisations Hamas. Is it the government's policy that sympathy for Hamas is not grounds for visa refusal or cancellation?

Government Members:

Government members interjecting—

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

No. Members on my right, I could not hear the question. The way this works is both sides—I'm just going to ask the member to repeat the question. I've got to hear the question so I can make decisions during the question, so the member for Hughes will start her question again. The members on my right will remain silent.

Jenny Ware (Hughes, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, it is reported that between 40 and 75 per cent of people in the Gaza war zone support listed terrorist organisation Hamas. Is it the government's policy that sympathy for Hamas is not grounds for visa refusal or cancellation?

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

I thank the member for Hughes for her question. I just say to the member for Hughes: I hope you have better pollsters than people who come to you and say 'somewhere between 40 and 75'! That is an extraordinary question to ask. I'm not sure, in seriousness, how you would poll Gaza at the moment. Do you have a TV? Have a look at what has happened to Gaza. The idea that there is polling going on in Gaza at the moment is just really—in order to make a point, in order to ask a question here. We have issues in this country of dealing with the global impact of inflation, cost-of-living pressures, housing and education. We had a report this week about NAPLAN and about students falling behind.

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

The Prime Minister will pause, and I will hear from the Leader of the Opposition on a point of order.

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Leader of the Opposition) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The question was: 'Is it the government's policy that sympathy for Hamas is not grounds for visa refusal or cancellation?' It was the question. The Prime Minister has got this—

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

Resume your seat. It's abuse of the point of order, and the Leader of the Opposition knows that. I'll hear from the Leader of the House.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I can understand why the Leader of the Opposition wants to leave out the first half of the question when he's making that reference, but it was given, it was stated and it significantly broadens any concept of the relevance rule.

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

The Prime Minister is being relevant, but the 40 to 75 per cent figure—I don't know where that figure has come from, and I'm not sure where the member for Hughes got that figure from, but obviously that's going to be contested, perhaps by the Prime Minister in his answer. There wasn't a source regarding where that figure was, so, obviously, the answer to the question is going to be quite broad. I'll make sure the Prime Minister is being directly relevant to the question.

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

I was asked about opinion polls in Gaza, and I was referring to—

An opposition member: No you weren't!

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Order!

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

I absolutely was.

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

Order! The member for Fairfax and the member for Hume are going to remain silent.

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

The fact is that what Australians are concerned about at the moment is education, health, cost of living—all of those things that those opposite have refused to raise this week. What they also don't want to see, as Director-General Burgess has warned, is the social division that we have been warned about. They want to see the temperature taken down in this debate—the temperature right across the board.

Australia is not a direct participant in this conflict, no matter how much some people in political life try to put us at the centre of it. That is something that those opposite have, from time to time, said they agree with when they're critical of minor parties. The reason why I have been critical of those minor parties is that some of that conduct has been divisive, but so too is the sort of division and the attempts that we've seen since the Olympic welcome home ceremony by those opposite. (Time expired)