Dan Tehan (Wannon, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Citizenship) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. On Sky yesterday, the Minister for Industry and Science said the government was issuing visitor visas from terrorist controlled Gaza because it was faster and less rigorous. He said:

Refugee visas take longer and given what's happening right now and the dangers presented, the view was to try and get people out as quickly as you can.

Isn't this why Australians are disappointed in the Prime Minister and are now saying he is incompetent and dishonest?

Opposition Members:

Opposition members interjecting—

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

Members on my left. I want to hear from the Leader of the House.

Mr Tony Burke (Watson, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Mr Speaker, I defer to your earlier ruling that you made at the request of the Manager of Opposition Business about language in the House. Had you not made that ruling at the request of the Manager of Opposition Business, this question probably would be something that's within the parliamentary debate and the back and forth, but the opposition asked that this sort of language be ruled out. I recommend it is.

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

I want to deal with character descriptions in general because this is a feature that keeps coming up time and time again, particularly with descriptors. I'm going to address the issue of character descriptions in questions. These have been ruled out of order in the past, including by myself, and they're not appropriate. From now on, just so that everyone's clear, there will be no words in questions ascribing a character reference to a minister or prime minister. I'm giving clear warnings. I'm following earlier practice that was done by previous Speakers. I've taken this approach on 1 August. Speaker Smith took this approach on 18 March 2021, and Speaker Jenkins took this approach on 2 June 2021. Just so that everyone is crystal clear, including the Leader of the Opposition, if you put a character description at the end of the question it's going to be ruled out of order and we will move to the next question. Okay?

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

I thank the member for Wannon for his question. Alex Dyson knows all about the member for Wannon, and it will be interesting to see what happens at the next election when people make a judgement about his character. If I were the member for Wannon, I would be knocking on doors. I would be doorknocking on the weekends. That's if he gets around to nominating. I'll give you some advice: don't leave it to the New South Wales branch!

The worst thing about this is that the member for Wannon should know better. He should know—and does know, of course—that Israel in fact closed the Rafah Border Crossing in May. He knows also that the ASIO director has very clearly spoken about the responsibility that politicians have with their language. He knows that full well. He also knows the diligent way that our security agencies do their jobs. He should also know the risk of serious division that the ASIO director-general has warned about.

I am also asked about interviews on Sky News. I hope that he also saw Mariam Dawwas, a Gazan refugee, in an interview with Tom Connell and Andrew Clennell. She had this to say: 'It was a long journey. We were hopeful that we would come to a place of peace. We are here in Australia, living here. It was a very, very hard experience. I lost my dad. We lost our dad during the war because of a lack of medical care and we weren't able to get him to the hospital.' She went on to say: 'I have lived my life in Gaza. I don't have any political affiliation with any of the political parties in Gaza.' She went on to say: 'I am myself a journalist. My sister is a doctor. I have a dentist brother and a dentist sister. So I am aware we are not the exception. We are normal people in Gaza, very normal people, not terrorists.' She went on to say very clearly: 'I wouldn't support killing civilians in any way, so I was against what happened on 7 October.' This is a real human being with real family here.

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

We brought in 12,000 people from Syria, remember? We just did it with the proper—

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

Order! The Leader of the Opposition will cease his interjections.

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

The Leader of the Opposition reminds the parliament that they did bring in 12,000 people, and we didn't play politics with them.

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

You don't get the basics, obviously.

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

Order, Leader of the Opposition! We are just going to take the temperature down—

Order! The minister for the environment is not helping the situation. We're just going to take the temperature down in the House today. It's far too high. When the House comes to order, I will hear from the member for Newcastle.