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

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that no other government in Australian history has brought people from a war zone controlled by a listed terrorist organisation on a tourist visa without the requisite checks and balances that would normally be conducted on a refugee and humanitarian visa?

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

I'll make two points in response to this question. The first is that the security standard which our security intelligence agencies apply to everyone coming to Australia doesn't stop when they're on their way here. It's ongoing, as the Leader of the Opposition would full well know. If anyone who comes to our country is assessed to be a threat at any time to our national security, then intervention occurs and their visa gets cancelled. If anyone who comes to our country undermines our laws, they get dealt with by our law enforcement. We trust our security agencies and law enforcement to do their jobs. I'll make this point as well—well, two further ones. In the financial year that the conflict began, after Russia's illegal and immoral invasion of Ukraine, the previous government issued—

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

The Prime Minister will pause, and we'll hear from the Leader of the Opposition.

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

It's on relevance. It was a very tight question. Can the Prime Minister give an honest answer? There has never been a period in Australian history where—

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

Resume your seat. 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, unusually in this question, it invited a bit of history to be told, and that makes what the Prime Minister is providing now exactly in order.

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

The Leader of the Opposition, further to the point of order.

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

Further to the point of order raised by the Leader of the House, the question was: can the Prime Minister confirm that no other government in Australian history has brought people from a war zone controlled by a listed terrorist organisation on tourist visas? How can the Prime Minister be relevant? The point made by the Leader of the House has no relevance whatsoever to the point made.

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

Resume your seat. The question contained an element about the history of this subject. The Prime Minister was in the middle of explaining what has happened in the past, and, obviously, he'll need to make that directly relevant to the question and not just a history lesson.

Order! The Leader of the Opposition has been given courtesy with his point of order and was heard in silence and respected. I'm asking the same. Prime Minister, in continuation.

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

In the financial year that the conflict began, after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the previous government issued 10,000 visitor visas. Some of those might have been before or after that conflict began, but that's the figure for the financial year. I make this point too: during their entire time in office, the former government issued more than 1,000 visitor visas to Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territories.

Mr Dutton interjecting—

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

Order! The Leader of the Opposition will cease—

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

There's something wrong with you.

Government members interjecting—

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

Order! The members on my right will cease interjecting immediately. The Prime Minister will ignore the interjections and the Leader of the Opposition will cease interjecting to assist the House. Just conclude this answer in a respectful way.

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

They are two separate points. During their time in office, they issued more than 1,000 visitor visas to Palestinians from the Occupied Palestinian Territories. During that entire time, Hamas controlled the Gaza Strip. They took over in 2006 and they were in charge in Gaza, so I can't be more in line with what the question was. Their hypocrisy is just extraordinary.

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

Do you know what happened on October 7?

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

I'll take the interjection. Apparently, this Leader of the Opposition thinks that Hamas became bad on October 7 and that before then they were okay—it was all hunky-dory. Well, Hamas have been the enemy not just of Israel but of the Palestinian people as well. The hypocrisy is just extraordinary. When the Leader of the Opposition challenged Malcolm Turnbull, he said this, 'It's good to be in front of the cameras where I can smile and maybe show a different side to what I show when I talk about border protection.' (Time expired)